CORRECTED Breaking News: PA Trial Court Requires State to Count Ballots from Voters Without ID This Election, Now Updated with Analysis

You can find the judge’s 18 page order here.

In a nutshell, the judge has found that there will still be at least some voter disenfranchisement caused by the new law, because it does not appear that Pa. officials could get id’s into the hands of everyone who wants one before the election.  The earlier PA Supreme Court decision required the judge to enjoin enforcement of the law if he found disenfranchisement on remand, and he has.

But the judge enjoined only part of the law. UPDATE and CORRECTION: The state may still ask for id.  But it must accept a ballot even if the voter fails to have id.  It will not be necessary to cast a provisional ballot.  [This is a correction from en earlier post.]  This may cause confusion at the polls, as the state will still have poll workers ask for id, even though a voter can vote without it.

The state may appeal. I expect any state argument along these lines to be rejected by the state Supreme Court, given the last ruling.

And after the election there will be a full trial on whether or not to permanently enjoin the law.  I predict that after this election, the PA courts will in fact uphold the voter id law, perhaps even on a unanimous vote of the state Supreme Court.

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