Judge upholds law in swing state
Dave Boyer
The Washington Times
8/15/2012
In a ruling with implications for the presidential race, a judge on Wednesday rejected an effort by civil rights groups to block Pennsylvania’s voter-ID law, legislation that Republicans say is needed to prevent fraud at the polls this fall.
Commonwealth Court Judge Robert E. Simpson, a Republican, rejected the complaint that sought an injunction to prevent the law from taking effect. The measure, approved by the Republican-controlled legislature this spring, requires voters to show a state-approved photo ID such as a driver’s license in order to vote.
While not ruling on the merits, the judge said in a 70-page decision that the law’s provisions “are neutral and nondiscriminatory and apply uniformly to all voters.”
“The statute simply gives poll workers another tool to verify that the person voting is who they claim to be,” the court said.
The ruling is the latest salvo in an escalating election-year debate over voting rights, with the Obama administration opposing voter-ID laws. Ten states controlled by Republican legislatures have adopted such measures in the past three years, with Democrats and their allies challenging many of those statutes.Wisconsin’s voter-ID law is blocked; lawmakers in Missouri failed in a recent attempt to pass similar legislation…
…Rep. Chaka Fattah, Pennsylvania Democrat, said the ruling puts the right to vote “at the mercy of unreasonable burdens on our senior citizens, our college students, on minorities, on those who don’t have driver’s licenses, and those who may have been born in another state where life-cycle record-keeping is, or was, unreliable.
“A fair hearing in Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court will restore full voting rights to hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians facing disenfranchisement,” Mr. Fattah said in a statement…
The complete article is at The Washington Times.
Update: Executive order from Governor Jan Brewer blocks IDs, benefits for illegal immigrants
