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August 3, 2012

Voter ID holdup causing local confusion

By Mary Spicer Meadville Tribune

MEADVILLE — Like her counterparts throughout Pennsylvania, Crawford County’s director of voter services is waiting for the week of Aug. 13 to roll around.

With just over three months remaining before the quadrennial rush of frenetic activity known as a presidential election rolls around, Melanie Mushrush told members of the Crawford County Election Board, otherwise known as county commissioners Francis Weiderspahn, Sherman Allen and Jack Lynch, that most preparations for the big day are in good shape. While the board gave her the go-ahead to order new, considerably larger official canvas bags to be distributed to the county’s 10 busiest polling places to make the trip from polling place to courthouse a bit easier, and OK’d the procurement of stylus-type instruments for voters to use instead of fingers on the touch-sensitive screens of the county’s voting machines, one large issue has been put on hold.

Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson has said he will issue his ruling on the lawsuit aimed at stopping Pennsylvania’s new voter-registration law from taking effect in the Nov. 6 election during the week of Aug. 13. However, Mushrush told the election board during their Thursday meeting that there still may not be a definitive answer to the question of what — if any — steps poll workers will be required to take to verify that each individual showing up to exercise his or her right as an American citizen to vote is in possession of the proper paperwork.

“Judge Simpson anticipates having a decision by Aug. 13 to give everyone time to appeal,” Mushrush told the board.

With three weeks lead time required to have signs made for all of the county’s polling places advising voters of the new requirement for photo identification, the election board also gave Mushrush authorization to proceed with the order — or not proceed, as the case may be — as soon as either legal guidance is in place or the deadline for placing the order has arrived.

Signs are just one of the advance preparations taking place; if the photo-ID legislation remains in place, for example, additional steps will have to be taken when absentee ballots are issued and poll workers must be trained to decide on the validity of each ID card presented. “It’s been explained that you have to make allowances,” she said, noting, for example, that an individual can still vote even if the address shown on voter-registration records is different from the address on the driver’s license presented.

Until the final judge’s decision is handed down, Mushrush is making “either-or” preparations. “We’ll be ready either way,” she said.



Mary Spicer can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at mspicer@meadvilletribune.com.

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