Senior Who Sued Over Photo ID For Voting Law Gets Photo ID

One day after a Pennsylvania judge upheld the state’s new photo identification law for voting, the lead plaintiff in the case went to the DMV and got a photo ID.

Viviette Applewhite, 93, has shaky documentation. Lawyers challenging photo ID laws tend to cherry pick the worst-case individuals to use as plaintiffs in a lawsuit of this kind. However, after the judge recently refused to stop the law from going into effect, Applewhite managed to obtain a photo ID after all, despite the anti-ID lawyers’ doom-and-gloom scenarios.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Viviette Applewhite’s success:

“State officials called it an unplanned exercise in what they’ve been saying for weeks: Clerks behind counters at Pennsylvania Department of Transportation centers can take age and other factors into consideration when granting exceptions to the list of documents the law requires, licensing bureau director Janet Dolan said.”

” ‘PennDot has said all along that they would work with folks on a case-by-case basis,’ said Ron Ruman, a Department of State spokesman.”

The Inquirer quotes Applewhite as being “happy as a clam” with her new photo ID even though it “threw her lawyers into something of a tizzy.”

Separately, the Minnesota Supreme Court just tossed out a challenge to a proposed state constitutional amendment that would require a photo ID to vote. The amendment will go to the voters in November, and it is expected to pass easily.

A Washington Post poll has indicated that 74% of Americans support photo ID for voting.

The opposition to photo ID laws from Democrats and various so-called civil liberties groups is based on make-believe discrimination and voter disenfranchisement. It’s also insulting to assume that any legal voter from any group in this country lacks the capacity to obtain a government-issued photo ID, primarily in the form of a driver’s license. To function in day-to-day life, you need a photo ID. No one seems to have a problem showing ID to get on a plane, pick up a package at the post office or UPS, check into a motel, complete a credit transaction, get a beer at the ballpark, and so forth.

Liberal columnist Kirsten Powers has said that instead of challenging reasonable photo ID laws in court with wild claims, Democrats and their allied groups should simply start a new organization that would pay for the photo IDs and provide transportation to the DMV or other appropriate government agency for those who can’t get their on their own.

The US Supreme Court has already ruled in favor of requiring photo ID to vote in a 2008 Indiana case.

In a recent commentary in the Hartford Courant, lawyer Michael Agranoff wrote in part:

“Even if everyone in the world were white (and also Jewish and bald, as I am), I would still favor photo IDs to vote. I have two black great-grandchildren. I want them to vote when they grow up, and I want them to vote honestly …”

“In all seriousness, the push to eliminate voter IDs is but a trick to benefit the Democrats and harm the Republicans. Even if you are a Democrat, do you not have any respect for honest democracy?”

The Obama administration’s Justice Department is fighting the states tooth and nail over their photo ID laws, yet, ironically enough, you need a photo ID to enter the Justice Department building.

Despite those who try to downplay the issue, muckraker James O’Keefe has made a serious of videos demonstrating the pervasive vote fraud problem in our country.

Writing in the New York Post, law professor Glenn Reynolds notes that “Voter ID makes that kind of trickery [vote fraud] harder, which is why political manipulators oppose it.”

Individuals affiliated with ACORN, for example, have been indicted around the country for vote fraud but that’s probably just the tip of the iceberg.

Reynolds also explains that, in contrast to our lax and antiquated voting procedures, many countries have implemented safeguards to help prevent fraudulent voting:

“Current voter-registration systems are flawed, with huge numbers of dead or disqualified voters still on the rolls. And, since voter-ID enforcement is poor, in many places a person can simply claim to be one of those people and vote in their name with no one the wiser …. You might call our system ‘Third World,’ but that would be an insult to the Third World …. to register to vote in Mexico a voter must provide a photo, a signature and a thumbprint. The Mexican voter-registration card includes holographic security, a magnetic code and a serial number. Before voting, voters have to show the card and have the thumbprints matched by a scanner.”

“Similar safeguards apply in many other countries, along with simple precautions to prevent repeat voting (remember those Iraqis with purple thumbs?) that America lacks.”

Do you think it’s difficult for a legal voter, i.e. a US citizen, to obtain a government-issued photo ID?