Short of obtaining PennDot's data so she could run the comparison herself, Singer said, she wanted to discuss PennDot's methodology for a similar comparison, now under way, a joint effort by PennDot and the Pennsylvania Department of State.
Singer never got Schoch on the phone.
The day before the scheduled call, Singer said, she got a call from Megan Sweeney, an aide to Secretary of State Carol Aichele, telling her that the state did not want her talking to the PennDot secretary.
"What she told me was, the Department of State was the point agency for all voter-ID issues, and I should be talking to them," Singer said. "She told me my call had been canceled. . . . I was stunned."
Just protocol, according to a spokesman for the Department of State, Ron Rumin. "The situation is that the Department of State has been designated by the administration to be the point agency for this issue, and in particular, for dealing with county election officials, including Commissioner Singer," Rumin said.
He said the state expected to complete its database work next week and send county commissioners throughout Pennsylvania a list of registered voters without driver's licenses or nondriver ID.
"That will be helpful," Singer said, but she expressed concern about not having a way to check the accuracy of the state's data. "We want to make sure that when we get something, it will be something we can rely on." - Bob Warner
GOP showdown - or maybe not
The city's Republican Party is now operating on two separate tracks, one reporting to longtime chairman Vito Canuso Jr., whose disputed 2010 reelection was voided by the Republican State Committee, and the other lined up behind financial consultant Rick Hellberg, who was picked last month by a group of 20 dissident ward leaders to take Canuso's place.
The GOP State Committee meets the weekend after next in Hershey, where the Philadelphia leadership dispute could come to a head. The party chair in Philadelphia, whoever it is, gets an automatic seat.
But Canuso said he isn't going and doesn't care what happens. "The next important vote at State Committee will be six years from now, when they endorse a new candidate for governor," Canuso said. "Let [Hellberg] go up there. It saves me money." - Bob Warner
