A Commonwealth Court judge today upheld Pennsylvania’s controversial new voter ID law for the most part, but ordered that voters can cast a ballot without identification during the general election.
Judge Robert E. Simpson Jr. in essence ruled that the general election would be – like the primary – a soft rollout.
“I reject the underlying assertion that the offending activity is the request to produce photo ID; instead, I conclude that the salient offending conduct is voter disenfranchisement,” he said.
That disenfranchisement, he said, involved requiring those without identification to cast provisional ballots.
During the primary, the law – Act 18 – permitted voters without identification to cast regular ballots.
“The injunction will have the effect of extending the express transition provisions of Act 18 through the general election,” Simpson wrote.
“It appears to be a clear victory for the right to vote and an example of a judge and the Supreme Court fulfilling the courts’ historic role of protecting people’s right to vote and resisting the attempt by a temporary majority to disenfranchise the minority,” said state Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery.
In his ruling, which could be appealed to the Supreme Court, Simpson ordered an injunction targeting the portion of the law that deals with provisional ballots.
As written, the law said voters who do not bring proper photo ID on Election Day can cast a provisional ballot. They would then have six days to bring in the required photo ID for their votes to count.
But as he had indicated last week during hearings in the case, Simpson decided that the law does not disenfranchise voters simply because it requires poll workers to ask for photo ID. Rather, the risk comes when a voter casts a provisional ballot but then cannot obtain the necessary identification in time.
As a result, Simpson decided that for the November 6 election only, voters without appropriate photo ID could vote.
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article courtesy of Philly.com
