This week in the War on Voting: RNC drops Romney-connected voter-registration firm over likely fraud

(In case you missed it, you can find more news on voter suppression in Wednesday's post: Midweek in the War on Voting.)

No voter-ID ruling emerged from Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson Friday. Citizen advocates and other observers of the disputed law that imposes the strictest voter-ID provisions in the nation had thought he might issue a decision in the case before the weekend. The law requires voters to have a state-issued driver's or non-driver's license, a passport, a military ID, a student ID or a "last-resort" ID issued by the commonwealth's department of state in order to vote. All IDs must have photos and an expiration date. Originally, the law would have only permitted state-issued and military IDs to be used at the polls.

In a mid-August ruling, Simpson chose not to issue a preliminary injunction against the law. He said at the time that foes of the law "did an excellent job of 'putting a face' to those burdened by this new requirement," but he did not "have the luxury of deciding this issue based on my sympathy for the witnesses."

The plaintiffs appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. After hearing both sides, four of the six justices decided to return the case to Simpson for further review, with an emphasis on the burdens placed on voters by the law. Their message was a not-so-subtle try-again-and-make-it-snappy. They gave him until Oct. 2 to complete his review. Two of the justices, however, both Democrats, dissented. They said there was no reason to return the case to the lower court because the evidence was clear and ample that the law was onerous in its effect and should be blocked for this election year.

During two days of hearings in Judge Robert Simpson's court this week, Pennsylvanians recounted the hassles they've had in obtaining mandated photo IDs.

On Thursday, some dozen witnesses testified that they had encountered many difficulties in obtaining IDs. Witnesses complained that obstacles included multiple visits, hours-long waits, trips to other bureaucracies to acquire documentation like Social Security cards and inadequate restroom facilities for the disabled at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation branch offices issuing IDs.

In court on Thursday, Doris Clark, 68, who uses a cane and doesn't drive, testified about her confusing and frustrating quest for ID. She recalled hours-long waits and government mistakes that forced her to make three trips to PennDOT, the state agency that issues the IDs, and two trips to the U.S. Social Security Administration, one source of the necessary documents to secure the ID.

On her third visit a PennDOT worker turned her down because her maiden name is on her birth certificate but her married name is on her Social Security documents.

After essentially making a scene at the office, she finally got her ID. But only determined citizens would take all the steps she did. Every obstacle, critics have said, persuades a few voters to throw up their hands and not bother with getting the ID they need to vote. And that was the intent of Republican-dominated legislature that passed the law on a party-line vote.

While the hearings were under way, the state made its sixth change in the law since it was passed, streamlining the process for those citizens trying to obtain a "last-resort" alternative to the PennDOT-issued non-driver's license.

An attorney for the governor's office suggested Thursday in court that an idea posited by Judge Simpson to allow citizens without ID to cast a provisional ballot would solve any problems. But Witold Walczak, one of several lawyers for the plaintiffs, said it would make matters worse.

"It will create more confusion about what is required on Election Day, who can vote, how and under what circumstances are those (provisional) ballots counted or not counted?" Walczak said afterward.

He likened Simpson's suggestion to judicial lawmaking and contended that continuing to broadcast the message that a photo ID is necessary to vote would cause people without one to stay home.

State officials say 12,000 new identity cards have been issued. Foes of the law say there may be three-quarters of a million to 1.6 million Pennsylvanians without the proper ID.

A Franklin & Marshall College Poll found 59 percent of Pennsylvanians support the voter ID law, while 39 percent oppose it.

(Read more voter suppression news below the fold.)