Judge Upholds Pennsylvania's Voter ID Law

Pennsylvania’s new will stand … for now.

Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson on Wednesday morning released his decision that parties challenging the Voter ID law were not able to prove it will cause “immediate and irreparable harm” to the electorate.

was brought by voter advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP. The groups suing to overturn the law immediately vowed to appeal the judgment.

Pennsylvania passed a law in March requiring all registered voters to show a valid and “acceptable” photo ID before voting. That means every voter in , Brookline and Beechview will need valid photo ID when they arrive at the polls.

Opponents of the law say it disproportionately targets the elderly as well as the poor and minorities, who typically vote Democrat. Furthermore, critics say that the burden of obtaining an acceptable ID for these people would keep them from voting.

However, Judge Simpson decided that the state has surpassed its requirements to offer photo identification to those who need it and granted voters the ability to cast provisional ballots and prove their identity within six days. He also noted that some of those who testified for the plaintiffs would likely need to use absentee ballots to vote.

“(The plaintiffs) did an excellent job of ‘putting a face’ to those burdened by the voter ID requirement,” Simpson wrote in his decision. “At the end of the day, however, I do not have the luxury of deciding this issue based on my sympathy for the witnesses or my esteem for counsel.”

Brookline falls into the district of State Sen. Wayne Fontana, who shared his opinion of the issue with Dormont-Brookline Patch on Wednesday afternoon.

"The unfairness of it is the fact that they're requiring voters to get an ID in a short period of time," Fontana said. "If this judge would have said yes, but opted to delay it to January 1, it would seem to me that's the fair thing to do."

Fontana said the law is not convenient, especially for senior citizens or those without transportation, who could have a difficult time getting to a drivers license center or other outlet to get a state-issued identification. He said when the law was first proposed, he requested that it be delayed, but that was voted down.

"It's not a matter of someone having an ID," he said. "It's a question of why are you making it so inconvenient? Why such a quick turn-around?"

Fontana was on his way to Harrisburg on Wednesday, and said he was already planning to call for state ID processing centers to be set up in local neighborhoods, possibly at the offices of local state representatives and at his , to make it more convenient for people to get proper identification.

He said his office also plans to send information to voters about the new law, to make sure everyone is prepared in November.

Thirty states have some sort of Voter ID law, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and of those, 19 do not require a photo, six require a photo and five, including Pennsylvania, have strict photo requirements.

In June, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald joined county Controller Chelsa Wagner in challenging the law. Wagner, a Democrat, has endorsed efforts in the courts to keep the law from taking effect before the election and .

Controversy over the law flared in June when state Democrats criticized a comment from State House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Bradford Woods, about the newly enacted law.

Turzai's comment, , was among several items he said had been accomplished on the Republican agenda. On the video, he says: "Voter ID, which is going to allow Governor [Mitt] Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done."

Do you agree or disagree with the Commonwealth Court decision? Let us know what you think in the comments section.

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