PA Bill Number: HB1661
Title: Further providing for schedules of controlled substances; and providing for secure storage of xylazine.
Description: Further providing for schedules of controlled substances; and providing for secure storage of xylazine. ...
Last Action: Act No. 17 of 2024
Last Action Date: May 15, 2024
Pennsylvania: Voter Registration Cards Sent by State to Non-Citizens :: 10/11/2016
In September, the Secretary of State’s office in Pennsylvania mailed about 2.5 million postcards to people who are not registered voters, but are licensed drivers.
The problem – not all of those licensed drivers are American citizens.
Secretary of State Pedro Cortes admitted to a House of Representatives committee last week that seven people had reported that they received voter registration cards in error, but critics say citizenship status is not being verified when people register to vote.
Lifezette reported Pennsylvania resident Christopher Staab said his wife received a voter registration card in error. She is a legal resident, but not a U.S. citizen. When he reported it to the state, they told him the Motor Vehicle Department had just coded the information incorrectly. He spoke directly with Cortes, and said Cortes “basically said most people are honest.”
“Why would you rush this mailing right before an election if it’s not recorded properly?” he asked. “What is going on is not OK.”
The Public Interest Legal Foundation recently conducted an investigation and discovered 86 non-citizens who were registered to vote in Philadelphia between 2013 to 2015. Some had actually voted.
The state’s voter registration system has serious problems, according to State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, chair of the State Government Committee.
“There’s certainly the potential for hundreds, if not thousands, of foreigners here legally and illegally to be on our voter rolls, and a certain percentage who are casting ballots,” Metcalfe told LifeZette. “We’ve got a lot of integrity issues that need to be addressed.”
The reason Pennsylvania mailed out the postcards: it was a requirement to join the Electronic Registration Information System, a nonprofit that includes 20 states and D.C. Metcalfe said legislators were never told that sending out notices would be a condition to joining the ERIC, and it is now creating the very real possibility that non-citizens can be illegally registered to vote through error or fraud.
The ERIC is supposed to help identify and remove registered voters who have moved or died. But a systems engineer for the company, Ericka has, says it’s up to each state to identify non-citizens.
A spokesman for a voter-integrity organization “True the Vote”, Logan Churchwell, said ERIC has created more problems, as it forces each state to sign a contract to “remove certain information from public view.” “You have ERIC putting up walls where before there used to be none,” he said.
Texas (who is not using ERIC) can quickly issue a report on how many dead voters were removed, but ERIC states no longer provide that information when asked by the public, reports Lifezette.
The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 requires than all drivers’ license applicants be offered the opportunity to register to vote, but Metcalfe said there is no way for it to flag applications from non-citizens.
http://libertyalliance.com/voter-registration-cards-sent-state-non-citizens/
