The New PA Voter ID Law

The information below reflects what was current in the run-up to the election in Fall 2012.  Much of this information is now old, and it is likely to change based on policies and laws implemented before future elections.  We have decided to keep this information here for reference, but please be aware that some of it may be old.  Please contact the AIDS Library if you need assistance.

In the AIDS Library

There’s a special display about this law in the AIDS Library, just to your left when you walk in the door.  You can send folks by any time we’re open to pick up:

• Know Your Voting Rights: Pennsylvania, by the ACLU of Pennsylvania
• Need a Photo ID? I Can Help, by the office of State Senator Shirley M. Kitchen
• Specific Voter ID Issues for Homeless Voters, by the Committee of Seventy
• Voting Rights of Ex-Felons in Pennsylvania, by the ACLU of Pennsylvania
• Official voter registration forms
• Information about the free photo ID that PennDOT will give out, adapted from the PennDOT website
• Information about obtaining a birth certificate in Pennsylvania adapted from the PA Dept of Health website

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Making Sure Your Clients (or You!) Can Vote

The Committee of Seventy has a comprehensive PA Voter ID Law website on this law, including:

• Education Guides for specific populations, including Seniors, Students, and the Homeless
• Palm cards on the ID law in Spanish, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Korean, and Vietnamese

The ACLU of Pennsylvania has a Voter ID Law website, which includes:

• A list of acceptable IDs for voting
• How to get a free PennDOT ID for voting
• A site where you can order free materials to educate people around  this law, as well as many PDFs of these materials that can be printed online

There are two hotlines to help people with this law:

• The Voter ID Coalition: 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683), answered live, Monday – Friday, 9am to 5pm
• The Department of State’s Voter ID Hotline:1-877-VotesPA (215-868-3772)

For folks without the necessary ID, PennDOT offers instructions for Obtaining a Free PennDOT Secure ID for Voting, as well as list of documents needed to get that ID.

Getting the documents needed to get an ID can be difficult.  Here are the government’s instructions on how to get:

• A birth certificate
• A social security card
• A certificate of U.S. Citizenship
• A certificate of U.S. Naturalization

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More About Voting

For comprehensive instructions on how to register to vote, see the PA Department of State’s How to Register page.  To confirm that a person is registered to vote, see their Voter Registration Status page.

For folks who’ve been incarcerated, see the ACLU’s Voting Rights of Ex-Felons in PA

The Vote for Homes Coalition is running a free Voter Registration Training with special attention to this new law.  You can sign up here.

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Learn More About the Voter ID Law

To learn more about the law and the issues surrounding it, see:

• The PA Department of State’s website about the law
• The text of the law itself
• Info about the lawsuit being brought against the state around the law

There’s been a lot of news coverage and opinions about the law.  Here are some highlights:

• Pa. Supreme Court Takes Up Voter ID Law This Week – recent news about the status of the law in the PA courts
• City, Groups Working to Spread Word on Voter ID Law – recent news on voter education around the law
• Corbett: No SNAFUs on Election Day because of Voter ID – with Governor Corbett’s take on the issue
• Partisan Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Wrongly Upheld by Court – for a more critical take
• A Whopping 43 percent of Philly Voters May Not Have Voter ID, According to New Data – for more on how this might affect Philadelphia
• Voter-ID Trial Puts Trans, Elderly Constituents on Stand –local LGBT-focused take on the issue
• Voting Rights Issue Heats Up in Battleground States Ohio, Pennsylvania – for some national context and comparison to our neighbor state to the west