Voters may not have to present photo identification at the polls for the June recall elections after a court denied the state’s request to end a temporary injunction on the law Wednesday.
The voter ID law faces two challenges brought in two separate appeals courts, one brought by the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and the other by the Milwaukee Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Judges have imposed a temporary injunction in the NAACP case and a permanent injunction in the League of Women Voters case.
According to a court order in the NAACP case, since the matter is currently awaiting a decision by Judge David Flanagan, the court declined the Department of Justice request for an appeal, as well as the request to stay the temporary injunction.
“We are disappointed in this decision,” DOJ spokesperson Dana Brueck said in an email to The Badger Herald. “However, another injunction was entered in a separate action, and both injunctions would have to be stayed or overturned in order for the voter ID law to be in place for upcoming elections.”
Michael Hintze, Wisconsin state coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, said the injunctions against the voter ID law should never have been issued in the first place. He said presenting photo identification at the polls does not cause voters any hardship because the state pays for the identification.
He said this is a “one-man, one-vote” society, and that allowing people to vote multiple times without presenting voter ID could cancel out another’s vote.
“But it is what it is, and the election will move forward,” Hintze said.
Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said in a statement the ruling means Republican attempts to limit voter access will not be in effect for Gov. Scott Walker’s recall.
Tate said until Walker became governor, Wisconsin had always expanded voting rights, as it was the first state to ratify suffrage and to extend voting rights for young people.
“Once again, Wisconsin has been given a temporary reprieve from the efforts by Scott Walker and his Tea Party extremists to keep eligible voters from being able to exercise their franchise,” Tate said.
