With the DOJ looking into whether the state's Voter ID bill violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (discrimination on basis of race, color or membership in minority group), here's the letter from the department's top civil rights official seeking data from the Corbett administration.

(Note: The ACLU's court challenge notes how 120,000 Pa citzens from Puerto Rico can't get the birth certificates necessary to obtain acceptable ID.)

Expect to hear a lot about this in the public and legal debate over Pennsylvania's strict voter ID law: the Pa Attorney General's office has sworn in court documents that it has no evidence of in-person voter fraud investigations in Pa or even other states, nor will it attempt to present any evidence of fraud in a Commonwealth Court defense of the bill starting Wednesday.

The AG's office  seems to have agreed to the stipulation in exchange for keeping Gov. Tom Corbett (the state's former AG) or current AG Linda Kelly from testifying in the ACLU court challenge.

The stipulation is below. The focus on "in-person" voter fraud seems to differentiate alleged law-breaking on election day from other election-related fraud prosecutions that happen all the time, such as for forging signatures on nominating petitions. The Allegheny County DA's office charged a sitting Pittsburgh City Councilman, Daniel Lavelle, with that very thing last year for filing bogus petition signatures from people who were dead, in jail or out of the country.

As usual there are multiple moving parts to this major election/political story. The Justice Department is reviewing the state's new law, though it isn't likely it can step in to try to block the law as it can with southern states via the Voting Rights Act. The Inquirer has a nice wrapup.

Thousands are expected to rally in support of the court challenge at the state Capitol today at 1 p.m. Several Pittsburgh-area speakers criticized the law at a forum last night in Squirrel Hill.

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As Harrisburg prepares for this afternoon's voter-ID opposition rally, here's a look at what U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., had to say about the law and his concerns. 

Asked yesterday following his remarks to the monthly Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon, Casey said he's "very worried" about implementing a law that changes voting requirements in a presidential election year.

"Anything we're doing as a state that erects barriers to voting, especially in a year like this, is in need of a lot of scrutiny," he told the gaggle of reporters, adding that it could be "a significant barrier."

"We'll see what the court does [regarding the legal challenges] but I would hope ... that if we're going to have a law like that in place, that it is tested and implemented in a year other than this type of a highly charged political year," he continued.

"When I saw that number that the Department of State put out, over 750,000 Pennsyvlanians who don't have ID, even if that number were cut in half, it would be disturbing."

Asked if he thinks the Commonwealth Court should grant an injunction on the law, he replied: "Oh yes, I hope they would because there are facts on the table now about the number of people who could be affected."

That figure of 758,000 people represents the number of voters who couldn't be matched to a name in the Department of Transportation's database.

Federal identification cards, such as a passport, or IDs from colleges or nursing homes that include an expiration date also can be used, and a new ID card will be available late next month for voters who don't have a birth certificate or Social Security card necessary to acquire current PennDOT photo IDs.

Information on that Department of State figure is part of what federal officials have requested in their review of the law, according to the P-G's Karen Langley:

In a letter dated Monday, Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez asked Secretary of the Commonwealth Carol Aichele to provide documents including the state's voter registration list and its list of driver's licenses and personal identification cards, with each roster including full names, addresses, dates of birth, identifying numbers and race.

The letter also requests documents supporting a statement in a March press release from the office of Gov. Tom Corbett that 99 percent of the state's eligible voters have acceptable IDs, as well as documents supporting a Department of State estimate earlier this month that approximately 758,000 registered voters lack state-issued photo identification acceptable for voting.

Back from the beach, here are your Tuesday morning headlines, non-Voter ID version:

Longtime GOP rainmaker Evans Rose died over the weekend, and Gary Rotstein writes a typically graceful and informative obit.

The theft trial for former GOP rising star and 2010 county exec candidate Chuck McCullough (above) looks to be delayed yet again until sometime next year. Moriah Balingit has the details on the charges, which go back to 2009.

Rasmussen has Bob Casey up 11 points over GOP challenger Tom Smith in their latest poll, which is a bigger margin than the conservative pollster's last study.

Pittsburgh may sell naming rights on buildings, uniforms and other assets to supposedly raise a half-million bucks. (Joe Smydo)