After ourcoverage of the confusing and mixed messages from Pennsylvania's official VotesPA campaign, Steve in Philly writes to point out the elections website in suburban Montgomery County.
Toward the bottom, the site says, "Pennsylvania's newly adopted Voter ID Law will not take effect until the November 2012 Election." That is not true anymore -- as of Tuesday, a state judge put that law on hold. But there the misinformation is:
Steve also points out the county's link to a "Voter ID flyer."
That goes to a pdf, which, as you can see, tells voters, "Be prepared to vote on November 6th. You MUST present one of the following forms of PHOTO ID when you go to your poll to vote." Again, that's not true.
Steve writes:
"I'm a lawyer, and a colleague and I each separately called and said they wouldn't take it down because it was 'still appealable" and it would stay up their until their (presumably Republican) solicitors told them to do so."
"I asked, 'So if it's a 90 day period to appeal, you'll keep it there until January?' The woman on the phone said, 'Yes.' "
For what it's worth, when I called just now, they told me, "It is going to be the law. It's just not for this election." Which, again, is not what the county website says. Also, for what it's worth, the county election commission lists two Democrats and one Republican.
However fast Pennsylvania officials are moving toward letting voters know they don't need ID, they've got a lot of ground to cover, and so far, they're not covering it.
UPDATE: This afternoon, Montgomery County pulled from its website the line about the voter ID law taking effect, along with the link to the flyer that said ID was mandatory in order to vote.
