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PI Week panel cites voter suppression, not fraud, as challenge

February 23, 2017

The panelists were also in consensus that voter suppression should be more of a concern than voter fraud.
The panelists were also in consensus that voter suppression should be more of a concern than voter fraud.

On February 20, as a part of Penn Law’s Ninth Annual Public Interest Week, the Law School held an panel discussion titled “Voting Rights in Philadelphia: The 2016 Election from a Community Perspective.”

By Lucy Porter C’18

On February 20, as a part of Penn Law’s Ninth Annual Public Interest Week, the Law School held a panel discussion titled “Voting Rights in Philadelphia: The 2016 Election from a Community Perspective.” The event was sponsored by the Democracy Law Project.

The panelists included Patrick Christmas, Policy Program Manager for Committee of Seventy; William Cobb, the founder of REDEEMED, an NGO that seeks to eliminate systemic discrimination in the criminal justice system; and Adam Bonin, principal at the Law Office of Adam C. Bonin, a firm that specializes in law compliance and advocacy.

The panel began by addressing the hot-topic of voter fraud. The panelists were in consensus that despite President Trump’s mentions of widespread voter fraud, no such thing was common enough to be cause for concern.

“There is no systemic, wide-spread voter fraud,” Christmas said. “And there are rock solid reasons for this.”

He continued to explain how in-person voting requires use of a machine that is at no point connected to the internet. For widespread voter fraud to occur, the individual machines would need to be hacked on site. For this to happen frequently enough to be widespread voter fraud would mean an unprecedented level of national conspiracy.

Bonin noted that while certain parts of cities vote largely for one party, this does not imply voter fraud is occurring. He posited that because of how cities are composed “there are simply going to be various blocks of the city that all vote Democrat.”

The panelists were also in consensus that voter suppression should be more of a concern than voter fraud. To illustrate the seriousness of voter suppression, Bonin discussed an experience he had involving hospital patients. A medical student collected emergency absentee voter ballots, but they needed to be approved by a judge and then returned to the patients by 8 p.m. Bonin alleged that the Republican lawyer dragged his heels for the whole process, and questioned the legitimacy of many of the patients in an effort to stall out the clock so these votes would not be allowed.

“There are thousands of voter registration forms that are submitted and unequivocally high numbers of people who have correctly filled out their forms on time do not get their name on the rolls,” Christmas said.

He cited the main reason for this as system inefficiency. Furthermore, when the information reaches the office, it needs to be punched in manually. The chance for human error is enormous.

Cobb also noted that there are 6,000 people in county prisons, and 35 percent of them are eligible to vote. “The city contracts the responsibility of voter registration for these people to a private organization that does not meet five percent of the people who eligible,” he explained.

To increase access to voting, Bonin advocates for expanding early voting and allowing same day registration. Christmas seeks further exemptions to allow people in professions such as hospital workers who are working for the entire Election Day. Cobb would like to make voter registration automatic, such as a process that occurs when people acquire a driver’s license.

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