Governor Aids Voter Fraud in Pennsylvania

Gov. Ed Rendell, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and currently campaigning for his job against popular former football player Lynn Swann, has recently vetoed bills which would attempt to clean up the rampant voter fraud in that state. He clearly hopes to keep his job, and if it takes fraud to do it, oh well...

Democrats claim anything that impedes or discourages someone from voting is a violation of the Voting Rights Act. Republicans insist the state's rancid history of voter fraud requires preventive measures. The conflict of visions, to borrow Thomas Sowell's phrase, couldn't be more complete.

Take the bill the GOP-controlled Legislature passed, which would require voters show a form of official ID or a utility bill; another bill would end Philadelphia's bizarre practice of locating over 900 polling places in private venues, including bars, abandoned buildings and even the office of a local state senator. City officials admit their voter rolls are stuffed with phantoms. The city has about as many registered voters as it has adults, and is thus a rich breeding ground for fraud.

But Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell vetoed both bills last month, saying that in a time of voter apathy "the government should be doing everything it can to encourage greater participation." He warned that requiring an ID could disenfranchise the homeless, nursing-home residents and the poor. Mr. Rendell says there is no evidence people routinely impersonate others to vote. He also says requiring an ID at the polls doesn't combat absentee ballot fraud. True enough; election officials properly worry that some 25% of voters now don't show their face when voting. In 1998, Austin Murphy, a former Democratic congressman, pleaded guilty to fraudulently voting absentee ballots for nursing-home residents near Pittsburgh.

But Mr. Rendell's history doesn't inspire confidence that he takes fraud of any kind seriously. In 1994, Philadelphia Democrat Bill Stinson was booted from office as a state senator by a federal judge who found his campaign had rounded up 250 tainted absentee ballots. Mr. Rendell, then Philadelphia's mayor, had this reaction to the Stinson scandal: "I don't think it's anything that's immoral or grievous, but it clearly violates the election code." In 1997, Mr. Rendell admitted to the Journal's editorial board that Philadelphia judges had "a rich history of corruption" that called into question how fairly city laws are enforced.

Now governor, Mr. Rendell isn't eager to depart from business as usual. In 2004, a court had to order him to make changes in the deadlines for absentee military ballots so they would be counted. At the same time, his secretary of state asked prison wardens to post a document outlining how prisoners could vote absentee. When GOP Rep. Curt Weldon held a news conference to denounce illegal voting by prisoners, a TV camera crew captured voter operatives behind him carrying absentee ballots out of the prison.

The Swann campaign had better hope it can turn out people in large numbers this fall, because it won't be enough to have more legitimate voters than Rendell. He'll also have to beat the fraudulent ones.