Calls on Court to Prevent Voter Suppression in Future
Contact: Wayne Ranick (412) 562-2444, wranick@usw.org
(Pittsburgh) – The United Steelworkers (USW) said that the Commonwealth Court decision that delays the implementation of a restrictive voter identification law in Pennsylvania that could have prevented hundreds of thousands of legally registered voters from casting ballots is the right one.
“Today’s ruling is a victory for everyone who values fairness in our democratic process, and anyone who supports the idea of one person, one vote,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “It is important that those who are legally registered be able to cast their votes without these completely unnecessary restrictions, which were clearly designed to deliver elections to Republicans.”
The Pennsylvania Voter ID law, one of the most restrictive in the country, generated national publicity when it went into effect this March. Opponents filed a lawsuit in May to stop the law, which the state said could prevent 760,000 legally registered voters from casting ballots. According to today’s injunction, voters may be asked for IDs this November, but they will still be able to vote if they do not have one.
“Today we celebrate the fact that everyone’s vote will count this fall in Pennsylvania,” said Fred Redmond, USW International Vice President for Human Affairs. “But our work is far from over. Now, we must continue to fight to make sure that right-wing efforts to suppress the vote do not survive in Pennsylvania, or anywhere else in the United States, now and in the future.”
The USW represents about 850,000 workers in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean in a wide variety of industries, ranging from glassmaking to mining, paper, steel, tire and rubber to the public sector, service and health care industries.
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