[ganbaru]

Analysis: How opponents held back the voter ID tide
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8911CQ20121002

A Pennsylvania judge's decision to block a voter ID law on Tuesday is only the latest in a series of setbacks for new state laws that require voters to show identification before voting.
Voter ID laws have also been turned back in Wisconsin and Texas this year and some others may also not go into effect before the U.S. presidential election just five weeks away.
The fact that tighter voting laws are faring poorly in court was not expected by some legal experts. That's because in 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a voter identification law passed by Indiana, leading many experts to conclude that it would be hard to challenge such laws in court.
Since the last presidential election, some 15 states have passed or tightened legislation requiring people to identify themselves before voting.
Defenders of the laws, mostly Republicans, say the laws are needed to prevent people from fraudulently impersonating registered voters at the election booth. Opponents, mostly Democrats, complain that obtaining identification documents is an undue burden that could disenfranchise the poor, minorities and the elderly.
In its 2008 decision, the Supreme Court found that a 2005 Indiana law requiring voters to identify themselves was not an undue burden.
But in the recent wave of voter ID laws, opponents have successfully marshaled a series of arguments, including showing why the situation in individual states is different from the one in Indiana.