Carol Aichele

Pennsylvania's tough new voter ID law spent several days under court scrutiny this week and last. The judge in the case says he will issue his ruling on Aug. 13 or later.

The law is being challenged by the Advancement Project and the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union on the grounds that it adversely and disproportionately affects people of color, young voters, older voters and those with low incomes. Among those testifying was Kurt Myers, deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT).



[He] testified that he has known all along that many people can’t get photo ID, because applicants are frequently turned away for not having the underlying documentation. He also said PennDOT has no process to issue anywhere close to 750,000 photo ID cards to cover voters who need one—or close to even 10,000 cards. Myers also acknowledged that the Department is not hiring any additional staff, nor extending any hours, despite more than one million voters who lack ID.

During testimony, Pennsylvania’s secretary of the commonwealth, Carol Aichele, responded to a question about the photo ID law with “I don’t know what the law says.”

At Politics PA, Managing Editor Keegan gives us a comprehensive district-by-district rundown of where in Pennsylvania the lack of acceptable voter IDs could have the most and least impact. An AFL-CIO data team did much of the work using information from the state department of transportation and the department of state. Bottom Line: Nineteen of the 20 districts—congressional, state senate, state house—with the highest percentage of voters without PennDOT photo IDs are Democratic, most of them heavily so.

Democratic candidates are heavily favored to win these districts and some of them are guaranteed to do so regardless of how many voters are turned away for lack of acceptable ID because they are running unopposed. But the impact of having as much as 60 percent of voters without the right ID might change the results of statewide elections and Pennsylvania's margin in the presidential race.

As has been noted previously, large numbers of voters don't know that their IDs may have expired. Voters carrying an ID past its date of renewal will not be allowed to cast a regular ballot. This map shows the most heavily affected districts.

(For more of this week's news, continue reading below the fold).