Publicity hailed in voter ID trial
A state official said Pennsylvania's effort exceeded those of other states.
HARRISBURG - A state official says last year's $5 million multimedia campaign to make voters aware of Pennsylvania's new voter-identification law was larger than any similar effort by other states.
Shannon Royer, a deputy secretary of state, testified Thursday on the fourth day of the Commonwealth Court trial on the constitutionality of the photo-ID requirement for voters.
Royer called the federally funded campaign a success despite continuing uncertainty about the law's status. He defended his agency's decision to earmark only about half as much in state money for voter outreach in the November election and next spring's primary election.
Earlier Thursday, lawyers for plaintiffs seeking to overturn the law cited a review of state computer records as evidence that some voters would be disenfranchised by it.
Plaintiffs narrowed their focus to a few dozen photo ID cards that registered voters sought but did not receive before last year's presidential election.
At issue in the Commonwealth Court trial were special Pennsylvania Department of State cards developed as a last resort for registered voters who could not get a Department of Transportation ID card to comply with the new requirement that all voters must show acceptable photo ID before they will be allowed to vote.
The March 2012 law remains in limbo, unenforced by order of the court.
While questioning a state official, American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Witold J. Walczak said a review of state computer records showed that 42 registered voters applied for their cards before the election but did not receive them until afterward, sometimes months later, and that 82 other registered voters did not receive cards after applying for them.
Had the law been in effect, "those 124 duly registered voters would not have been able to cast a [regular] ballot" for their presidential choice, Walczak said. The law allows a voter without ID to cast a provisional ballot, which is counted only if the voter provides a photo ID to county election officials within six days after the election.