Keith Srakocic / AP
People pass the signs telling of the requirement for voters to show an acceptable photo ID to vote as they head into the the Penndot Drivers License Center in Butler, Pa.
Editor's note: This is the second in a regular series of posts between now and Election Day, telling the stories of Americans who find themselves affected by voter ID laws and other roadblocks to voting. You can find the first post here.
A judge will rule by Tuesday on Pennsylvania's controversial voter ID law, which would bar Pennsylvanians from voting without a state-issued photo ID, and which is being challenged by voting-rights groups.
If the law is upheld, one person who may be unable to vote is Theresa Kukowski a 62-year-old Philadelphia resident and regular voter who suffers from multiple sclerosis. Last month, Kukowski testified in court about what she'd have to go through to exercise her right to vote.
I have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis for the past 16 years and am currently confined to a wheelchair. It is especially hard for [my husband] Richard to transfer me from my wheelchair into our 17-year-old minivan. I once had a Pennsylvania driver's license, but I stopped driving about five years ago, and my license has been expired for a few years. I don't have any other form of photo identification that I can present at the polls in November.
Our polling place is about 1 1/2 blocks away from our house. When we vote, my husband pushes me in my wheelchair from our house to the polling place. It takes about 5 minutes for us to get there.
I had heard something about the new voter identification law a while back, but I did not realize that I would be affected by the law until September 22, 2012, when I received a notice in mail about the new law.
Traveling to a PennDOT center to get an ID in the short amount of time before this November's election would be very difficult. The closest PennDOT center is on Oxford Avenue in Philadelphia, which is more than two miles away and too far for Richard to push me there in my wheelchair. If at all possible, I will try to have Richard take me in the car to the PennDOT before Election Day, but it would be very difficult--especially because we hear that there are long lines at the PennDOT center.
Voting is very meaningful to me. It is my voice about the future of this country. In particular, the issues of Medicare and Medicaid are important to me, because, without these programs, it would be impossible for Richard and me to make ends meet.
More testimony from voters affected by Pennsylvania's law can be found here.
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Well this is right up Mitt's alley.
You can't let you disease (I have MS, too) slow you down. Just do what you can.
Leslie, with all due respect. Since you say you have MS as well, you should know that there are many degrees of this debilitating disease and stages of exascerbation. So, really, it is quite condescending for you to say "you can't let you disease ......slow you down." Obviously, Theresa, knows her own limitations!
T
There is a congressman here in PA that would call this woman lazy. This is a real crime.
She testified in court. So, that means she got someone to get her there. Presumably, whoever took her to court could take her to get an ID. However, it's not so much her story in particular that matters as it is her story as illustration of other stories of people like her. Not all people in her situation would have someone to take her to get an ID.
The Pennsylvania law concerning voter ID must be struck down in the courts. Voting is a guaranteed right for all citizens. No widespread evidence of voter fraud has been documented by the GOP to support this irrational law that suppresses the vote for Seniors, college students, the handicapped or those in lower socioeconomic status such as minorities in the inner city areas. Many people in this group lack driver's licenses or access to automobiles making the process to get this free voter ID an expensive and undue burden for them. Read this Brennan Center website for more information about Voter ID that clearly violates the 1965 Voter's Rights Act. If you have a nickel of costs involved with getting this "free" ID such as having to pay fees to get supporting documents such as marriage licenses or birth certificates from out of state means the voter is paying a poll tax. Poll taxes are unconstitutional under the 1965 Voter Rights act and the 24th Amendment to the constitution. Check out this quote from the Brennan Center for Justice Voter ID webpage listed below:
"Studies show that as many as 11 percent of eligible voters do not have government-issued photo ID. That percentage is even higher for seniors, people of color, people with disabilities, low-income voters, and students. Many citizens find it hard to get government photo IDs, because the underlying documentation like birth certificates (the ID one needs to get ID) is often difficult or expensive to come by. At the same time, voter ID policies are far more costly to implement than many assume."
http: //www.brennancenter.org/content/section/category/voter_id
I agree that voter ID's should one day be universally applied to all Americans. But not in this very obviously, deceptive and despicable manner. What if your wallet or purse is stolen? Natural disaster? (we had a record number of those this year alone)
I think all forms of voting documents should still be suffice.
Birth certificate, residence bills in your name and state issued ID's. When you depend on only one form of identification it will always has potential to fail or become convoluted.