More than 758,000 registered voters in Pennsylvania do not have photo identification cards from the state Transportation Department, putting their voting rights at risk in the November election, according to data released Tuesday by state election officials.

The figures – representing 9.2 percent of the states 8.2 million voters – are significantly higher than prior estimates by the Corbett administration. Secretary of the Commonwealth Carol Aichele has repeatedly said that 99 percent of Pennsylvanias voters already had the photo ID they will need at the polls in November.

via Voter ID law may affect more Pennsylvanians than previously estimated – Philly.com.

If anyone has a question as to why Republicans are pushing for this, you need look no further.

House Republican leader Mike Turzai acknowledged the law’s political implications at a Republican State Committee meeting last month.

“Voter ID – which is going to allow Gov. Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania – done,” Turzai told the crowd, which burst into applause, as he listed legislative accomplishments under GOP control.

You get a further understanding of who this is targeting with this example…

[DoS Spokesman Ron Ruman] said the methodology used by PennDot and the Department of State – a match of first names, last names and birth dates – may also have missed some voters who have PennDot ID.

For example, if someone named Anna Nicole Jones registered to vote as Anna Jones but got her driver’s license as Nicole Jones, she would be listed as a non-match, Ruman said.

Philadelphia’s top election official, City Commission Chair Stephanie Singer, said the figures reinforced her view that the state’s new law was designed to suppress voter turnout in the predominantly Democratic city.

The thing is…if Ms. Jones gets married, and becomes Mrs. Smith, but shows up to vote with an ID that says Ms. Jones….Mrs. Smith gets no saw in who goes to Washington.

Given that, in general especially in Pennsylvania, Mrs. Smith is likely to vote for the party that isn’t making war on Mrs. Smiths nationwide…now you see the logic behind the Speakers statement about this law giving the state to Romney.

I mean…it’s not like the leading media pundit/conservative philosopher Rush Limbaugh would joke about this very tactic….

Recently on his radio show, Limbaugh took a call from a man who wanted to blame Obama’s 2008 election on uninformed youth. Limbaugh interrupted him and said……drumroll…..

“Ehhh, I can do one better than that. When WOMEN got the right to vote is when it all went downhill. Because that’s when votes started being cast with emotion and uh, maternal instincts that government ought to reflect …….”

All of a sudden, Rush stops talking mid-sentence as if he’s realized what a horrible mistake he’s just made. His caller took advantage of the silence and continued talking about how young people are the ones ruining elections. Limbaugh interrupts his caller, who he was clearly not listening to, as he tries to figure out how to extract his foot from his BIG MOUTH and said:

 “Yeah…I…Look, I’m joking about the women’s vote. I just got a little frustrated here…”

[full story, with audio]

The similar Republican initiative in Texas was already blocked by the courts. (the racial motivation for this is quite clear when looking at the numbers, both of the gen pop and voting tendencies)

As it becomes more and more obvious that the Republicans represent a very small (and shrinking) slice of the actual American electorate, efforts must be made to keep that very same electorate smaller in proportion.

It is only by lowering the number of actual people eligible to vote (and doing as much as possible to breed cynicism about government in general, shrinking to active voting population smaller) that this small slice of the population hopes to cling to power.

So now you the who, the how, and the why of the latest push for Voter ID laws.  Vote accordingly…while you still can.