I'M a PA resident. This law SUCKS!
It was, from the very beginning, designed and intended to disenfranchise minority and young voters in Pennsylvania. It has also threatened to disenfranchise older Pennsylvanians. People like my neighbor Ralph, who manned the radio in a B-24 over Italy, Germany, and the Pacific during WWII - but who doesn't drive any more due to his advanced age.
But, it seems that HOPE is on the horizon.
The PA Dept. of Transportation (PennDOT) doesn't seem to have enough ID cards to give one to everybody who needs one. Even after lawmakers and PennDOT officials got together and eased the requirements for obtaining a Voter ID card, it wasn't enough to sway a judge.
And it's odd that it should be THIS judge.
Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson declined to issue a preliminary injunction against the law back in August.
Even though the plight of hundreds of thousands of PA residents was pointed out to him last month, Simpson issued a ruling in favor of this shitty law:
From the CBS News article on this case:
In that opinion, Judge Simpson wrote that opponents of the voter ID law "did an excellent job of 'putting a face' to those burdened by this new requirement," but he does not "have the luxury of deciding this issue based on my sympathy for the witnesses."
Forget the Right to Vote. Forget the illegality of placing barriers before people trying to vote (like poll taxes and literacy tests). Oh, fluck all that legal history. He couldn't see how placing this barrier in front of voters was so much of a hardship. Assh*le.
So the case got appealed to the PA Supreme Court. They didn't want to handle this "hot" issue, so they punted this thorny football back to Simpson. Telling him to look at it again on the basis of there not being enough IDs to go around.
And now, it seems that he's gotten the message!
From the same article:
A hearing on Pennsylvania's strict Voter ID law resumes Thursday in Harrisburg after the judge gave a strong indication on Tuesday that he may block at least part of the law.
"I'm giving you a heads-up," Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson told lawyers in the case. "I think it is a possibility that there could be an injunction here."
He asked lawyers to prepare arguments for Thursday not on whether he should grant an injunction, but on what kind of injunction he should impose. Lawyers had a day to prepare their argument because court did not meet on Wednesday.
Mrs. Merlin and I have already received mail at our home regarding the need for this Voter ID card or some form of photo ID if we're going to vote. I hope that all of the money and time and effort spent getting that into our hands was wasted, wasted, WASTED!
As soon as I hear anything, I'll update.