By Tribune-Review

Published: Tuesday, October 2, 2012, 3:16 p.m.
Updated: Tuesday, February 19, 2013

The good news is that a Commonwealth Court judge has kept intact most of Pennsylvania's new photo voter ID law.

The bad news is that the commonsense and most reasonable law will not be enforced during the Nov. 6 election.

But the even worse news is that the poison pill attached by the state Supreme Court last month in remanding the law to Judge Robert Simpson will be employed ad infinitum by opponents and the measure likely will be appealed to death.

Judge Simpson barred the law from being enforced next month, questioning “whether sufficient time exists for liberal access” to the prescribed identification; he remains unconvinced “that there will never be voter disenfranchisement.”

Well, anyone anywhere anytime can claim “disenfranchisement,” usually manufactured — think of former Pittsburgh Mayor Sophie Masloff's untoward bleats over the weekend — and always, always for political purposes, as we've seen in the last few months.

More than a few of the usual suspects, shouting “Voter suppression!,” already say they'll keep fighting the law.

As we editorialized last month, “the fix is in” for this “poison pill bordering on a Hobson's choice.”

Reason is supposed to be the life of the law. Unfortunately, reason in this case, for this election, has been as subverted as has been the law.

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