One of the state's premiere good-government groups -- Philadelphia's Committee of Seventy -- is urging voters worried about ID not to follow Allegheny County's lead and get IDs from nursing homes and community colleges, saying the moves could cause chaos at the polls.

Montgomery County (outside Philly) followed Allegheny exec Rich Fitzgerald's example and announced it would use a loophole in the voter ID law to allow new voting-only IDs, but Philadelphia County decided not to. Seventy lauded their home county for that move, while calling on PennDOT to make official state IDs easier to get, through keeping offices open later and other moves.

Said the group:

Non-PennDOT-issued IDs are more likely to be challenged by poll workers, many of whom have
already been trained by their respective counties, or by poll watchers representing candidates –
potentially leading to chaos at the polls.

Voters will be confused about whether to go to a PennDOT Driver's License Center, as they have been
instructed since the law was enacted in March, or elsewhere to get a dependable photo ID.
Non-PennDOT institutions giving photo IDs to the general public will open themselves to potential
security and liability issues.

Fitzgerald responds in a tweet: "While we appreciate their concerns, training for our poll workers begins in October and they will all have this information."

Full press release after the jump:

A 24-page brief from Corbett administration attorneys repeatedly notes that the state's law was deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court and argues state officials have followed election statutes in distributing the new IDs.

(See the brief from opponents of the law here.)

The state has issued about 9000 PennDOT non-driving IDs and 1000 voting-only IDs since the law was implemented and only 100 applicants could not obtain the latter on their first visit, according to the brief, and those delays were due incorrect spellings or delays in voter registration rolls. State election statutes requires a 10-day lag time between voters being registered and receiving registration, so the state is only following those rules, the brief notes.

State lawyers also push back against the claim that the Supreme Court ordered there be no evidence of voter disenfranchisement. The law's opponents, says the brief, "use the word 'disenfranchise' loosely; they seem to think that any legislation that contemplates any extra step that a voter must take in order to cast a vote is unconstitutional because some voters may not take those steps."

Judge Simpson ruled in the state's favor in August and should again, the state's brief says: the "testimony and evidence will show that the [Department of State voting-only] ID is being implemented in a way that is consistent with the intent of the General Assembly . . . and that the imposition of such generally applicable identification requirements -- which, as the Supreme Court has recognized, do not by their terms 'disenfranchise' voters -- cannot be deemed to be unconstitutional."

Corbett admin brief on Voter ID hearing

Graphic: Official state chart for issuing voting-only ID cards. Click for larger version. See page 4 of ACLU brief.

Opponents of Pennsylvania's voter identification law say the process for getting new IDs is "convoluted, burdensome and unlawful," and Commonwealth Court should order an injunction suspending its enforcement this Election Day.

Briefs are due today in advance of the latest hearing Tuesday before Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson. The state Supreme Court sent a challenge of the law back to the lower court earlier this month to ensure there is "liberal access" to new voting-only IDs and there will be "no disenfranchisement" of voters on Nov. 6.

Lawyers for the state were also due to file a brief defending the law. (UPDATE: Read it here.)

The 14-page brief from the American Civil Liberties Union and other challengers of the law (see below) says applicants for the new IDs are forced to visit PennDOT driver's license centers at least twice to obtain them: it points to the example of an 84-year-old Beaver County woman who twice made 80 minute drives to her county's center, only to return empty-handed. Others were denied the voting-only cards because they were recently registered and it takes up to a month to appear in the voter registration database, as is required before obtaining the IDs.

The brief further argues that PennDOT workers are not sufficiently trained in producing new ID claims in the short timeframe before the election, that applicants face long wait-times or live in counties without license centers, and that voter education efforts on the new requirements have been insufficient. Postcards due to be sent to 5.9 million voting households next month do not say how to obtain acceptable ID and will only be in English, it notes.

"Given the real difficulties that registered voters have encountered in their efforts to obtain voter identification cards -- and in particular the amount of time it has frequently taken for voters to obtain the IDs -- there is simply not enough time for the Commonwealth to ensure that no one will be disenfranchised by the Photo ID law for purposes of the upcoming elections," the brief argues.

ACLU Voter ID Pre-Hearing Brief

The back and forth and back and forth on China, outsourcing and debt -- and the ads about the back and forth on China, and outsourcing and debt -- continues in the latest ad in the PA12 race between Mark Critz and Keith Rothfus. (The subject must be moving numbers for the camps -- whatever happened to the Obamacare attacks of just 3 weeks ago?)

The latest spot from the National Republican Congressional Committee attacks Critz for his party connection to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (as Rothfus has too) and mentions how their DCCC counterparts altered their initial hit spot on Rothfus.

Full ad script after the jump.

Here's the response from Critz spokesman Mike Mikus:

The National Republican Congressional Committee began airing another false, negative attack against Congressman Mark Critz in a continued effort to distract voters from Keith Rothfus' support of unfair trade deals that ship jobs overseas. The facts show that Mark Critz voted to reduce our national debt by $2 trillion over the next decade but opposed plans to cut Medicare and investments in education and high-tech research that create jobs. Critz has opposed every unfair trade deal that would lead to more outsourcing, while Rothfus is on the record supporting unfair trade deals that ship jobs overseas. Rothfus also has been endorsed by FreedomWorks and the Club for Growth, wealthy special interests that advocate for allowing China to manipulate its currency even though it puts companies here at a competitive disadvantage and kills American jobs. Additionally, Rothfus would extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy which would add $700 billion to the national debt over the next decade.

"Mark Critz knows that we need to rein in spending which is why he voted to reduce the debt by $2 trillion. "he knows that putting people back to work is the best way to reduce our deficit which is why he opposed every unfair trade deal and is taking on China," Critz spokesman Mike Mikus said. "While Mark Critz is fighting to protect jobs here, Keith Rothfus supports unfair trade deals that ship jobs overseas and he will do nothing to stop China's cheating that kills American jobs. With positions like that, it is no wonder that Keith Rothfus and his allies continue to air deceptive negative attacks against Mark Critz."