Allegheny County executive Rich Fitzgerald said today that his administration is considering beefed up security measures at polling places this Election Day, in anticipation of issues surroundin the state's new voter ID law.

Fitzgerald, a Democrat and voter ID opponent, made the comments today at a press conference he called on a Post-Gazette lawsuit seeking to open polling places to the media. Fitzgerald said he wants the media allowed inside to document Election Day proceedings but the P-G broke with his administration and ventured into federal court on the matter. (More on that later.)

"Obviously you're going to see a lot of media scrutiny on voter ID, on people who might be trying to block votes [and] access to votes, trying to deny people the right to vote, so I do think you're going to see an increased media scrutiny this fall," Fitzgerald said. Asked if that means more security, too, he said "That's one of the things we're evaluating with the election department, with the Sheriff's department and the county police to make sure that people aren't denied their right to vote. My intent, and I've been saying this all along, is we want to encourage people to vote. We want to make it easier for people to vote."

One of the cases Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson pointed to in upholding the state's new voter ID law last month was Patterson v. Barlow, from 1869, which involved complicated voter registrations for Philadelphia that were different from those elsewhere in the state. Simpson cites Patterson repeatedly in pages 25-28 of his decision (part is above) to show that it's acceptable for the Legislature to determine registration rules.

Sounds good. Except -- as Pitt law prof Jessie Allen writes in an op-ed in today's PG -- there's a lot more to Patterson, and the Supreme Court decision upholding it back then, which should give pause to the 6 Supreme Court justices meeting Thursday on the latest voter bill. Writes Allen:

The law approved in Patterson enacted a complicated set of registration procedures for Philadelphia (with its large working-class and immigrant populations) and a simpler procedure for the rest of the state. Equally outrageous, the law required any would-be voter who gave a hotel or boarding house as his address to go through an arduous verification process, including getting two "private householders" to swear that he was qualified to vote. That process effectively disenfranchised the workmen who filled the city boarding houses at the end of the 19th century.

Amazingly, in Patterson the Supreme Court went out of its way to clarify -- and endorse -- the law's biased approach. The opinion justifies a tougher process for Philadelphia voters because "rogues and strumpets do not nightly traverse the deserted highways of the farmer. Low inns, restaurants, sailors' boarding-houses and houses of ill fame do not abound in rural precincts, ready to pour out on election day their pestilent hordes."

For good measure, the court explained that to overturn the tighter procedures for Philadelphia voters "would be to place the vicious vagrant, the wandering Arabs, the Tartar hordes of our large cities, on a level with the virtuous and good man."

. . . Wrenched out of context, the legal language that the Commonwealth Court judge chose to quote from Patterson sounds like a fair basis for upholding the new voter ID law. But, in fact, the old Patterson case represents the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's shameful failure to protect elections from a law designed to make voting harder for some people than for others.

Barack Obama is indeed drawing Republicans and Democrats together in one part of the nation, next door in West Virginia.

Obama's popularity in the state is almost the lowest in the nation (remember when a Texas felon got 40% of the presidential primary vote?) and thus candidates in both parties are running away from the president as fast as they can. So fast that two different statewide candidates in both parties released TV ads today criticizing Obama's "war on coal." (PS, why is coal struggling so badly? Cheap natural gas -- which Obama again lauded in his DNC speech last week -- is a big reason.)

At top is the ad from incumbent Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, who is running against Republican businessman Bill Maloney. At bottom is the ad from Republican businessman Joan Raese, who is running against incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (who skipped his party's convention).

Reminder: This is nothing new. Manchin released an ad in his 2010 race against Raese where he shot a mockup of the cap-and-trade bill with a gun.

Due to increased demand for non-driving voter ID, the Corbett administration is adopting evening hours through the week of Election Day at five driver license centers in Philadelphia, the county with the most voters impacted by the state's new voter ID bill.

Adopting the late hours even past Nov. 6 is significant for those forced to vote provisionally, requiring them to produce valid ID for election officials in the days after the election.

Press release below from the Dpeartment of Transportation:

Harrisburg – In response to customer interest in obtaining photo IDs for voting, five PennDOT locations in Philadelphia County will offer extended hours on Thursday evenings, effective Sept. 27 through Nov. 8.

Transportation Secretary Barry Schoch said that since the Voter ID law was enacted, the vast majority of PennDOT IDs for voting purposes have been issued in Philadelphia County.

"PennDOT actively monitors customer flow at our 71 driver licensing centers statewide and since March, special attention has been focused on monitoring the impact of the Voter ID law," said Schoch. "Extending our hours in the state's largest county demonstrates PennDOT's continuing willingness to help customers comply with the Voter ID law."

On Thursdays between Sept. 27 and Nov. 8, the following centers will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.:

801 Arch St.
1530 South Columbus Blvd.
2320 Island Ave.
919-B Levick St.
7121 Ogontz Ave.

PennDOT will continue to closely monitor customer demand for Voter IDs at every Driver License Center statewide.