Good news on a Friday, for once. From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania judge has found the state’s voter ID law unconstitutional.
According to the ruling from Commonwealth Court Judge Bernard McGinley, the requirement to present an acceptable form of identification when voting in person “unreasonably burdens the right to vote.”…
A group of state Senate Democrats hailed the ruling as a victory for fair elections and said they hoped the Corbett administration would not fight the decision through appeals.
“They’ve gone beyond where they already should have gone on this in terms of using resources,” said Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills. “They shouldn’t spend another penny on this.”…
In his ruling, Judge McGinley wrote that the law poses “a substantial threat” to hundreds of thousands of qualified voters.
“Voting laws are designed to assure a free and fair election; the Voter ID Law does not further this goal,” the decision reads…
From Dave Weigel, who was reporting on this during the last election:
Pennsylvania’s commonwealth court has found the photo requirement of the 2012 voter ID law “invalid and unconstitutional on its face.” So, a total victory for the plaintiffs, a collection of people who lacked proof of identity, defended by civil liberties groups. “The only fraud uncovered in this case is the ID law itself,” crowed Witold Walczak, legal director of the Pennsylvania ACLU, “which is exposed as a voter suppression tool adopted to game elections.”…
It’s not all bad for defenders of the law. Really, it isn’t—as Rick Hasen first spotted, the judgment excuses GOP leader Mike Turzai’s extremely ill-advised brag that the law would help win Pennsylvania for Romney. “The House Majority Leader’s unfortunate comments notwithstanding,” writes Judge Bernard McGinley, “there is no evidence that the purpose behind the Voter ID Law was to disenfrancise minorities or persons who, along party lines, may be more inclined to vote for Democratic candidates.” That undermines an argument that had been taken from Pennsylvania onto the airwaves of MSNBC, that’s not bad for the state as it looks to rescue the law at the next level, the state Supreme Court.