Please type your name here
Please type your Institution name here
Recently, the state of Pennsylvania passed a rather restrictive voter ID law that demands a photo identification that has the individual’s address along with a date of expiry. For a person to obtain such an ID, the basic requirements are a birth certificate, and occasionally one or more trips to various other distant nations to obtain locally issued state government identification. It was also reported in the news that a state government employee in-charge of assisting people in issues related to the voter ID is offering wrong advice and misguiding the citizens by saying that photo IDs are offered upon payment of a specified amount of money, where in reality, the government offers such IDs free of cost. This particular incident in Pennsylvania was challenged in the Supreme Court of the United States and is currently set back, and hence currently the state lacks any specific legislation to this effect.
The basic motive behind these statutes is apparently to make it difficult for different groups or classes of the society, for instance, the poor, senior citizens, youngsters attending college, as well as African-Americans, to participate in polls that favor the Republican Party. These legislations have been announced and approved only in states that have Republican governments and/or Republican candidates as governors. If there is any ambiguity regarding the motive behind these legislatures, it is suggested to review the remarks made by a Pennsylvania Congressman who publicly indicated that the new statue would make Republican victory in the United States much easier. The predominant challenge legally would be to claim that the charges being demanded for issue of a photo ID are essentially poll taxes, precisely making citizens pay to cast their vote, which is essentially their basic fundamental right that is an inherent element of American Citizenship.
References
Imran, S. (2012, November 10). The Injustice of Voter Suppression. Retrieved from The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sanah-imran/voter-id-laws_b_1957520.html
Lyman, R. (2014, January 17). Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Struck Down as Judge Cites Burden on Citizens. Retrieved from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/us/politics/pennsylvania-voter-id-law-struck-down.html
