Pennsylvania’s controversial voter ID law was found unconstitutional today.
Commonwealth Court Judge Bernard McGinley stated that requiring voters to show certain government-issued photo identification at the polls “unreasonably burdens the right to vote.
According to Advancement Project, a civil rights group that represented the plaintiffs in the case, Judge McGinley referenced the hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania voters who “lack compliant photo ID,” stating that “disenfranchising voters through no fault of the voter himself is plainly unconstitutional.”
Pennsylvania’s restrictive voter ID law was enacted in 2012, allegedly to prevent voter fraud. The commonwealth, however, could not find evidence that year to support the new law’s purported purpose. The law was put on hold before the 2012 election while legal proceedings continued. Today, the law is permanently blocked.
“Voting laws are designed to assure a free and fair election; the Voter ID Law does not further this goal,” Judge McGinley wrote in his decision.
Photo by Sara Robertson via Creative Commons.