Some members within the PA Voter ID Coalition, organized by the Committee of Seventy, are still fighting the law, and everyone in the group is working to spread the word in their communities and make sure voters have unexpired photo IDs.
There are concerns that the law will disenfranchise voters that don't know about the change and those without proper ID, mainly blacks, Latinos, the poor, elderly and young - all demographics that tend to vote for Democrats.
"Our main concern is to alleviate any confusion of voters exposed to [the change] for the first time," said Joe Certaine, an organizer for the coalition who said that his worst nightmare is voters not voting because they don't know what they need.
Coalition efforts in Philadelphia focus on voter registration and education about the ID requirements, according to Paula Peebles, from the Philadelphia National Action Network. Her organization canvasses communities, holds registration events in public venues and speaks to religious organizations on Sundays.
Nutter sent a letter on Monday asking Gov. Corbett to extend PennDOT hours, provide one standardized set of guidelines to county election officials and set up extra temporary voter-ID service sites. Five PennDOT Philadelphia locations recently added Thursday evening hours to accommodate people requesting IDs.
Actions by the city government to inform the public include posted fliers and a letter to city block captains discussing the new changes. The city issued new ID cards to employees who did not have proper identification. Past city ID cards did not include expiration dates.
Oct. 9 is the last day to register.
Contact Sara Khan at khans@phillynews.com.
