Judge: Wisconsin Voter ID, Early Voting Laws Are Dead

WISCONSIN -- A federal judge struck down portions of Wisconsin's Voter ID laws Friday, adding a scathing opinion against that - and other laws deemed unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge James Peterson, in a 119-page ruling issued late Friday, said that the state Legislature crafted election law that fails to keep elections fair and open to all qualified electors, is perceived as a way to suppress minority votes, and was supported on the unfounded fear of multiple voting.

"To put it bluntly, Wisconsin’s strict version of voter ID law is a cure worse than the disease," he wrote in his opinion. "The most pointed problem with Wisconsin’s voter ID law is that it lacks a functioning safety net for qualified electors who cannot get a voter ID with reasonable effort.

In a wide-ranging criticism of Wisconsin election law, Judge Peterson also rendered the following in his opinion:

Constitutionality Concerns:

In sum, Wisconsin has the authority to regulate its elections to preserve their
integrity, and a voter ID requirement can be part of a well-conceived election system. But, as explained in the pages that follow, parts of Wisconsin’s election regime fail to comply with the constitutional requirement that its elections remain fair and equally open to all qualified electors.

Effect on Race:

The evidence in this case showed that portions of Wisconsin’s population, especially those who live in minority communities, perceive voter ID laws as a means of suppressing voters.

Unfounded Fears:

The real fear is multiple voting: that a committed but unethical partisan could cast many votes for his or her candidate under different names. Yet there is utterly no evidence that this is a systematic problem, or even a common occurrence in Wisconsin or anywhere in the United States.

In his opinion, Judge Peterson said that Wisconsin cannot, by law, enforce the following provisions:

• most of the state-imposed limitations on the time and location for in person absentee voting (although the state may set a uniform rule disallowing in-person absentee voting on the Monday before elections);

• the requirement that “dorm lists” to be used as proof of residence include citizenship information; Case: 3:15-cv-00324-jdp Document #: 234 Filed: 07/29/16 Page 5 of 119

• the 28-day durational residency requirement;

• the prohibition on distributing absentee ballots by fax or email; and
• the bar on using expired but otherwise qualifying student IDs.

He wrote that his ruling will have no effect on the Aug. 9 primary election, in an effort to avoid disrupting the election.

Judge Peterson's ruling comes one week after a different federal judge ruled that voters who do not have an ID card or who are unable to obtain one can officially vote in the November election after a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman in Milwaukee creates a "safety valve" for voters who have difficulties getting IDs and thus have been unable to cast ballots under the state's 2011 voter ID law,the Journal Sentinel reported.

The ruling will allow voters to use affidavits instead of IDs to vote in the Nov. 8 presidential election. The affidavit policy will not be in place during the August 9 primary for congressional and state legislative races.

Voter IDs Long and Winding Road in Wisconsin
Tuesday's ruling marks the latest chapter in the long-running legal saga over voter ID in Wisconsin. The law was blocked for years by court decisions, but went back into effect this year after overcoming those initial challenges.
The website Ballotpedia has a full timeline of events for Wisconsin's voter ID law.

Behold the complexity:

1. January 27, 2011: The bill was introduced to the Wisconsin State Assembly.[3]
2. May 9, 2011: The Joint Finance Committee approved the bill iby a 12-2 vote.[4]
3. May 11, 2011: The Wisconsin State Assembly approved the proposed bill by a vote of 60-35.[5]
4. May 17, 2011: The Wisconsin State Senate approved the bill by a 19-14 vote.[6]
5. May 25, 2011: Governor Scott Walker signed the bill into law.[3]
6. June 9, 2011: The legislation was published.[6]
7. October 20, 2011: The Wisconsin chapter of the League of Women Voters filed a lawsuit in Dane County Court challenging the law.[7]
8. December 13, 2011: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Wisconsin, and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty filed a federal lawsuit, alleging that the law was unconstitutional and denied citizens the right to vote.[8]
9. February 21, 2012: Photo identification was required to vote in theprimary election.
10. March 6, 2012: Dane County Judge David Flanagan ruled that the requirement could not be enforced for the April 3 presidential primary and local elections.[9]
11. March 12, 2012: Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess ruled that the law violated the state constitution.[9] Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen appealed the decision.[3][9]
12. April 29, 2014: Judge Lynn Adelman blocked the photo ID requirement, ruling that it violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Actand the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. She concluded that about 300,000 Wisconsin residents currently did not have identification that would fulfill the requirements and that the law would "prevent more legitimate votes from being cast than fraudulent votes."
13. July 31, 2014: The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the identification requirement. The ruling was made under appeal, requiring a federal appeals court to overturn it for the requirement to be in effect for the November 4 elections.[10]
14. September 12, 2014: A three-member panel of the Seventh Circuit court determined that the photo identification requirements could take effect immediately.
15. September 26, 2014: The Seventh Circuit Court of Appealsdetermined that a hearing of the full court would not be held. The 10-member court voted on whether to hold a hearing and were split 5 -5. A majority is required to grant the request for a full hearing.[3]
16. October 9, 2014: the United States Supreme Court ordered that the requirement not take effect for the November 4, 2014, elections.[11]
17. March 23, 2015: The United States Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge against the law, thereby allowing the law to take full effect. Wisconsin state officials announced that the law would not be enforced for the election taking place on April 7, 2015, but would be enforced for subsequent elections.[2][1]
18. April 12, 2016: The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ordered a lower federal court to reconsider a case challenging Wisconsin's voter identification law.