Just came home from an infuriating first time voting experience in PA (Montgomery county). Lo and behold, I find this Diary by Spot Cat describing my experience almost exactly.
My wife and I are recent New York and Maryland transplants, first time voting in PA. Neither of us have PA drivers licenses yet. My wife's passport still has her maiden name on it. I had no problem using my passport. My wife tried to use her employee ID, which is listed here as a valid form of ID for first time voters. No go. Mr. Poll worker informed us it could only be a government employee photo ID - which I remembered was an accepted ID for the new state voter ID law - the one that was overturned! According to the link above, she should be able to use ANY employee ID.
I was prepared though. I thought this might happen. So I whipped out our utility bill, which has my wife's name and address on it. Again, this is listed as an acceptable form of NON-photo ID for first time PA voters here. But no. Mr. Poll worker insists she needs a valid PHOTO ID. So then I pull up the page on my iphone and start reading it out loud to him. He is not interested. "I know what I'm doing, I've done the training. I have to do what the state tells me. It doesn't matter what your website says." I inform him "This is the state's website!" that I am reading. He shrugs. Anyway, he asks if she has her Voter Registration Certification, which is just a piece of paper you get in the mail which basically is just a copy of what you typed in the form when you register online. Nowhere on the website does it say you need to bring this. No where on the Certification itself does it say to bring this. I assumed it was just to verify we were registered. Luckily, I had brought it. For whatever reason, the combination of this and her non-government photo-ID were an acceptable combination for this guy, and she got to vote.
I am very worried about first time PA voters being turned away for bringing valid NON-photo ID like a utility bill or current paycheck, which according to the state's own website, are supposed to be acceptable. Poll workers should not be enforcing the new voter ID law on first time voters, the requirements are not the same! Am I missing something here? I am misreading this page? Who can I contact about this? Please help!!