PHILADELPHIA, January 17, 2014 — State Sen. Anthony H. Williams today issued the following comment in response to Commonwealth Court Judge Bernard McGinley’s decision today to strike down the Corbett administration’s voter identification law.
“We knew when this law was proposed as a bill that it was unconstitutional and it would one day find itself below a tombstone with the epithet: ‘Unconstitutional.’
“Not this commonwealth, not any state, not even the country can pass a law like this and expect it to survive the test of the U.S. Constitution or the Pa. Constitution. Requiring citizens to show certain forms of identification – IDs it knows many poor and elderly do not have – is a deliberate attempt to block our fundamental right to vote.
“Judge McGinley is absolutely correct in his statement that ‘The right to vote … is irreplaceable, necessitating its protection before any deprivation occurs.’ The governor claimed there has been too much fraud on Election Day. The petitioners proved over and over again that there are isolated incidents of a con at the polls, but nothing that rises to this level of government control and interference.
“Unfortunately, the administration is likely to waste more tax dollars during a bad economy to take their case to the state Supreme Court. It’s time to end this right now. Some fates have already been cast in stone and there’s nothing one party can do to stop that.”
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