Good grief. If the Voter ID law Pennsylvania passed is judged constitutional, nearly half of eligible voters in Philadelphia could be denied the opportunity to vote in November.

About 437,237 registered voters in Philly either lack a state-issued ID or have one that has expired before Nov. 6 of last year, which would make it invalid in the upcoming elections under Pennsylvania’s new law, according to state data obtained by the AFL-CIO. As first reported by Philadelphia City Paper, that number represents 43 percent of registered voters in the city, the highest in any county statewide.

This is amusing in a sick way:

Nick Winkler, a spokesman with Pennsylvania’s Department of State, told TPM that they would be focusing their efforts to educate voters about the new law on Philadelphia and other areas or demographics that don’t have ID. He rebuffed a question on whether a Republican administration would have much motivation to educate voters who live in overwhelmingly Democratic areas about the law.

“That’s a terrible assumption to make. We are charged as an agency to make sure that all 8.2 million voters have the right to vote,” Winkler said. “The only ones bringing politics into our agency are the ones who want to make an issue out of it. Our secretary has made it clear from the start that her administration is focused on all 8.2 million people.”

Right. Pull the other one, Mr. Winkler. Since your state has already stipulated that there is no identifiable voter fraud in its jurisdiction, then what incentive have you got to ensure all those folks have proper IDs?