Friday, February 10, 2006

Save Our Santorums

It's a sad commentary on my connectedness to PA politics that I learned about this through an NYT editorial:

Under current Pennsylvania law, people can vote once they leave prison. But a bill pending in the Legislature would disenfranchise those on parole or probation. The bill would go further and bar convicts from voting until the dates when their maximum sentences would expire — even if they had been fully released from the system much earlier.

Pennsylvania, a swing state that will hold some critical elections this fall, is being barraged by legislation, championed by Republican lawmakers, that would raise voting barriers, especially for groups that tend to be Democratic. One measure would institute one of the most restrictive voter-identification laws in the nation, in a state that currently requires only first-time voters to prove their identities. Pennsylvanians — who have been at the forefront of fairness in voting rights issues — should not allow partisanship to erase that legacy.

Wow, they're pulling out all the stops - they must be really worried for Santorum, eh?

(Do governors have veto power? You know, like little mini-preznits?)

1 comment:

Elmo said...

Next they'll ban anyone making minimum wage from voting.