From The Desk Of Adam Brodsky: PennDOT ID Centers To Be Open 11% More Often, For All Of Your Voter ID Needs
It’s only slightly more subtle than this.
Further justifying Pennsylvania’s de facto state slogan “The Mississippi of the North,” Governor Paul Johnson Jr. Tom Corbett has bequeathed a benevolent dispensation to the huddled masses of Philadelphia County and ordered five of Philadelphia county’s PennDOT Driver’s License ID centers to expand their hours of operation from Sept. 27th to Nov. 8th for as much as two hours and forty-five minutes a week.
In a letter written August 28th, Mayor Nutter had asked Gov. Corbett to extend PennDOT location hours from 8AM to 9PM. Stating, “The citizens most in need of new identification are very likely those who have the least amount of daytime availability and physical mobility, namely workers who do not have flexibility to take the necessary time off during the middle of the workday or seniors who are unable to travel far distances or rely on public transportation.”
Corbett snapped into action for the sake of free and fair elections and through a statement issued by Transportation Secretary Barry Schoch, announced that hours would be extended to 7PM … on Thursdays … starting in late September. Awesome.
Meet us after the jump for more information on PennDOT’s barely expanded hours, and one of the many reasons Voter ID is … well … nonsense.
Schoch said, “Extending our hours in the state’s largest county demonstrates PennDOT’s continuing willingness to help customers comply with the Voter ID law.”
Extended Thursday evening hours will be observed between September 27th and November 8th at the following five locations:
>>>801 Arch St.
>>>1530 South Columbus Blvd.
>>>2320 Island Ave.
>>>919-B Levick St.
>>>7121 Ogontz Ave.
Currently, closing times at these locations vary between 4:15 and 5:15PM but soon they will all be gloriously open until 7pm, as any later would’ve impinge on DMV workers Thursday night Must See TV viewing.
Tomorrow at 9:30, the state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the suit against the voter ID law which was upheld by Judge Robert Simpson (guess which party he belongs to), on August 15th. In his ruling, Simpson quoted from the 1869 Patterson v. Barlow case which said the establishment of voting requirements, “belongs to the General Assembly, is a sound one, and cannot be reviewed by any other department of the government, except in a case of plain, palpable, and clear abuse of the power which actually infringes the rights of the electors.”
Tough to argue with that; they did know what they were doing back in 1869. Judge Simpson is a busy man, so he didn’t have time to quote more of the Patterson case, like that part that explains how allowing Philadelphians to vote just like everyone else in Pennsylvania would be, “to place the vicious vagrant, the wandering Arabs, the Tartar hordes of our large cities, on a level with the virtuous and good man.” It’s like that old judge was on the El with me this morning.
Regardless of how the court cases shake out, maybe there’s a solution out there in Monroe County where State Rep. Mario Scavello, a Republican who voted for the law, is personally driving a few voters at a time to get their IDs. Wouldn’t you love 15 minutes alone in a car to bend the ear of some of these partisan tools? Here is a website to locate your guy. Give him a ring, and tell him Mario sent you.
[Image via Civil Rights Movement Veterans]
– Adam Brodsky
Adam Brodsky, is, in no particular order, a World Record Holding Folksinger, Writer, Baseball fan, and Beer League First Baseman who hits for average. His Novel will be out when he fucking finishes it, so get off his back! You can follow him @adambrodsky
