The eighth day of a trial on Pennsylvania’s voter-identification law ended in disarray Wednesday as plaintiffs’ attorneys contesting the law’s constitutionality refused to rest their case until they learn more about potential problems in issuing mandatory photo ID cards. Commonwealth Court Judge Bernard McGinley expressed impatience at the slow pace of the trial and cleared the courtroom briefly to huddle with lawyers from both sides, but court recessed for the day with little sign of a compromise. The state did, however, present some testimony in defense of the law. At issue are about 500 registered voters who were rejected for a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation identification card last year and were referred to the Department of State for a free, voting-only ID card developed in August.
The Department of State card was developed as a last resort for voters who certify that they do not have other IDs acceptable for voting. Attorneys for the plaintiffs say more than 100 of those voters applied for a special voting-only ID card before the 2012 presidential election, but didn’t receive them until after the election or, in some cases, at all.
Enforcement of the March 2012 voter ID law has been blocked by court orders since before the election, but lawyers say last year’s cases point up the possibility that future voters could be disenfranchised by the law — the central issue in the lawsuit. The plaintiffs’ cite their consultant’s projections that the law would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters.
Full Article: Pa. voter ID trial recesses in disarray – KansasCity.com.