Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Sent Back By State Supreme Court To Lower Court

[Synthaholic]

Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Sent Back By State Supreme Court To Lower Court For Reconsideration





In a potentially significant victory for Democrats, the Supreme Court sent the case back to a lower court with instructions for that judge to reconsider issuing an injunction.


"We are not satisfied with a mere predictive judgment based primarily on the assurances of government officials," the court wrote.


The Supreme Court sent the case back to the Commonwealth Court judge, but with instructions that seemed almost designed to force him to enjoin the law.


The judge was instructed "to consider whether the procedures being used for deployment" of ID cards comports with the law as written -- which, in testimony before the Supreme Court, appeared not to be the case.


If those procedures are not being followed, or if the judge was "not still convinced...that there will be no voter disenfranchisement arising out of the Commonwealth’s implementation of a voter identification requirement for purposes of the upcoming election" then he would be "obliged to enter a preliminary injunction," the higher court wrote.


This is a developing story...check back for more information...

 

[Synthaholic]

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[waltky]

Judge Torpedoes Tough Pennsylvania Voter ID Law...

Judge halts Pennsylvania's tough new voter ID requirement; appeal is possible
Oct 2, 2012 - Orders it be postponed until after the election

A judge is postponing Pennsylvania's tough new voter identification requirement, ordering that it not be enforced in the presidential election. Tuesday's ruling comes just five weeks before the election. An appeal is possible. The 6-month-old law requires each voter to show a valid photo ID. Democrats and groups including the AARP and NAACP mounted a furious opposition to a law Republicans say is necessary to prevent election fraud. Critics have accused Republicans of using old-fashioned Jim Crow tactics to steal the White House and have highlighted stories of registered voters struggling to get a state photo ID.

The law was already a partisan lightning rod when a top Republican lawmaker boasted that it'd allow GOP nominee Mitt Romney to beat Democratic President Barack Obama in Pennsylvania. Some political momentum could be on the line when a judge rules on whether to keep intact Pennsylvania's tough new law requiring voters to show photo identification in next month's presidential election. Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson is under a state Supreme Court order to rule no later than Tuesday, just five weeks before voters decide whether to re-elect President Barack Obama, a Democrat, or replace him with Mitt Romney, a Republican.

Simpson heard two days of testimony last week and said he was considering invalidating a narrow portion of the law for the Nov. 6 election. An appeal to the state Supreme Court is possible. Up for grabs are Pennsylvania's valuable 20 electoral votes, the sixth most. For now, Republican candidates are trailing in polls on the state's top-of-the-ticket races. The law, opposed furiously by Democrats, has nevertheless been a valuable Democratic Party tool to motivate volunteers and campaign contributions as other critics, including the NAACP, AARP and the League of Women Voters, hold voter education drives and protest rallies.

In recent months, Republicans have sent out fundraising appeals highlighting legal challenges to the law or an inquiry into the law by Obama's Department of Justice, and the party no doubt would add a court defeat to its rallying cry. The state's Republican Party chairman, Rob Gleason, insisted Monday that supporting the law is about good policy, not about motivating party voters. But then he criticized Democrats for opposing the law and for using it as an election issue. Don Adams of the Philadelphia-area Independence Hall Tea Party Association said his membership of thousands is closely watching the issue. "I think it'll drive our people even more, but I think they're already driven," Adams said. "I don't know how much more you can drive them."

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