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Josephs: Pa. should have a constitutional amendment to guarantee voter rights

HARRISBURG, May 12 – In the wake of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld the constitutionality of another state's voter ID provision, state Rep. Babette Josephs, D-Phila., is planning to introduce a bill that would protect Pennsylvania voters from having to show photo identification in order to cast a vote.

Joseph, chairwoman of the House State Government Committee, is circulating a co-sponsorship memo on a proposed constitutional amendment that would prohibit any requirement that voters need to show a photo ID to vote.

"Although the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld the constitutionality of Indiana's voter ID provision, it did not say that a state had to have such a requirement or that a state is barred from prohibiting it," Josephs said. "Our right to vote is one of our most sacred rights in this country and nothing should be used to deny citizens the right to vote."

In April, the Supreme Court ruled in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, upholding as constitutional Indiana's law to require photo ID from its electors before they can cast their ballots.

Josephs said the recent ruling is just another way to infringe on people's right to vote.

"The right to vote is one that our founders believed was paramount to the success of our democracy. It is enshrined in our constitution, both state and federal, as a fundamental principle that it is we who control our collective destiny by participating in the electoral process and as an acknowledgement that this government belongs to the people, not a select few," she said.

Josephs said her proposed constitutional amendment would allow the photo ID requirement for first-time voters as required by the Help America Vote Act, because her amendment would be preempted by the federal law. However, she said requiring photo ID from everyone would disenfranchise voters, especially a state's elderly, minority, urban and poor populations.

"Voter disfranchisement must be fought head-on so that no person, no political party, no state, no instrument of the federal government, for any partisan political reason, denies citizens this most sacred of rights."

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