Hearing on Pa. voter ID enters fifth day

    As the week-old court challenge of Pennsylvania’s voter ID law heads into its final days, the state’s top elections official, as well as witnesses with difficulty obtaining photo ID, have taken the stand in Commonwealth Court.

    Lisa Gray might have a PennDOT license if she only had a birth certificate.

    It’s what she calls one of the “clerical stumbling blocks” created by the voter ID law.

    “I don’t think there’s anything about me that would disqualify me from voting. I’m not, you know, too young,” she said. “So it’s sort of like petty things that should not interfere with a citizen’s ability to exercise a basic right.”

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    But a lawyer for the commonwealth established that Gray would have the information she needs to get a special Department of State ID for voting purposes.

    Commonwealth Secretary Carol Aichele also took the stand Tuesday and was drawn into a verbal tussle as an attorney challenging voter ID asked her, over and over, if she believed someone needed a birth certificate to vote.

    Aichele repeatedly answered that it’s the law’s requirement.

    The attorney told Aichele she had just put her finger on the problem with the law.

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