A Commonwealth Court judge said Thursday that he was considering allowing most of the state’s controversial voter-identification law to remain intact for the November election and was contemplating only a very narrow injunction. Judge Robert E. Simpson Jr. said at the end of the second and last day of a hearing on whether to halt voter-ID requirements for the Nov. 6 election that he was considering an injunction that would target the portion of the law that deals with provisional ballots. As written, the law says 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.
Simpson told attorneys in the case that he was trying to figure out how to address what he called the “offending” parts of the law without throwing the measure out. He said 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. “What I’m thinking is blocking implementation of one specific section that contains disenfranchisement language,” Simpson said from the bench. “The provisional ballot seems to be the sticking point,” he said. “It’s not the smoothest part of” the voter-ID law. He did not offer further detail about what else an injunction might include – such as what other requirements, if any, voters casting provisional ballots would have to meet.
Full Article: Pa. judge may allow most of voter-ID law.