Election integrity is impaired when eligible Americans are prevented from exercising their fundamental right to vote and having their voices heard on the issues that affect their lives. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania just said the same thing when considering a new voter ID requirement, writing “if the Law is enforced in a manner that prevents qualified and eligible electors from voting, the integrity of the upcoming General Election will be impaired.”
This week the citizens of Pennsylvania can have a little more faith in the integrity of their elections. Its Supreme Court sent the Commonwealth’s strict voter ID law back to the lower court with orders that it must refuse to allow the law to go into effect unless it finds that “there will be no voter disenfranchisement arising out of the Commonwealth’s implementation of a voter identification requirement.”
That is a very high bar to meet. But it is also kicking the can down the road a bit by the Supreme Court’s majority. With fewer than 50 days before the election, and on a record which demonstrates disenfranchisement and where the state stipulated that there was no fraud that this law would remedy, the court should have prevented additional confusion and enjoined the law before the election.
