Secretary of the Commonwealth Discusses Fate of Voter ID Law During Visit To Philadelphia
By Cherri Gregg
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Secretary of the Commonwealth made a stop at Temple University on Thursday to talk about the voter ID law. On Tuesday, the Commonwealth Court ruled voters will not need photo ID for the November election.
Secretary Carol Aichele commended Temple students leading the voter ID effort, which resulted in the university adding expiration dates to IDs for more than 50,000 students and employees.
"I am happy to be here at Temple to talk about a student body that took the bull by the horns and made sure that every student would have ID to vote in this election," she says. "This is huge because it supports what we at the department of state and in the administration have been saying."
With about 32 days left until the election, Aichele says the state has not decided whether to appeal the decision to halt the law for November. But at this point, the plan is to ask for ID at the polls, even though voters won't need it to cast a ballot. As for exactly when the law will be enforced, Aichele says it's unclear:
"The judge has asked for a meeting in December," she says. "We will take stock of what happens in November. The judge will rule going forward."
The Secretary says the December conference will allow the judge to gather more information on the real impact the law will have on voters.
"We will revisit the issue of how effective the advertisement and information has been with respect to voter ID," says Aichele. "We'll take a look at how well things worked during the November 6th election and make an evaluation going forward with better information to help the judge make a decision."
She says the Commonwealth has no plans to survey voters on election day to determine exactly how many voters need photo ID. However, she says the department of state hopes to conduct a more exact analysis after November 6th.
"What I am thinking about doing is taking a snap shot sometime after the election," she says. "A snap shot of the registered voters in the SHURE system and try to do a better match with the department of transportation and get a better feel of how many people need photo ID."
Aichele says Department of State is currently pulling all voter ID advertisements to prevent voter confusion and will release revised ads on Monday.
