PA Voter ID Law Heads Back To Lower Court

CWA activists hit the streets to register voters in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has sent the state's controversial voter ID law back to a lower court to determine if acquiring the necessary IDs interferes with voting rights.

The state's Commonwealth Court has until Oct. 2 to respond. Judge Robert Simpson, — the very judge who previously refused to stop the law — will be reviewing the availability of ID cards and whether the new law disenfranchises voters.

Getting an ID hasn't been easy. According to the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, "Nine rural counties have no driver's license centers at all, and in an additional 20 counties containing 1.5 million people, driver's license centers are open three or fewer days a week. Only seven of 67 counties have more than one driver's license center." The Washington Post recently reported that it took four hours for a Philadelphia woman just to get her ID.

CWA has partnered with the Pennsylvania NAACP, Transport Workers Union and Amalgamated Transit Union to register 25,000 new voters in the Keystone State by Oct. 1. Activists have been registering hundreds of voters at train and bus stations in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

"It's a big deal in Philadelphia. We have a lot of seniors who are having trouble," said Daphne Taylor, steward for CWA Local 13500. "Lots of people migrated from down south, where they didn't have birth certificates — they had midwives. We're telling them how to get free IDs and other forms of ID so they can go to the ballot box."

Pennsylvania officials can't cite any evidence of voter fraud in the state. Nationally, the voter fraud rate is 0.0004 percent (or 4 ten-thousandths of a percent), according to the Brennan Center.