Some county officials said Tuesday they will try to refresh voters’ understanding of Pennsylvania’s fractured election laws before the upcoming primary elections. Although they do not anticipate major problems in the May 21 balloting – especially given the typically small turnout for municipal and judicial elections – officials from counties across the state said it is important voters clearly understand the status of the new voter-identification law amid a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality set for trial in July. Voter-education efforts will focus on “what will be expected and what will not be expected,” said Frank X. Custer, communications director for Montgomery County.
Enforcement of the most significant part of the new law – a requirement that voters show photo ID at the polls – will not be in effect for the primary under an agreement struck last week between the state and the plaintiffs who sued.
Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson, who ordered that the provision not be enforced in the presidential election last fall after a battle that reached the state Supreme Court, approved the latest agreement Tuesday.
Voters will be permitted to cast ballots in the primary even if they don’t have a valid photo ID, although a provision of the law that is not affected by the litigation requires poll workers to ask them for it anyway.
Full Article: Counties cope with Voter ID confusion.