Pennsylvania Judge Halts Voter ID Law

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Ken O’Brien

Judge Robert Simpson

Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson postponedPennsylvania’s controversial voter identification requirement today. The lawrequiring each voter to show a valid photo ID could be appealed to the stateSupreme Court. The law could go into full effect next year, under Simpson’sruling.
Simpson based his decision on guidelines given tohim days ago by the high court justices, and it could easily be the final wordon the law just five weeks before the Nov. 6 election.
The law, now among the nation’s toughest,  has sparked a divisive debate over votingrights and become a high-profile political issue in the contest betweenPresident Barack Obama, a Democrat, and Republican nominee Mitt Romney, forPennsylvania’s prized 20 electoral votes. 
The voter ID law was a signature accomplishment ofPennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Legislature and its Republican governor,Tom Corbett. Republicans, long suspicious of ballot-box stuffing in theDemocratic bastion of Philadelphia, justified it as a bulwark against anypotential election fraud.
The plaintiffs — a group of registered voters, plusthe Homeless Advocacy Project, the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania andthe Pennsylvania chapter of the National Association for the Advancement ofColored People — had sought to block the law from taking effect in this year’selection as part of a wider challenge to its constitutionality. The stateSupreme Court had ordered Simpson to stop the law if he thought anyone eligiblewould be unable to cast a ballot because of it or if he found the state had notcomplied with law’s promise of providing liberal access to a photo ID thatvoters were required to carry on Election Day.

(Source: The Boston Globe)