Pennsylvania’s controversial voter ID law has come back to trial in the Commonwealth court, and both sides are making serious plays. WITF’s capital reporter Mary Wilson says the first few days of testimony were brimming with testimony from those challenging the laws, but talk of voter fraud — one of the issues legislators emphasized most when passing the law — was surprisingly limited.
Thus far the cases made against the law have been more or less the same as the ones used to fight it from the outset. Wilson says those challenging the law are using a blend of statistical data and testimonies to make the claim that specific groups — such as elderly and minority voters — will be disenfranchised by the law.
However, Wilson observes that while proponents argued that the law would prevent voter fraud when it was originally passed, “we’re seeing the state back away from that.” Instead, she says the state has said that the law will improve voters’ confidence in the electoral process.
By the way, the case for voter id laws being correlated with voter confidence is exceedingly weak.