HARRISBURG — A former policy director for Pennsylvania’s Department of State defended the state’s tough voter identification law Monday as a reasonable compromise that followed intense negotiations, even though it omits changes that the department proposed to ease some of the requirements.

Lawyers for plaintiffs seeking to overturn the mandatory photo ID requirement Monday questioned the official, Rebecca Oyler, about memos and e-mails describing the legislation in late 2011.

When asked if the department could do anything more to improve it, Oyler replied, “I think we’ve done everything that we see as being reasonable.”

Oyler’s testimony on the sixth day of a trial in Commonwealth Court showed the Republican architects of the law, including the GOP majorities in the Legislature and Gov. Tom Corbett sought to make the law as tough as possible, said Michael Rubin, an attorney for plaintiffs.

“Time and again, the department said, ‘You should make it less restrictive,’ and they chose to make it more restrictive and the result is, to use (Oyler’s) own words ... disenfranchisement,” he said.