Wait until you read where the House Speaker was and why he did not attend the session!!!

This should be grounds for removal from office!!!

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House Speaker Perzel’s absence puzzles Capitol

Wednesday’s was one of the most important sessions the state House has had in a long time - a day the chamber was expected to put the legislative final stamp on a property tax relief plan years in the making.

The full article will be available on the Web for a limited time: http://www.philly.com/mid/inquirer/news/local/14503828.htm

Nice, I need to start looking in that section of the paper for jobs!!!

An excerpt from the article in the Philly Inquirer:

“By being in Florida, Perzel missed 42 votes Wednesday, including a key one involving a controversial plan, aimed at Philadelphia, that would limit the use of homes and businesses as polling places.”

Homes and businesses?????  And we wonder why there is voter fraud.

To Marge....

In some communities, they use homes or businesses as polling places due to not having any community property to use. The bill which was being presented could have put an undue burden on voters in areas lacking transportation. It would have given election boards the authority to move polling places with very little notice - as long as notice was posted at the county office that was sufficient. Gee, how many of us drive by the county offices on a regular basis to find something posted?

They could also move polling places to another voting district in an “emergency” thus making it difficult for some to get there. This could have had a very adverse impact on areas like ours or inner cities where transportation is mainly public or on foot.

Frankly the bill was crap. It should be voted down and tossed in the garbage.

An excerpt from the article in the Philly Inquirer:

“By being in Florida, Perzel missed 42 votes Wednesday, including a key one involving a controversial plan, aimed at Philadelphia, that would limit the use of homes and businesses as polling places.”

Homes and businesses?????  And we wonder why there is voter fraud.

When I was little I can recall accompanying my parents to the polls on election day. The polling place was someone’s garage. The democrats voted at one person’s garage and the republicans voted at another person’s garage. These garages were on the same street.

Crossroads polling place is what is referred to as a summer house of the Konhause’ [I probably misspelled their last name, sorry]. It’s a very small building. Prior to that their polling place was in Krick’s country store.

In regards to voter fraud… it does not matter where the polling takes place. What matters is how honest the people are that we ELECT to monitor the polling. The folks you see at the polling place are a combination of elected and volunteer.

This was one thing the bill did that was good though… it required ID to vote. I don’t see a problem with that personally. If they did not have a State issued ID card or drivers license, they have to get one. The state would provide them with one at no cost if they could not afford. Of course, the bad side is this would probably deter many that either don’t want to spend the time to get one, can’t get to the place to get one, or are so anti-government, they won’t get one.

Alex - 08 May 2006 06:48 AM

This was one thing the bill did that was good though… it required ID to vote. I don’t see a problem with that personally. If they did not have a State issued ID card or drivers license, they have to get one. The state would provide them with one at no cost if they could not afford.

Alex—I agree completely.  I believe there was another bill not too long ago dealing specifically with ID to vote and Rendell vetoed it.

Alex - 07 May 2006 10:06 PM

To Marge....

In some communities, they use homes or businesses as polling places due to not having any community property to use. The bill which was being presented could have put an undue burden on voters in areas lacking transportation. It would have given election boards the authority to move polling places with very little notice - as long as notice was posted at the county office that was sufficient. Gee, how many of us drive by the county offices on a regular basis to find something posted?

They could also move polling places to another voting district in an “emergency” thus making it difficult for some to get there. This could have had a very adverse impact on areas like ours or inner cities where transportation is mainly public or on foot.

Frankly the bill was crap. It should be voted down and tossed in the garbage.

The vote was “aimed at Philadelphia.” I don’t know about Philly, but many cities use their public schools for polling places.

In regards to voter fraud… it does not matter where the polling takes place. What matters is how honest the people are that we ELECT to monitor the polling. The folks you see at the polling place are a combination of elected and volunteer.

The poll workers are elected. They are the majority inspector, the minority inspector, the judge of elections and the constable. The clerk is appointed by that board. The clerk position may soon be eliminated because of the new electronic voting machines. All poll workers are paid including the constable. There are no volunteers other than people who might be working for a candidate or who is a candidate. They usually work outside the polling place distributing campaign literature. Some people who work for a candidate might be paid up to $25 a day.

This was one thing the bill did that was good though… it required ID to vote. I don’t see a problem with that personally. If they did not have a State issued ID card or drivers license, they have to get one. The state would provide them with one at no cost if they could not afford. Of course, the bad side is this would probably deter many that either don’t want to spend the time to get one, can’t get to the place to get one, or are so anti-government, they won’t get one.

Philadelphia is well known for voter fraud occurring at the polling places. A friend of mine was a watcher for a candidate in Philadelphia several years ago. There was an older man standing along side of him who was wearing a suit and had two of his suit pockets stuffed with absentee ballots. He told my friend that he had x-number of absentee ballots and was going to submit them before the close of the polls.  I guess Philadelphia has a different procedure than our county does regardng absentee ballots. In our county absentee ballots must be received by the elections office the Friday before election day.

Another friend of mine was working in Maryland several years ago and forgot about election day. They hopped into their vehicle and drove to Pittsburgh and the next morning they went to the elections office and completed an absentee ballot application and was given their absentee ballot right there. They voted and turned their ballot in. This was the day before election day.

Personally I feel that absentee ballots should be accepted on election day. Not like the Philadelphia incident. I feel that if the elections office receives absentee ballots in the mail on election day, those ballots should be delivered by an elections office employee to the polling place or at least counted in the elections office like many counties and other states do.

The state election code regarding absentee ballots was changed a couple of years ago. A voter used to be able to deliver in person or have someone deliver their absentee ballot to the election office. Due to voter fraud the state election code was changed regarding submission of absentee ballots. Absentee ballots must be mailed to the elections office a copy of some type of identification must accompany the absentee ballot.