Thom Hartmann: Meet the 102 year old face of voter suppression

[thomhartmann]

Nobody should have to wait in line for hours to vote in an election. But because of the Republican voter fraud witchhunt - that's become reality in America. And the talking heads at Fox So-Called News think that's just fine.

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings

[Gorp]

1. PA has a voter ID law that's on court-ordered hold for now, however,...

The Corbett administration has come up with a clever way around that. The only time one needs to produce ID to vote (at least while the new law is on hold) is when they first vote at a new polling place. For ten years, my wife and I have voted at the same firehouse, one within walking distance.

Enter the Bureau of Elections, under the control of the governor. They just sent us new voter registration cards that switched our polling place to one we will definitely have to drive to, and isn't easy to find unless you know the roads really well, which fortunately I do. It also means we will have to show ID to vote. They can play this game indefinitely, law or no law, the voter ID shell game.

I've never waited more than three minutes to vote at my previous location. I served as an election monitor there. There are never lines and if anyone complains about anything it is how few people bother to come to the polling place to begin with. It is not an overcrowded polling location. If anything it's underutilized.

There's no legitimate reason to shuffle the polling places around. It's simply a means to skirt the courts and create a voter ID law without the law part. There is no appeals process. There's no way to avoid it. And, there's not enough time to challenge it in court before the primary. We'll vote in the primary to secure our ID-free status for November (although we always vote in the primary anyway), but it sucks that the GOP can get away with this. I won't be shocked to get a new voter registration card in August switching me to another location, probably farther away.

Then again, there's no reason to expect Corbett to have any integrity whatsoever. He sold his soul long ago. This scam is going on here, but I would put money on a bet that it's going on in every GOP-owned state.