OUT & ABOUT: The Crime Americans Can’t Be Bothered To Commit

BY DENISE CLAY/ Well, according to who you talk with, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania has either made it easier for voters for participate in the November elections or has made it so the widespread fraud the Dept. of State admits hasn’t gone on will continue.

Commonwealth Court Justice Robert E. Simpson decided on Tuesday to tell the Commonwealth that it could have its voter ID law … it just couldn’t implement it now. After the case was kicked back to Commonwealth Court two weeks ago and new hearings were held, the court decided there wasn’t enough time to get everyone who needs a photo ID one in time for the November elections.

The ruling says the soft rollout done in the primaries could continue in the general election … but if all you have is your electric bill or if you’ve been voting at your polling place so long that everyone knows your name, you can participate without ID in November.

Advocates against the law saw the news as a victory for the integrity of the vote while State Rep. Daryl Metcalf, the person who was among those who put the voter-ID law together, saw it as an attack by “activist judges.” Whatever, dude….

The Commonwealth hasn’t decided whether or not to appeal the ruling to the State Supreme Court, but it had better decide soon because there are only 30-plus days between now and Election Day. If I were them, I’d accept the whole soft-rollout thing and keep it moving. We really need to know what the rules of engagement are going to be for voting this time around and it would be nice if folks would stop playing around.

That said, here’s the one thing that this ruling doesn’t answer for me. How do you get an apathetic electorate to the polls?

What has always cracked me up about this particular law is that it wants to govern something that will never happen because of our attitudes toward voting. If we really cared enough about voting to impersonate someone in order to do it, I could see this law’s necessity. But heck, we can’t even get more than 50% of the registered voters to the polls, so all of those fears of voter impersonation are laughable.

My guess is we’ll hear from the State very soon when it comes to the voter-ID law. But since it’s not going into effect until after the November elections now, I hope folks will stop being tempted to use it as an excuse not to be at the polls Nov. 6.

Don’t become your own special form of voter suppression. Vote.

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