Issue Position: Voting Rights

Issue Position

Last year, the Corbett administration and the majority party pushed through a law requiring all voters to show acceptable photo identification when voting. The House majority leader, shortly after House Bill 934 became law, offered that this law would allow Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to win Pennsylvania. It was clear that the intent of this law was to disenfranchise voters -- the poor, elderly, and disabled.

Prior to the Court ruling the new law could not be enforced during the 2012 General Election, Senator Fontana reached out to the Administration on a measure he devised that would make the process of getting the required ID to vote more convenient. The Senator's plan would allow all state offices, elected officials' offices, to serve as a clearinghouse where an individual can go to secure an acceptable form of photo ID.

You can read more about Senator Fontana's vision to create Neighborhood Centers where those who lack the means to get to only one of three locations in Allegheny County, can go to get the acceptable form of ID needed to vote. http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2012/09/24/Make-it-easy-to-get-IDs.html

The Court will rule on the Voter ID law sometime in the near future. If and when photo ID's are required to vote, Senator Fontana's Neighborhood Center plan will become paramount to ensure nobody's vote is being disenfranchised.

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