Pa.’s social media outreach on voter ID law questioned

The Pennsylvania agency that oversees elections is pointing voters who are seeking information about the new voter ID law toward its social media platforms.

Some say that’s little comfort to the groups most affected by the requirement.

The Department of State is using Facebook and Twitter to post information and field questions about the law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls in November.

State Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery, says the voters least likely to have photo ID aren’t any more likely to be online.

“Poor people, elderly people — they’re the people least likely to be involved in social media, and you know, to even have computers,” he said Tuesday.

But the Department of State’s Nick Winkler says the outreach effort doesn’t stop with social media.

“You’re right, not everybody’s online, not everyone’s plugged in, but we’ll reach you either with a postcard to your house, or we’ll maybe see you at one of the civic events that we’re talking to,” he said.

The agency’s Facebook and Twitter account activity actually dates back to July.

The announcement that both are up and running comes the week a Commonwealth Court judge is expected to rule on the voter ID law’s constitutionality.