Pennsylvania voter ID tabled, won't factor in 2012 election

Stuffing the ballot boxes.
From minnpost.com

This February report published by Pew Center of the States highlighted significant problems within the realm of voter registration. The more troubling realities include: 1.8 million deceased people still listed as voters; about 12.5 percent of voter registration are invalid or "significantly inaccurate"; 2.75 million individuals are registered in multiple states.

Various initiatives aimed at addressing this problem have been proposed over the past few years, with 30 states having enacted some form of legislation The most recent development was in Pennsylvania, where only yesterday a judge "blocked the key component of a highly contested state law requiring strict photographic identification to vote in next month's election...Pennsylvanians will not have to present a state-approved ID to vote in November" (full article here).

Interestingly enough, Reuters points out that the Pennsylvania law has been criticized to be "designed to keep minority voters, who typically vote Democratic, away from the polls." Indeed, the poll data regarding Pennsylvanian public opinion of the initiative reflects a comparable sentiment.

Yet this concern is one reflected in voter identification laws in general. According to ProPublica, the opposition contends that voter ID laws disenfranchise those that tend to vote Democratic, including "elderly, minority and low-income groups," by effectively instituting "a new 'financial barrier to the ballot box.'" Cases of voter fraud appear to be relatively few and far between. And yet one in eight registration are screwy. Are then voter ID laws justified or even necessary?