HARRISBURG, Pa. — On the first day of a voter ID trial in Pennsylvania on Monday, the liberal-leaning plaintiffs got a boost from an improbable ally — a voter who called former Republican presidential candidate John McCain “my man” and noted she herself had twice been elected to a local office on the Republican ticket.
Marian Baker was one of two witnesses who offered videotaped testimony to start a trial that will determine the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s voter ID law, a subject of controversy since it was passed last spring by a Republican legislature and governor. The law, blocked by the state Supreme Court until the trial reviews its constitutionality, requires voters to present photo identification at the polls.
A grandmother of eight who lives in Reading, Pa., Baker testified that the law caused her to recently miss an election for the first time since 1960. Under the new law, she said, she would have to get a special state-approved photo ID at a drivers’ license center, where lines often stretch down the block. (Her driver’s license recently expired.)
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