Hurry up and wait in Pennsylvania:
The lawsuit alleges that the state’s voter photo ID law violates the Pennsylvania Constitution by depriving citizens of their most fundamental constitutional right – the right to vote. The plaintiffs are asking the Commonwealth Court to issue an injunction blocking enforcement of the law before November’s election. If the law is not overturned, most of the plaintiffs will be unable to cast ballots in the fall, despite the fact that many of them have voted regularly for decades.
A hearing on the challenge was heard before Judge Robert Simpson July 25-August 2, 2012. On August 15, 2012, Judge Simpson declined to issue a preliminary injunction. We will appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.
On September 18, 2012, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued an order returning the case back to the lower court for reconsideration. Judge Robert Simpson has until Oct. 2 to issue a decision.
Overall, we are confronted with an ambitious effort on the part of the General Assembly to bring the new identification procedure into effect within a relatively short timeframe and an implementation process which has by no means been seamless in light of the serious operational constraints faced by the executive branch. Given this state of affairs, we are not satisfied with a mere predictive judgment based primarily on the assurances of government officials, even though we have no doubt they are proceeding in good faith.
Thus, we will return the matter to the Commonwealth Court to make a present assessment of the actual availability of the alternate identification cards on a developed record in light of the experience since the time the cards became available. In this regard, the court is to consider whether the procedures being used for deployment of the cards comport with the requirement of liberal access which the General Assembly attached to the issuance of PennDOT identification cards. If they do not, or if the 7Commonwealth Court is not still convinced in its predictive judgment 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, that court is obliged to enter a preliminary injunction.
Take your time. No rush! So, three things. First, here’s the PA voting rights volunteer group I have written about before, so we have volunteers doing the state’s job, which is nice of them. Second, everyone in any of these voter suppression states should check their registration status, just as a precaution. Third, I am wondering what the various interested parties are doing in PA to pressure the state to accommodate voters. I think county election boards and large state entities (like public universities) have a lot of clout. As an example, Ohio colleges and universities bent over backward to get their students ID’ed and voted in 2006 and again in 2008 when Ohio Republicans started the voter suppression effort here. Courts are just one way to get there. Maybe I’m missing it, but I’d love to see evidence of real pushback in PA outside a courtroom. I know the governor and his cronies and the Romney bundler they hired to do voter education are a lost cause, but we saw county election officials advocate on behalf of voters this year in Florida, and that can be powerful.
Demand accommodations. Ask for administrative rule changes that can go in without a change in the state law. If the state government won’t protect the right to vote and courts are dithering and punting, what about trying county-level action or pressure from mayors and large public entities like universities? Everyone in the state has an interest in NOT having a massive failure of the election system resulting in tens of thousands of provisional ballots, which seems to be where this is headed barring judicial action. Ohio had a dispute over provisional ballots that went on for more than a year. It was litigated in both the state and federal systems. Imagine that times 100 races.
Everyone in the state has an interest in avoiding a sad mess, particularly in local races which can be so close. If these efforts are already being made in PA and I just don’t know about it, I’d love to hear what they’re doing while waiting for the judges.