The battle over Pennsylvania’s voter identification law touched on familiar themes Tuesday as the state concluded its case after almost three weeks of testimony. Witnesses for the Department of State testified for several hours detailing the extent to which they worked to make information about the law widely known – including reaching out to the elderly, veterans groups, the homeless, and immigrant communities – to ensure residents without ID would understand the steps needed to get it. Attorneys for the plaintiffs questioned the same officials about the wide range of difficulties voters encountered and the disparity in estimates on how many remain without proper ID. Closing arguments are expected Wednesday.
Jonathan Marks, a top elections official in the Department of State, confirmed that only 3,800 free voting-only IDs have been issued since they were made available a year ago. An additional 12,000 PennDot nondrivers’ IDs were issued.
At the same time, estimates of the total number of voters still without ID are as low as 89,000 and as high as 1.2 million, he said.
American Civil Liberties Union legal director Witold Walczak, representing the petitioners, demonstrated the burdens facing those without their own vehicles by using Marks’ own community.
Full Article: State ends testimony in voter ID case.