In an emergency alert sent to voters this morning over social media, radio PSAs, email and phone calls, the Election Protection Coalition told Pennsylvania voters:

Today is Election Day. Vote. You do not need a photo ID in order to vote in Pennsylvania if you have voted before. First-time voters will need to show some form of ID, photo or non-photo. Call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) if you have any questions or concerns.

Ron Oliver, AFL-CIO Community Services liaison in Erie, Pa., tells us last night the local labor movement there worked with community allies to create a safe, fun Halloween party for inner-city children. Some 50 to 60 little goblins and superheroes gathered at a local church and had a great time munching chips and cupcakes. Mmmmmmmmm.

If you're in Pennsylvania and want to help get out the vote, time is running out. Check out the remaining canvassing and phone bank opportunities in your area. 

PHILADELPHIA

Contact: Liz McElroy, 267-455-8191, emcelroy@philaflcio.org

Transport Workers (TWU) from Philadelphia's Local 234 and New York City's Local 100 are collaborating to make sure that voters in critical swing-state Pennsylvania get out and vote. After Republicans bragged about how the state's new voter identification law was going to allow presidential candidate Mitt Romney to win the state, a state judge said otherwise and blocked the new measure for this presidential election. Activists were inspired to work harder than ever to make sure that the state, which could be vital in determining the outcome of the presidential election, voted once again for President Obama.

AFT’s "Your Vote–Your Right–Their Futures” bus tour is rolling through Florida this week building support and getting out the vote for President Obama and other working family candidates. AFT President Randi Weingarten, AFT Secretary-Treasurer Lorretta Johnson, along with local and state AFT officials and members, will meet with union and community election volunteers and activists for rallies, marches and neighborhood walks.

AFL-CIO Pennsylvania Communications Director Yuri Beckelman sends us this report on what the recent court decision on the state’s new voter ID law means for voters.

If you live in Pennsylvania and are planning on voting this November, here is what you need to know about the new voter ID law: 

I’ll never forget my up-close encounter with vote suppression—and it’s the reason I’m so pleased today that a judge in Pennsylvania ordered elections officials there not to enforce a new voter ID law. That means Pennsylvanians who can’t show a photo ID when they go to the polls can still vote a regular—not a provisional—ballot.

My encounter with vote suppression was years ago, when I was a little girl and wanted a new pair of shoes. You can’t get new shoes now, my mother told me, because she had to save the money to pay her poll tax. That’s how important the right to vote was to my mother—she knew it was a sacred right that people had fought and died for and she was not about to treat it as anything less.

A Pennsylvania state judge this morning issued a partial injunction of the state's voter ID law. Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson ruled that voters will still be asked to present a valid ID, and if they don't have one, they'll be asked to present one next time but will be able to vote in the Nov. 6 election.

Voters will not be required to return within six days to show a valid identification card, as was required by the law passed earlier this year. 

We’ll bring you more details later. This ruling only applies to the Nov. 6 election. 

Joseph Desprez, a Philadelphia voter, saw the My Vote, My Right event at PennDOT today and volunteered to be a poll watcher this November. Desprez already had a state-issued voter ID, and wanted to make sure everyone who wants to vote would be able to.

Pennsylvania voters went to the PennDOT office in the Oxford Levick Shopping Center in Philadelphia, Pa., Saturday, Sept. 22, to obtain voter IDs.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision to send the voter ID law back to the lower court for evaluation on whether the law disenfranchises voters "is a positive step," says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. 

But it is also a reminder of how cumbersome voter ID laws have become to voters. We are less than 50 days away from a critically important election, and many voters are going to face problems voting because of confusing voter ID laws. In Pennsylvania alone, more than 758,000 residents lack a state-issued ID and nationally the problem is even bigger.