The GOP have lost all credibility

The Guardian reports 

Controversial Pennsylvania voter ID photo requirement halted by judge

ACLU hails decision as judge Robert Simpson says 2012 voters will not have to show photo identification before casting ballots

Pennsylvania voters fill a department of transportation office in Philadelphia as they wait to get voter ID cards last month. Photograph: Tom Mihalek /Reuters

A judge in Pennsylvania has put on hold a key provision of the state's contested voter ID law that required all voters to show an authorised photocard before they could cast their ballot in November's presidential election.

You have to love Republicans this was nothing more than attempt to prevent people voting because it was likely they would vote Democratic. Oh and what a coincidence they also would be mainly black. Don Ring in the Huffington Post blogs

"Republican Governor Tom Corbett and the Republican-led Pennsylvania legislature passed these laws in their claimed attempt to clamp down on voter fraud, though none could be found in the state's history. But then, Pennsylvania GOP House Majority Leader, Mike Turzai, did tip his hand just a wee bit when he announced back in June that the law "is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania."

Now in any decent democracy these guys would be reviled for what they had attempted to do. Why do you tolerate this shit America ? I would like to say your better than this but I am not sure that you are. Anyway back to the Guardian article.

Judge Robert Simpson of the Pennsylvania commonwealth court allowed most of the state's new voter ID law – one of the toughest in the country – to stand. But he put on hold a provision that would have required anyone unable to produce photo ID to file a preliminary vote and then validate their ballot within six days of the vote by producing the card.

Stuff like this makes me very pleased to live in New Zealand a real democracy that actually encourages its citizens to vote. Sure I can't do stuff like owning a hand gun but hell I never wanted a hand gun anyway.

The judge's preliminary injunction on the photo card requirement will last only for the 2012 presidential election. Simpson said he had decided to impose it because "I am not still convinced that there will be no voter disenfranchisement arising out of the commonwealth's implementation of a voter identification requirement for purposes of the upcoming election".

It is certainly an improvement on the situation brought about under the new law.

The ruling is subject to a possible appeal by the state to the Pennsylvania supreme court.
Advocates for voting rights hailed the judgement as a victory for their cause. Wendy Weiser, an expert on the subject at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU school of law, said the ruling would help to keep US elections free, fair and accessible to all. "Implementing a sweeping new voter ID law so close to an election would prevent eligible citizens from voting and having their say in our democracy. We are pleased the court refused to allow politicians to manipulate the system for their own benefit by rushing through new voting requirements that would keep out legitimate voters."

The Pennsylvania voter ID law was one of the most egregious examples of a spate of hardline legislation that has swept the country. Since January 2011, 19 states have passed a total of 24 laws that erect new hurdles to voting, the most common of which is a requirement to show photo ID cards.

The simple truth is that America needs to do presidential elections at a federal level and ditch the states and the electoral college. The rules should be set by an electoral commission that is set up to ensure fairness rather than left to odious little men like Corbett and Turzai. 

Proponents of the laws have insisted they are necessary to combat fraudulent ballots. But in practice, proven examples of fraud at the ballot box are fleetingly rare, and civil rights groups such as the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union have argued the measures disenfranchise vulnerable communities such as ethnic minorities, older people, disabled people and the young.

The Pennsylvania legislation caused extra consternation earlier this year when Mike Turzai, leader of the Republicans in the Pennsylvania assembly, said at a rally of party members: "Voter ID, which is going to allow governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania. Done."

Lets actually face facts and realise that the fraudulent / corrupt voting issues in the USA are largely a result of right wing " christian " republican slime buckets.

The law also caused alarm after Pennsylvania election officials released figures that suggested that some 758,000 registered voters did not have valid photo cards – suggesting up to 9% of the electorate could be disenfranchised. In his deliberations, Simpson rejected the 9% figure as inflated, but he also found that the state's claim that just 1% of voters were without valid identification was an underestimate.

9 % is probably enough to alter a result in most countries certainly in Pennsylvania.

The battle over Pennsylvania's voter ID law has been so fierce in part because of the state's rich crop of electoral college votes – it holds 20 of the 270 votes needed to win the presidency. In 2008, Obama won the state with 54% of the vote to John McCain's 44%.

This year most polls are putting Obama again comfortably in the lead in Pennsylvania. The Real Clear Politics tracker poll has the president eight points head on 50% to Mitt Romney's 42%.

Lets face it Mitt Romney is a lose cannon and the only way he has a chance is by rigging the vote, that he had people in the GOP willing to attempt to do that for him tells me that the GOP is not fit to govern. President Obama will win a his second term not so much for having a great first term but for being a fundamentally good man rather than a clown a description suiting his opponent.