Injunction Sought to Halt Pennsylvania Voter ID Law

by Frederick H. Lowe

Plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction to block Pennsylvania from implementing one of the nation’s most-restrictive voting laws. Pennsylvania is an important swing state with 20 electoral votes in November’s presidential election.

If implemented, the legislation, which Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled House and Senate passed and Republican Gov. Thomas Corbett signed into law on March 14, would have a disparate impact on African Americans, Hispanics, women, the elderly and other groups, Penda Hair, co-director of the Advancement Project, a Washington, D.C.-based policy organization, told reporters during a conference call on Tuesday.

The Advancement Project, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, the Public Interest Law Center and Arnold & Porter, LLP, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm, sued the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in a case titled Vivette Applewhite v. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The lawsuit, which is being heard in a state court, alleges that large numbers of Pennsylvania residents will not have their votes counted in November’s presidential election because they are unable to obtain acceptable photo ID as required  by the photo-ID law. Gov. Corbett and Carol Aichele, Pennsylvania secretary of state, are named as defendants in the lawsuit. Aichele is responsible for implementing the law.

Republicans argued that they passed the law to prevent voter fraud, but Pennsylvania State Sen. Vincent J. Hughes said during the conference call that Gov. Corbett, who served as Pennsylvania attorney general from 2005 to 2011, never prosecuted a single case of voter fraud while in office.

“This law is not about protecting against voter fraud, it is about the very real, systematic disenfranchisement of approximately 750,000 individuals –-- mostly the poor, the elderly, students and racial minorities. It is voter suppression, plain and simple, and we must not stand for it,” Hughes said during a July 24 speech.

The legislation’s opponents suspected that the motive behind the law was “partisan and racial.” Their suspicions were realized when Mike Turazi, the Republican House Majority Leader, said during a speech that  the photo-ID law would deliver Pennsylvania and its electoral votes to Mitt Romney, who is expected to be the Republican nominee for president.

Pennsylvania is one of 10 states that require residents to produce specific types of photo identification before they can cast a vote that will count, Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, told reporters during the conference call. Weiser said the restrictions represent a significant rollback in voting rights.

Some 758,000 Pennsylvania residents do not have a state-issued photo-ID card, representing 10 percent of the commonwealth’s population and 18 percent of Philadelphia’s population, Weiser said. The Brennan Center recently published a report titled, “The Challenge of Obtaining Voter Identification.” It said that 25 percent of African-Americans, 16 percent of Hispanics and 18 percent of Americans over the age of 65 do not have photo IDs.

Vivette Applewhite is 91 years old and has voted in nearly every election since 1960. Applewhite marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to secure voting rights for African Americans, but she would not be able to vote under Pennsylvania restrictive law if it takes effect.

“Applewhite has never driven a car and thus has never had a driver’s license. Many years ago her purse, in which she carried her important documents, was stolen,” the lawsuit said. “She has attempted on at least three occasions to order a birth certificate from Pennsylvania’s Division of Vital Records. Despite paying the fee to obtain a birth certificate, she has never received one. She recently engaged a lawyer, who is trying yet again to obtain her birth certificate from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” A birth certificate is needed to obtain a state-issued photo ID to vote.

The Brennan Center study also found that 2.3 million or 24 percent of Pennsylvania’s voting age citizens live more than 10 miles from the nearest Photo ID issuing office.

The case against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is expected to wrap up this week, and Hair expressed optimism that the judge hearing the case will rule in favor of the plaintiffs. The judge is expected to rule in mid-August.