For Immediate Release
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
AFSCME’s Saunders on Pennsylvania Voter ID Law: “An Attempt to Suppress the Votes of Minorities, the Elderly, Students and the Poor”
Statement of AFSCME Pres. Lee Saunders following a Pennsylvania judge’s decision to reject a challenge to the state’s voter identification law
Washington, DC —“Unfortunately, a Pennsylvania judge today rejected a challenge to a voter identification law. The law supposedly was intended to combat voter fraud, but even its supporters admit that there is scant evidence that fraud exists. The law’s true purpose was revealed by a Republican legislator who bragged that it would allow presidential candidate Mitt Romney to ‘win the state’ by suppressing the votes of particular groups of voters. But all of us lose when any citizen is denied the right to have a say in our democracy. Opponents of the law are expected to appeal it to the state Supreme Court. We hope the justices will see it for what it is: an attempt to suppress the votes of minorities, the elderly, students and the poor.”
