Simpson ruled that the voter ID opponents had not established that “disenfranchisement was immediate or inevitable” and also made clear that trashing the law less than 90 days from the election would throw a monkey wrench into the state’s election system. While he expressed sympathy with those who said they would be prevented from voting, the voter ID law was constitutional. The decision creates a problem for state Democrats who have been counting on the courts to strike down the law and therefore absolve them from the task of seeing that their voters are legally registered and have proper identification when they go to the polls in November. Though liberals around the country have accused Pennsylvania Republicans of trying to steal the presidential election via the voter ID law, the law’s survival now puts the onus on the Democrats to mobilize their base without resorting to any of the tricks that helped the GOP pass the bill in the first place.
The ACLU quoted the lead plaintiff in the case, 93-year-old Viviette Applewhite of Philadelphia, as saying she could not believe the ruling.
"Too many people have fought for the right to vote to have it taken away like this," the group quoted her as saying. Applewhite, who has said she once marched with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., has struggled to get the required forms of ID because she lost most of her identification cards several years ago to a purse snatcher.
"All I want is to be able to vote this November like I always have," she was quoted as saying Wednesday. "This law is just ridiculous."
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