Issue Position: Voting Rights

Issue Position

The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania says, "Elections shall be free and equal; and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage." But the hundreds of thousands of people Governor Corbett's voter ID law would block from voting, according to studies and statisticians, would include disproportionate numbers of racial minorities, people living in poverty, the young and the elderly.

Governor Corbett's voter ID law has already been struck down by the courts, but since it was not struck down by either the state or federal Supreme Court, it is still important to repeal it to ensure that court cases seeking to bring it back are unsuccessful and to ensure that all Pennsylvanians retain equal access to the polls and an equal right to vote.

6th issue… The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania says, "The people have a right to clean air, pure water and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and aesthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people."

The water we rely on across the state is under threat from hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Propublica reports fracking is "a process used in nine out of 10 natural gas wells in the United States, where millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to break apart the rock and release the gas. Scientists are worried that the chemicals used in fracturing may pose a threat either underground or when waste fluids are handled and sometimes spilled on the surface."

Because the citizens of Pennsylvania have a constitutional right to pure water, and fracking poses such a threat to our water supply, there should be a moratorium on fracking until there's enough research to legislate a safe regulatory regimen for it. Governor Corbett's Act 13 fracking law needs to be repealed. Under it, doctors can only find out what chemicals their patients may have been exposed to because of fracking, if they agree to a gag order.

Part of it was so extreme that it was struck down by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for violating local zoning rights determining where fracking can happen. It costs the state millions of dollars by tying the impact fee corporations must pay for drilling to the price of natural gas, instead of charging a regular extraction tax.

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