Pennsylvania Republicans’ election-rigging attempt famously failed to deliver the Keystone State to Mitt Romney in 2012.

Since then, proponents of the voter ID law mostly have remained silent, almost as if they understand the cause is doomed — and rightly so.

Not state Rep. Daryl D. Metcalfe, the Butler County Republican who sponsored the law, though.

His was one of the only voices lamenting a judge’s decision last week striking down the law as unconstitutional.

“An activist ruling by a partisan Democrat judge,” Metcalfe whined.

The fact that the law may impose a burden on voters who need an ID “doesn’t give you a reason to (disregard) the voice of the people,” he said.

Yes. It absolutely does.

That’s the whole point of checks and balances — to protect the people from blatant power grabs such as Metcalfe’s.

Even Gov. Tom Corbett’s response to Commonwealth Court Judge Bernard L. McGinley’s ruling was muted.

The governor declined to comment, and his attorney said they were mulling their options, which could include seeking a review by the full Commonwealth Court or an appeal directly to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Please spare us.

This is a steaming pile of a law that fails constitutionally upon even a cursory inspection.

The entire argument for voter ID — to protect the “integrity” of elections — was abandoned in the opening days of the inevitable court challenge, when the state’s lawyer stipulated he was “not aware of any incidents of in-person voter fraud.”

That, by the way, is the only type of election fraud this law would prevent.

A judge in 2012 stayed the identification requirement of the law, which has never been fully implemented.

Unfortunately for House majority leader Mike Turzai, that came after his famous boast at a Republican State Committee meeting in the summer of 2012.

Speaking of his party’s accomplishments, he ticked off this one: “Voter ID, which is gonna allow (GOP presidential candidate) Gov. Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”

Turzai was wrong, of course, but we will always appreciate his candor.

This law has always been about suppressing the votes of Democratic-leaning voters. Nothing more; nothing less.

The governor should finally drop the matter and give Pennsylvania’s voter ID law the death it so obviously deserves.