LULAC Applauds Court’s Decision to not Enforce PA Voter ID Law for 2012 Election

Contact: Paloma Zuleta
202-833-6130
PZuleta@LULAC.org

Today, the Commonwealth Court in Pennsylvania blocked the state from enforcing the new voter ID law thereby temporarily postponing the voter identification requirement until after the election.

“This is a win for the tens of thousands of mostly low income and elderly people in Pennsylvania who would have been denied their Constitutional right to vote,” said LULAC National President Margaret Moran. “Requiring a government-issued photo ID, in lieu of other forms of identification that are accepted in other states, threatens an integral right shared by all American citizens regardless of socioeconomic background, creed, or ethnicity.”

The unrelenting drive to deter eligible voters from casting ballots suppresses people in lower socioeconomic classes of society from voting. More than 9% of Pennsylvanians lack government-issued photo identification. In fact, 18% of the population does not have government-issued photo ID in Philadelphia alone, a city whose population is 44% African-American. The law would have disenfranchised low-income, minority, elderly, and student voters.

Of the Pennsylvania population, 5.9% is Hispanic, but certain areas are more densely populated with Latinos where migration has been a relatively recent development. For example, Reading, Pennsylvania, has a 58% Hispanic population.

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The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights volunteer-based organization that empowers Hispanic Americans and builds strong Latino communities. Headquartered in Washington, DC, with 900 councils around the United States and Puerto Rico, LULAC’s programs, services and advocacy address the most important issues for Latinos, meeting critical needs of today and the future. For more information, visit www.lulac.org