Now that the Voter-ID law has been upheld in Pennsylvania, a provision in the law has good news and bad news for those who show up at the polls without an acceptable ID.

The good news in that you can vote with provisional ballot. And your vote will be counted if you meet the requirements of the law. This good news if you are a registered voter and you do have acceptable ID but just forgot to bring it to the polls.

But bad news if you are one of those without an acceptable ID and there are thousands perhaps hundreds of thousands in that group. The Philadephia Inquirer has had a good series of articles on the difficulties of getting the ID that some people experience and the legal battles.

But back to the law. Here is a quote from the state of Pennsylvania website .

Voters who forget to bring ID to the polls in the November 2012 General Election can vote by provisional ballot. Their vote will be counted, as long as the voter returns a copy of their acceptable ID and affirmation letter to their county within 6 calendar days. Affirmations and copies of ID may be returned to the county in person, by mail, fax, or via email.

So if you have an acceptable ID already, just get it to the county ofices in the next few days and your vote will be counted. If you do not have an acceptable ID but can get one in the next few days, again your vote will be counted. But if you are one of those people who can’t get one in the months before the election, does it seem at all likely that you will be able to get one in the next few days?

So to prevent voter impersonation which does happen but seems to very rare, we are spending millions of dollars and disenfranchising thousands of voters.