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Lawyers stunned after lead plaintiff in voter ID case gets her ID anyway
Viviette Applewhite, 93, is the lead plaintiff in a Voter ID case against the state of Pennsylvania. But after a judge denied lawyers in the case a request for a temporary injunction of the law, Jessica Parks from the Philidelphia Inquirer decided to travel with Applewhite to the Pennsylvania DMV, as part of a report behind how difficult it would be for her to get the proper ID in order to vote.
According to the report, Applewhite doesn’t have the proper documents to get a photo ID.
Applewhite – who rode two SEPTA buses to get to the center – showed the clerk a Medicare card from the 1990s, its edges frayed from years of being pulled out of her pocketbook. It listed her Social Security number, but only the last seven digits were visible. A state Department of Public Welfare document showed her name, signature, and Social Security number – but all in her own handwriting. Other documents showed her street address in the city’s Germantown section. She had no documents verifying that the Viviette Virene Brooks listed on her birth certificate was the same person as the Viviette Applewhite applying for an ID.
In spite of her difficulties, Applewhite was issued her an ID anyway. According the report the DMV employees, did not recognize Applewhite, but agreed to issue her an ID as part of the department’s instruction to work with individuals on a “case-by-case basis.”
dude
August 18th, 2012
HA! Case closed! Lawyers go away, the system works.
Maudie N Mandeville
August 18th, 2012
Hard time believing the lady was ever interested in voting.
Harder time believing her children or church couldn’t have helped her 30 or 40 years ago.
You say she never had children and is an atheist, well those are life’s decisions, aren’t they?
The betting line is 50:1 that she doesn’t apply for a voter ID and has already had her state ID stolen by Александра in Budapest.
Jethro
August 18th, 2012
I am torn by this story:
First, I love how she so easily disproved their ridiculous claims about how IDs are so hard to get, which disenfranchises minorities.
But then I am angered at how easily she was able to get an ID with such little documentation. “Case by case basis” policies, combined with potential racial discrimination litigation leads to clerks and managers being afraid to question any minority applications, no matter how poorly they are forged.
CharlieWalksonWater
August 18th, 2012
“Delighted”. Yah, I’ll bet.
Stranded in Sonoma
August 18th, 2012
I have the same complaints as @Jethro. We’ve shown that the system works; you CAN get a photo ID fairly easily. Unfortunately, the system really doesn’t work; you can get a photo ID WAY too easily.
I think all they’ve done is prove that voter fraud is still a major problem because ID fraud is still a problem.
scr_north
August 18th, 2012
Actually I suspect that the DMV staffer that approved her did the right thing. She was pulling out antique ID, she was obviously pretty old and didn’t fit the profile of someone seeking to get fraudulent ID. Someone who is going to commit fraud to vote isn’t going to want to risk getting caught before the election getting a usable ID (and is probably to lazy to take the time). They are going to wait to election day and swear they are this person so they can get in and vote then disappear. This applies to election fraud only and not to someone who is committing identity fraud or trying to disappear. They will take the time and risk necessary to get a fake ID.
What is funny about this is that she is the plaintiff and essencially destroyed her own case.
Anonymous
August 18th, 2012
@scr_north, I agree 100%.
They claimed her card showed the last 7 digits of her SS#. The first two digits are determined by the state that issued her SS#. And if her # was issued over 50 years ago, it is in the sequence of numbers issued. There are many points of data to verify here.
Millertime
August 18th, 2012
How many demoncrats used the same information and produced 6 Vivian’s in 6 liberal precincts to vote for one scumbag?