Pennsylvania Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog
As Pennsylvania’s new Voter ID Law continues to keep people in the state talking, it also brings up a new responsibility for nursing facilities: issuing photo identification to residents if necessary to allow them to vote.
Both the PA Department of Health (DOH) and the PA Department of Public Welfare (DPW) have sent out notices to nursing home operators that they may need to issue photo identification. According to the notice from the DOH, acceptable photo IDs for the purposes of voting includes IDs issued to residents and employees by care facilities, provided the identification includes an expiration date and is not yet expired.
According to an article on JDSupra.com, the Voter ID Law does not have an express requirement that nursing facilities make such identification available, but the notices from DPW and DOH caution these facilities that failure to issue photo IDs to residents may result in a violation. The responsibility may extent to assisted living residences as well.