PLBC Celebrates Judge's Ruling at Voter ID News Conference

	FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
State Rep. Ronald G. Waters D-Delaware/Philadelphia www.pahouse.com/waters

PLBC celebrates judge’s ruling at voter ID news conference

HARRISBURG, Oct. 4 – On Wednesday, state Rep. Ronald G. Waters, D-Phila./Delaware, chairman of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, was joined by members of the PLBC, Democratic colleagues from both the House and the Senate, the ACLU and the NAACP at a news conference to discuss Tuesday’s Commonwealth Court ruling in the voter ID case.

Judge Robert E. Simpson was unable to conclude that changes to the ID acquisition process would cure the deficiency to liberal access as identified by the state Supreme Court and issued an injunction, blocking the requirement of photo ID to cast a vote in the Nov. 6 elections.

Waters said that the purpose of the news conference was to applaud the temporary injunction issued by Judge Simpson and to clear up any confusion as to how the ruling affects the upcoming elections.

"Simple – on November 6, you can go and vote without any restriction except registration," Waters said. The deadline to register to vote in Pennsylvania is Oct. 9.

"In the general election, people will not be required to have ID in order to cast their constitutional right – without any infringement upon their ability to go to the ballot and vote for the candidate of their choice," Waters later added.

Waters stressed how pleased he was to see members of both legislative chambers represented, including Democratic Senate Appropriations Chairman Vincent Hughes and House Democratic Leader Frank Dermody.

Dermody pointed out the fact that the injunction only blocked the photo ID requirements for the Nov. 6 elections.

"This law is still on the books and it threatens the constitutional rights of citizens," Dermody said

"Yesterday’s ruling was good news; the fight still must go on. This law should never take effect. There should never be a law on the books that threatens the constitutional right to cast a vote," he added.

House Democratic Whip Mike Hanna also gave remarks at the conference, and he addressed the issue facing the state to re-educate citizens on voting requirements for the elections.

"What I’d really like to do here today is to stand here and call on the governor, call on PennDot, call on the Department of State to spend 10 million dollars to let people know that they have the right to vote," Hanna said.

"They spent 10 million dollars telling senior citizens, minorities and students that they didn’t have the right to vote, so they should match that money between now and November 6 to tell people that they do have the right to vote and that they should come to the polls on November 6," Hanna added.

Waters and many of the other speakers echoed Hanna’s plea, calling on the Corbett administration to immediately suspend the outreach efforts and the advertisements promoting the necessity of photo ID to vote.

In addition to Waters and Hughes, several other members of the PLBC attended the news conference, including: Reps. Harold James, Michelle Brownlee, James Roebuck, Vanessa Brown, Gary Williams, Margo Davidson, John Myers and Thaddeus Kirkland.

Other attendees included Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa; House Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Mike Sturla; House State Government Committee Democratic Chairwoman Babette Josephs; Reps. Maria Donatucci, Mike Gerber, Brendan Boyle, Eugene DePasquale and Madeleine Dean; ACLU of Pennsylvania Legislative Director Andy Hoover; and NAACP Greater Harrisburg Chapter President Stanley Lawson.

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