Pa. Pollster Sees Little Election Impact From State’s Voter ID Controversy

November 7, 2012 1:04 PM

(A sign outside a Penndot office advertises the availability of voter ID cards which the law, later delayed, would have required on Election Day. File photo by John Ostapkovich)

Reporting Tony Romeo

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Government, Heard On, Local, News, Pennsylvania, Politics, Syndicated Local, Watch + Listen

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By Tony Romeo

LANCASTER, Pa. (CBS) — A prominent political analyst sees little connection between the Voter ID controversy (see related story) and the Democrats’ wins in Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

In the final analysis, Franklin & Marshall College pollster Terry Madonna believes the success that Democratic candidates enjoyed in Pennsylvania was more about political organization than it was about voter ID backlash.

“Look, I think early on it gave a sense of enthusiasm to Democrats especially,” Madonna tells KYW Newsradio, “but in the end it was much more about the national picture, much more about the ground game that the president’s team put together to get out the vote [being] superior to the Republicans’.”

Madonna says that while Obama may have bettered his performance in Philadelphia compared to 2008, the same is true in big cities in other states where voter ID was not an issue.

And he points out that statewide, Obama’s margin of victory was actually narrower in Pennsylvania than it was four years ago.