Lawmaker proposes offering voter IDs at Pa. legislators’ district offices

Pennsylvania officials insist it’s fully possible to ensure every registered voter obtains proper photo identification to satisfy the new requirement to vote this November.

Those trying to get a PennDOT license, or even the state’s upcoming special voter ID, have to head to a PennDOT licensing center.

Some 71 centers dot the state in all but nine counties.

But one state lawmaker has an idea for helping Pennsylvanians get the proper ID.

State Sen. Wayne Fontana says the way he sees it, 253 elected state representatives and senators can help.

After all, he says, each has at least one office in his or her district.

“We could set them all up as neighborhood centers — voter ID centers,” says Fontana, D-Allegheny. “We have state employees here. We have notaries here that are state employees. We have the technology to do it.”

A representative of the Department of State, which oversees elections, says, actually, they don’t.

A spokesman says the agency considered similar plans to make licensing centers more accessible.

He says those ideas were shot down in the interest of protecting personal information on secure computer systems located in brick-and-mortar licensing centers.