Pa. lawmaker baffled over getting letter on voter ID

    Pennsylvania’s House Minority Leader is expressing concern over a letter he received about how to obtain a photo ID needed to vote in November.

    Rep. Frank Dermody, D-Allegheny, is one of the roughly 759,000 Pennsylvanians who received the mailing.

    He says the problem is the letter isn’t clear about why it was sent.

    “This letter to let people know, I mean this is a joke. They should have saved the postage,” Dermody said. “Would have saved millions of dollars there.”

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    The letter was sent to recipients who weren’t found in the PennDOT photo identification database, for any of a number of reasons.

    In Dermody’s case, it’s not that he doesn’t have photo ID.

    The issue is his name in the voter registry doesn’t match the name on his license: Frank versus Francis.

    During her testimony in the voter ID court hearing that concluded Thursday, Commonwealth Secretary Carol Aichele acknowledged the letter has confused some voters, including a state senator, a state Supreme Court justice, and a few of her staff members.

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