[EL] Initial thoughts on PA decision

Fri Jan 17 07:30:45 PST 2014

    Initial Thoughts on Today’s Ruling Striking Down Pa’s Voter ID Law
    on State Grounds <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58044>

Posted on January 17, 2014 7:28 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58044>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

I have now had a chance to skim the 103-page Pa. trial court ruling 
<http://www.pacourts.us/assets/files/setting-647/file-3490.pdf?cb=a5ec29> striking 
down Pa’s voter id law—I will have to give a closer reading later in the 
day when I have the time.  But here are a few initial thoughts.

1. This is a clear victory for opponents of voter id laws, with a 
finding that the implementation of the voter id law violated the law’s 
own promise of liberal access to voter id, that the implementation 
exceeded the agency’s authority to administer the program, that the 
voter education efforts were woefully inadequate, and that as a whole 
the Pa. voter id program violated the Pa. constitutional’s fundamental 
right to vote. In this regard, it is important to note that the court 
rejected Pa’s argument that the law was aimed at preventing voter fraud. 
The judge found that the state presented no evidence the law was 
necessary either to prevent fraud or to keep public confidence in the 
fairness of the election process.

2. Despite the victory, there are some things in here that will be 
troubling for voter id opponents (and heartening for their supporters). 
The judge said that Pa’s equal protection clause is read as equivalent 
to the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause, and the Court found 
there was no equal protection violation by the law. The judge 
specifically found, in footnote 33 (p. 48), that the law was NOT 
motivated by an attempt to disenfranchise minorities or Democratic 
voters—the judge said he found this notwithstanding the comments 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=36197>of House Majority Leader Mike 
Turzai. From my quick look at the statement of facts, I did not see more 
of the basis for the judge’s opinion on this point, but it undercuts one 
of the main motivation arguments of opponents.

3. It is not clear to me whether the Pa. Supreme Court will ultimately 
affirm this decision or not. Readers may remember that when this case 
came up on a preliminary injunction before a different judge, the case 
went to the state Supreme Court which stayed implementation out of fear 
that the law would not be implemented in time for the 2012 elections. 
But ALL the justices on the Court then expressed the opinion that an 
efficient, fairly applied voter identification law would be 
constitutional under the PA state constitution. So the real question 
that is likely to be before the PA Supreme Court is whether this law is 
so hopelessly drafted and implemented that it amounts to a denial to the 
right to vote under the PA constitution (or a statutory or 
administrative violation), which would give the state supreme court a 
way to reject /this /voter id law but not /all/ voter id laws. That 
result certainly seems possible on this record.

4. Finally, the relevance of this ruling to other voter id challenges is 
somewhat limited. The findings on implementation are state specific and 
don’t really carry over to other states. The analysis of the right to 
vote under the PA state constitution is also state specific, and says 
little about how, say, the Wisconsin Supreme Court will read its right 
to vote. Further, on the U.S. constitutional issues, the equal 
protection holding (and the rejection of the bad motivation argument) 
helps opponents of the laws. Finally, there is nothing in this opinion 
that sheds light on Voting Rights Act challenges. So in the end, this 
ruling says little about how other states will approach these questions, 
and the little that is there could help supporters of such laws.  
Nonetheless, this kind of technical legal analysis will stand in tension 
with the PR value of a victory in a case like this—the public does not 
split hairs like lawyers do. It will hear that yet another voter id law 
was struck down as disenfranchising.

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Posted in election administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, 
The Voting Wars <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>, voter id 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>

On 1/17/14, 6:38 AM, Adam Bonin wrote:
>
> Here’s the opinion.  Have not read it yet: 
> http://www.pacourts.us/assets/files/setting-647/file-3490.pdf?cb=a5ec29
>
> --Adam
>
> *From:*law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu 
> [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] *On Behalf Of 
> *Rick Hasen
> *Sent:* Friday, January 17, 2014 9:29 AM
> *To:* law-election at UCI.edu
> *Subject:* [EL] Tweet from Dale Ho (@dale_ho_ACLU)
>
> 	
>
> *Dale Ho (@dale_ho_ACLU <https://twitter.com/dale_ho_aclu>)*
>
> 1/17/14, 6:27 AM 
> <https://twitter.com/dale_ho_aclu/status/424186337877454848>
>
> BREAKING: ACLU wins voter ID trial in Pennsylvania. Details to come.
>
>
> Download the official Twitter app here 
> <https://twitter.com/download?ref_src=MailTweet-iOS>
>
>
>
> Rick Hasen
>
> Sent from my iPhone. Please excuse typos.
>

-- 
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
949.824.0495 - fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org

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