Pa. voter ID judge suggests striking part of law

The judge in the voter ID case is floating the idea of a tightly-defined injunction that would render the photo ID requirement a mere option in the November election.

 

Judge Robert Simpson has pointed to the possibility of a temporary block on the portion of the law affecting provisional ballots.        

Such ballots are used by people as a contingency voting method, typically when they’re not on the rolls at a polling place.

Simpson indicates one possible injunction might allow people without voter ID to vote by provisional ballot — then, those ballots would count even if they never sent proof of valid voter ID. 

Alicia Hickok, a lawyer defending voter ID on behalf of the state, suggests a slightly different process for counting the ballots, but overall she seems to favor such an approach. “People would understand this is the law going forward,” she said. “They would have every incentive to comply with the law by the election, but for those people who couldn’t or got caught, they would not have any risk that their votes would not be counted.” The lawyers challenging voter ID say there’s always a risk that provisional ballots aren’t counted. They want the entire law to be blocked until after the November sixth election.

As the law stands now, provisional ballots would only be counted by people who provide valid photo ID within six days of election day.