How is Pennsylvania’s harsh voter ID law, which experts say could disenfranchise more than 750,000 people in November, like the movements to gain the right to vote for women and African-Americans in the 1920s and 1960s? Not at all, unless your the ad man for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett.
Corbett hired a company run by a Mitt Romney bundler and pharmaceutical lobbyist named Chris Bravacos to produce TV ads promoting the state’s voter ID law, considered one of the harshest in the nation. And Bravacos’ firm didn’t disappoint, producing an ad that’s chock full of stock photos — and irony. The ad, described as “Orwellian” by Slate’s Dave Weigel, features feel-good images of enfranchisement Americana, recalling the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote in 1920, and the Voting Rights Act of 1964 which secured the very rights for African-Americans that voter ID critics say the laws — enacted mainly by Republican legislatures — will limit. One final irony? Philadelphia CityPaper Reporter Daniel Denvir reports the $249,000 contract given to Bravacos’ company may have been funded with federal funds intended to enforce the Help America Vote Act — a law that’s supposed to make voting easier.
Watch the ad below, which Bravacos’ company, The Bravo Group, yanked from their Vimeo account, along with a second proposed spot, on Monday, only to have a Pennsylvania Occupy group bring them back — you know, like poll taxes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrxRow4j2JQ&feature=player_embedded
Read the full story at Philadelphia CityPaper.