A new report from the independent Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center (PennBPC) claims state Department of Transportation (PennDOT) employees who issue photo identification cards have been spreading misinformation about the state’s new voter ID law.
PennBPC Director Sharon Ward said rank-and-file PennDOT employees gave wrong information to her group’s observers 46 percent of the time.
For example, Ward said some PennDOT workers asked for unnecessary documents, and some failed to even mention the option of the Department of State’s new voter ID cards. She said other employees tried to steer the observers away from the free Department of State card, and in some cases asked the customers to pay for a PennDOT ID card instead.
"It is official policy that the PennDOT ID can be obtained for free if it's for voting purposes, but some of the staff seemed to make a judgment that, since the ID could be used for something other than voting, that they could go ahead and charge for it," said Ward. Non-driver IDs from PennDOT cost $13.50 apiece.
PennBPC had several members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) observe the availability of information and help on the voter ID law at PennDOT offices across the commonwealth. While the reported results weren't encouraging, the SEIU employees did say that almost half of the PennDOT employees made an effort to help customers with voter ID information. The report said managers and administrators were normally far more knowledgeable on the issue than customer service employees.
One observer, Carlos Rivera of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, said long lines at PennDOT offices discouraged people from trying to get identification.
"They were talking about the voter ID, how they get information on it, and when they saw how crowded it was, they pretty much just took a ticket and then walked out," said Rivera. "In some of them, there [was] no parking, so people just drove in and turned around and drove away."
According to Ward, the PennDOT employees in the Pittsburgh area were not nearly as knowledgeable on voter ID as those in the Philadelphia area.
Ward said she thinks PennDOT workers are confused because the implementation of the new voter ID law has been rushed. According to the report, PennDOT employees said their guidelines for dealing with voter ID requests are still changing, less than two months before election day.
Ward said the law should be deferred until after the November 6 election.
Pennsylvania's highest court has ordered the Commonwealth Court to rule on the constitutionality of the voter ID law by October 2. The law was passed earlier this year and is the subject of a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.
