A Pennsylvania judge upheld a Republican-drafted, state voter ID law that requires all voters to produce a photo ID at the polling place. Judge Robert E. Simpson, Jr. wrote that the plaintiffs challenging the law did not prove that "disenfranchisement was immediate or inevitable," despite testimony from state employees who were "uninformed" about the changes and evidence that some of the plaintiffs lacked the proper documentation to obtain a photo ID. Pennsylvania's House majority leader, Mike Turzai, a Republican, was quoted in June saying that the law "is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done."
"I just can't believe it," 93-year-old lead plaintiff Viviette Applewhite said in a statement to the Philadelphia Inquirer. "Too many people have fought for the right to vote to have it taken away like this. All I want is to be able to vote this November like I always have. This law is just ridiculous." Applewhite marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. and has voted in every election since 1960—she also lacks a photo ID and the proper documentation to receive one. As many as 1 in 10 Americans lack a government-issued photo ID.
"We're not done, it's not over," a lawyer for the ACLU told the AP. "It's why they make appeals courts." Last month the Department of Justice announced that it was reviewing the law to ensure that it passed constitutional muster, and other voter ID laws have sprung up in Florida and other states (most are passed by Republican-controlled state legislatures).
