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Voter ID Hearing Starts Today

By Cherri Gregg

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The courtroom showdown over Pennsylvania's voter ID law starts today in Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania filed the suit back in May and claims that more than a million voters would be turned away at the polls in November because they can't get proper ID for voting.

"The basic legal argument is that voting is a fundamental right and this law is unconstitutional because it infringes on that right."

Jennifer Clarke, one of the lawyers representing more than a dozen plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit, says they have more 50 witnesses, including experts to help prove their case:

"The experts are people who spend a lot of time with or without the voter ID law trying to help people get ID."

The Commonwealth says that the voter ID is valid law, arguing that the Department of State recently created a new more accessible free voter ID. With this new ID in place by late August, the state says no voters will be disenfranchised. The hearing is expect to last five to seven days.

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