Breaking: PA court upholds controversial voter ID law

Via Bet.com

Crap.  A Pennsylvania court has upheld the state’s controversial voter ID law which could disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters.  Elderly voters and people of color are disproportionately impacted by the law and the failure to block the law could impact the outcome in the key battleground state in November.  Via Talking Points Memo:

Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson’s 70-page order ruled that opponents of the law failed to establish “that disenfranchisement was immediate or inevitable.”

Simpson did not rule on the case’s merits, only on whether it could be enjoined. Opponents of the law are expected to appeal to the state’s Supreme Court.

“We’re not done, it’s not over,” Witold J. Walczak, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who helped argue the case, told the Associated Press. “It’s why they make appeals courts.”

Simpson ruled that the law “does not expressly disenfranchise or burden any qualified elector or group of electors. The statute simply gives poll workers another tool to verify that the person voting is who they claim to be.”

The fact that Republican legislatures in key swing states have pushed voter ID laws when voter fraud is as rare as lightening strikes should be all you need to know about their motivations.  They want to impact the election by disenfranchising eligible voters who are more likely to vote for Democrats.  They have done this before.

In more positive news, there is a brand new voter protection app for smartphones that can be downloaded by texting OURVOTE to 90975. The hotline number is 866-OUR-VOTE.