Outrageous. I have lived here more than 25 years, and this law has been passed by the legislature and by the people in a referendum several times during that period, only to be vetoed by a Dem Governor. I work at the polls and my poll was 100% co-operative and grateful for the voter ID finally becoming law.
Wisconsin Voter ID Ping
FReep Mail want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Please put me on your ping list. What are the citizens of Wisconsin going to do about this?
A Dane County judge on Tuesday barred the enforcement of the state photo ID law at polling places during the general election on April 3, calling it an "extremely broad and largely needless" impairment of the right to vote.Circuit Judge David Flanagan said the Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP and Voces de la Frontera had demonstrated that their lawsuit against Gov. Scott Walker and the state Government Accountability Board would probably succeed on its merits and had demonstrated the likelihood of irreparable harm if the photo ID law is allowed to stand.
Flanagan granted a temporary injunction ordering Walker and the GAB to "cease immediately any effort to enforce or implement the photo identification requirements" of the law, pending a trial on a permanent injunction scheduled before him on April 16.
"If no injunction is issued, a clearly improper impairment of a most vital element of our society will occur," Flanagan wrote. "The duty of the court is clear. The case has been made. Irreparable harm is likely to occur in the absence of an injunction."
Republicans pushed the law through the Legislature last year to stop voter fraud. But opponents of the law have said it goes too far and keeps eligible voters from casting ballots, especially minorities, the poor and the disabled.
Democrats applauded Flanagan's decision.
State Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa, D-Milwaukee, said the ruling could boost turnout among Milwaukee's under-represented communities, especially Latinas and African-American men.
"Now they'll be able to head out and cast their votes," she said.
Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, said it was good news for voters, especially seniors who have told her they are struggling to get birth certificates needed to get photo IDs.
Cullen Werwie, the governor's spokesman, said Walker was confident the state would prevail in the case. "Requiring photo identification to vote is common sense. We require it to get a library card, cold medicine, and public assistance," he said. "Ensuring the integrity of our elections is one of the core functions of government."
Spokesmen for Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The GAB declined to comment Tuesday afternoon. The lawsuit is one of several pending in state and federal courts challenging the law. On Monday, Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess agreed to allow another lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin to go forward, finding that the League is a proper party to bring the lawsuit.
In Flanagan's decision, he wrote that the state constitution establishes voting as a fundamental right. With the photo ID law, Flanagan wrote, Wisconsin now has the "benefit and burden" of the most restrictive voter eligibility law in the U.S.
But the law addresses a problem which is very limited, "if indeed extant," he wrote, and fails to account for the difficulty its demands impose upon indigent, elderly and disabled voters.
"It offers no flexibility, no alternative to prevent the exclusion of a constitutionally qualified voter," he wrote. "By contrast, the sweep and impact of the law is very broad," and steps beyond the proper authority of the Legislature in violation of the state constitution.
"The scope of the impairment has been shown to be serious, extremely broad and largely needless," he wrote. "There is no doubt that the plaintiffs have shown a very substantial likelihood of success on the merits.
Flanagan cited testimony by UW-Madison professor Ken Mayer, who found that as of 2002 there were 221,975 constitutionally qualified voters who do not have a driver's license or a photo identification card. Eligible voters without a license may apply for a voter identification card from the state Department of Transportation, but the assertion that there is no direct fee for that, Flanagan wrote, "is at best a somewhat incomplete picture."
Of 40 affidavits submitted to the court about the process of getting an ID card, 19 said they paid between $14 and $39.50 to obtain a certified birth certificate from Wisconsin and elsewhere.
"This is a real cost that is imposed upon constitutionally eligible voters and was found to be an improper burden by the Missouri Supreme Court," Flanagan wrote, citing that state's case concerning a photo identification law.
Further info:
He is up for re-election in April.
He SIGNED THE WALKER RECALL.
How on earth can his judgement not be called into question???
Belling now saying that its likely that if this holds no voter ID for the recall election.