In support of this bill, Corbett's secretary of state, Carole Aichele, points only to allegations that the group ACORN committed improprieties while registering voters. Assuming the truth of those allegations, this bill has nothing to do with, and would have no impact on, voter-registration practices. The only form of fraud voter ID would prevent is voter impersonation, something that almost never happens.
A study conducted by President George W. Bush's Justice Department found that, out of more than 300 million votes cast from 2002 to 2007, there were only 86 cases of voter fraud nationwide and that most of them involved immigrants who misunderstood their eligibility. In Pennsylvania, since 2004, there have been more than 20 million votes cast and four convictions for fraud, all of which involved people registering when not eligible. None of these cases involved someone pretending to be someone she was not.
Fraudulently impersonating a voter is already a felony. Risking years in prison to gain an undeserved vote seems like a low-gain, high-risk crime, which is probably why it never happens. In addition, a voter already has to show proof of who he is the first time he votes in a new precinct. Thus, under current law, Pennsylvania has significant and apparently effective protections in place to ensure the integrity of the voting process.
The Corbett administration's State Department also contends that "99 percent of eligible voters currently have acceptable photo IDs." I took the liberty of calling the department and asking how that figure was calculated. It turns out they took the total number of photo IDs that PennDOT has issued and divided by the number of eligible voters in Pennsylvania.
