With great fanfare, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced that the commonwealth will begin implementing automatic voter registration. Automatic voter registration means that when Pennsylvanians get driver’s licenses or state-issued government IDs they will automatically be registered to vote unless they opt out. Currently, people opt in to register to vote.
This may on the surface sound like a good thing. After all, we all want every American who wants to exercise his or her right to vote to be able to have their voice heard at the ballot box. But a deeper look at automatic voter registration reveals it often exacerbates errors on the voter roll.
Based on real data, Pennsylvania is the last place that should be implementing this risky plan. Over the last 20 years, no state has performed worse in keeping ineligible, duplicated and even foreigners off state voter rolls.
We can all agree it has never been easier to register and vote as it is in 2023. Under the National Voter Registration Act, more commonly known as Motor Voter, states are required to offer voter registration when individuals are getting their driver’s licenses or other forms of state ID.
Motor Voter has been a wild success in making it easier to register to vote. Pennsylvania, unfortunately, has struggled with preventing the ineligible from finding their way onto voter rolls, as you will see.
Only an honor system prevents non-citizens from registering to vote. All non-citizens need to do is mark the box “yes” that they are a United States citizen. The English- language voter registration form is sometimes in a language that they do not understand.
Many times foreign nationals are registered to vote even after they told Pennsylvania election officials they were not a United States citizen when they checked the citizenship box “no.”
These foreign nationals who unwittingly register or are registered by the government by mistake have their immigration status jeopardized. These mistakes can even lead to deportation.
For two decades, foreign nationals were registering to vote in Pennsylvania by the thousands. Don’t take my word for it. In 2017, Secretary of State Robert Torres said so. Al Schmidt, then a member of the Philadelphia City Commissioners, testified before the Pennsylvania Senate that he was briefed by State Department officials on a department study that identified more than 100,000 registered voters who may lack U.S. citizenship. Whatever the actual number, there no denying it was a real problem.
Additionally, Schmidt demanded transparency and called on the department to release the details of their findings to county election boards. Remember that one.
Following his testimony, the Public Interest Legal Foundation requested under federal election transparency laws that the State Department provide documents to show their work to identify the 100,000 potential foreign nationals. When Torres refused the request, the foundation sued in federal court.
Five years later, the commonwealth is still fighting to keep these records from the public. In an ironic turn of events, Schmidt is now the secretary of State. Where is the transparency he called for in the past?
When Pennsylvania refuses to be transparent about past errors regarding registering foreign nationals, they should not be going to an automatic voter registration system that will greatly increase the risk of foreign nationals ending up on the voter roll by mistake. Automatic voter registration is not good for election integrity or the foreign nationals who will be the ones who suffer from the possibility of deportation.
Reprinted with Permission from TRIB LIVE – By J. Christian Adams
You got right to the point about this issue Mr. Adams in the last sentence when you wrote that automatic voter registration is not good for voter integrity. Prior to that you mentioned that it has taken five years and still no answer to the question about foreign nationals voting — the Pennsylvania officials in charge of these matters still fighting to keep records on this matter from the public. Earlier I wrote a comment and included reference to an updated version of the Mister Rogers Neighborhood theme song — did that just in the interest of adding some humor to this very serious topic. Recently when writing comments about the criminal gangs invading the southern border , I have referred to that as an act of war perpetrated against the United States of America , and I mentioned how the 1941 song ” We Did It Before and We Can Do It Again ” could be a spirit lifter as Good needs to be victorious now , just as it needed to be victorious over the enemies of freedom in the 1940’s — so this voting integrity issue is extremely serious and a spirit of truth being victorious in this issue is of great importance. Well Done with writing this article , it is appreciated.
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This practice is already in place in most Democrat run states in the northeast. Pennsylvania is simply playing catch-up with the rest of the already socialist-style state governments in this area.
It is very good that you wrote this important article Mr. Adams , it should be appreciated by those who value Honor, Honesty ,Integrity, Courage and Loyalty . This voter registration system for Pennsylvania that you described — sounds like it is an indication that the Liberty Bell isn’t the only thing in Pennsylvania that is cracked. So, what is needed is to fix it — using common sense, and a respect for those qualities I listed above.Especially honesty and integrity. If the Mister Rogers Neighborhood television program ( Fred Rogers got it started from a Pittsburgh television station ) was still around the theme song would need some adjustment these days . Instead of starting with the words ” It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood ..” it would be realistic to to sing something like ” It’s not a very beautiful day in the neighborhood — because the politics have become too corrupt — so let’s all do what we can to have honest political systems — then we can sing about What a beautiful day it is in the neighborhood again”. That’s all we need to do Ladies and Gentlemen, just do what it takes to have a system that rings true .It will be a noble effort. Knowledge of history , plenty of real interesting stuff has happened in the Keystone State , and developing a high level of intelligence , having courage ,and being resourceful will help to fix what needs to be fixed. And make the improvements needed. Let Liberty be the watchword — with respect for the will of God and respect for human dignity.
Informative article.
Automatic Voter Registration is the ONLY way the democrats can CHEAT and win ILLEGALLY and UNCONSTITUTIONALLY to maintain CONTROL over YOU.
Just another form of FASCISM.
This should be EASY TO FIX: our national language is English, so no one should be allowed to vote if THEY CAN’T SPEAK OR UNDERSTAND ENGLISH!
Your ignorance is showing! Don’t you know that Reagan is dead?
Punkydoodle, why do you HATE AMERICA SO MUCH? . . . Besides, what do you know about voting, you’re ONLY 15 years old!
I’m lost this again since amac is filled with nothing but a bunch of pedophiles.
repubclians lose when people vote lol