A Madison judge will reconsider a request to halt the new voter ID law on grounds questioning the legislation’s constitutionality.
The law, which requires Wisconsin voters to show a voter ID in order to receive a voting ballot, has raised many concerns with citizens and activists since its passage last May.
Peter McKeever, attorney for the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said the lawsuit is pending now but was filed sometime before Christmas.
It is one of three different lawsuits challenging this law. There are two lawsuits in the Dane County Circuit Court and one in Milwaukee that all have allegations that the voter ID law is unconstitutional.
Judge David Flanagan initially denied the motion but has agreed to reconsider it on Feb. 24, McKeever said.
Flanagan set the case for a weeklong trial that will open April 14, where plaintiffs will try to prove that this law disenfranchises many people, McKeever said.
“Many seniors, poor people and people of color don’t have photo IDs because they don’t need one or don’t drive anywhere,” McKeever said. “It’s hard for some people to get them because they don’t know where their birth certificate is or can’t afford one.”
The law says that students have to show proof of enrollment at the voting booths, and that school IDs alone are inadequate proof.
“I think it’s a complicated law and a complicated issue that deserves an in-depth look, especially for students,” McKeever said. “Students are going to show up and not be able to vote.”
Lester Pines, attorney for League of Women Voters, is involved with a case that seeks the same result as the NAACP. The League of Women Voters requested temporary, rather than permanent, relief from the voter ID law.
According to Pines, NAACP asked the court for an injunction against the voter ID law because they believe it violates the Wisconsin constitution. NAACP claimed the law places improper and unnecessary burdens on the right to vote, Pines said.
“If you’re making minimum wage and you have to take a bus to city hall or the DMV and have to pay for it, and take the time off of work because your employer doesn’t give you time off, this inhibits people from voting,” Pines said. “The point of the law is to keep certain people from voting.”
Andrew Welhouse, spokesperson for Assembly Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said the law was modeled after a law in Indiana and was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court as constitutional.
“The voter ID law is to assure that people who are voting are who they say they are and to restore integrity in elections and make sure your vote isn’t canceled by someone else’s fraud,” Welhouse said. “It’s in the best interest of a free election to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.”
Welhouse said Fitzgerald’s campaign is fully confident the bill was passed through the legislative process correctly and that the law is constitutional.
