HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ? A court-imposed deadline neared Monday for a judge to decide whether Pennsylvania's tough new law requiring voters to show photo identification can remain intact, a ruling that could swing election momentum with Republican candidates trailing in polls on the state's top-of-the-ticket races.
The law, opposed furiously by Democrats, has nevertheless been a valuable Democratic Party tool to motivate volunteers and campaign contributions as other critics, including the NAACP, AARP and the League of Women Voters, hold voter education drives and protest rallies.
Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson is under a state Supreme Court order to rule no later than Tuesday, just five weeks before voters decide whether to re-elect President Barack Obama, a Democrat, or replace him with Mitt Romney, a Republican.
The high court told Simpson that he should stop the law from taking effect in this year's election if he finds the state has not met the law's promise of providing easy access to a photo ID or if he believes it will prevent any registered voter from casting a ballot.
Simpson heard two days of testimony last week and said he was considering invalidating a narrow portion of the law for the Nov. 6 election. An appeal to the state Supreme Court is possible.
The law is a signature accomplishment of Republicans in control of Pennsylvania state government who say they fear election fraud. But it is an emotional target for Democrats who call it a Jim Crow-style scheme to make it harder for their party's traditional voters, including young adults and minorities, who might not carry the right kind of ID or know about the law.
It was already a political lightning rod when a top state Republican lawmaker boasted to a GOP dinner in June that the ID requirement "is going to allow Gov. Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania."
The injunction Simpson was considering revolves around the portion of the law that allows a voter without valid photo ID at the polls to cast a provisional ballot. It would effectively excuse those voters from having to get a valid photo ID and show it to county election officials within six days after the election to ensure their ballot will count. Instead, they might be required to submit a signed declaration to the county.
Such a ruling would deliver a victory for the state's elected Republican leadership and the government's stumbling efforts to make free photo IDs available to any registered voter who needs one. Lawyers for the state government and Gov. Tom Corbett said in a Friday court brief that such an injunction would be acceptable to them.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs ? including the Homeless Advocacy Project, the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ? protested Simpson's idea. They told him in a Friday court filing that there is still no assurance that the provisional ballots will be counted, and a flood of provisional ballots could overwhelm county election offices.
Besides, they said, such a narrow injunction ignores the Supreme Court's directions.
Last week, Simpson heard testimony about the state's ongoing efforts to remove bureaucratic barriers for people to get a valid photo ID. He also heard about long lines and ill-informed clerks at driver's license centers and identification requirements that made it harder for some registered voters to get a state-issued photo ID.
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