Pa. Spanish website covers voter ID law in English

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A state website that’s supposed to help Spanish-speakers understand Pennsylvania’s voting laws uses English to describe the new voter-identification law.

The Spanish-language home page of the State Department “votesPA” website was correctly in Spanish this afternoon, except for the all-English link to the law that will require all voters to show photo identification in the Nov. 6 general election.

State Department spokesman Nick Winkler says it’s a temporary problem resulting from an ongoing redesign of the website. He says that work should be completed within days.

State Democratic Party spokesman Mark Nicastre said the problem reflects the “haphazard” implementation of the law passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

State officials recently acknowledged that nearly 10 percent of the state’s 8.2 million voters lack the most commonly used photo ID cards.