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Judge Right; Photo Voter ID is Unconstitutional

On Jan. 17, Commonwealth Court Judge Bernard L. McGinley issued an order permanently blocking the controversial photo identification law that threatened to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters.

In his opinion, Judge McGinley stated that the voter ID law "does not pass constitutional muster because there is no legal, non-burdensome provision of a compliant photo ID to all qualified electors." He reasoned that the commonwealth's so-called DOS ID "is fraught with illegalities and dubious authority." And, most importantly, he found that as to the "[h]undreds of thousands of electors in Pennsylvania [who] lack compliant photo ID, . . . [e]nforcement of the Voter ID Law as to these electors has the effect of disenfranchising them through no fault of their own. Inescapably, the Voter ID Law infringes upon qualified electors' right to vote." Further, in 2012 the commonwealth stipulated that it had no evidence of even a single case of voter fraud in Pennsylvania.