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With just seven weeks before the Nov. 4 election,opponents of voter ID say the new requirement would be impossible to implementin that short span of time.
That’s why they’re askingthe full 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review Friday’sdecision, made by three Republican-appointed judges, that revives Wisconsin’svoter ID law, one of the most restrictive voter ID laws in the country.
That three-judge panel said that they were OK withnew voter ID rules cooked up by the Walker administration and released viapress release the day before their decision.
But voter ID opponents say there’s simply not enoughtime to implement the changes.
Friday’s decision is a “recipe for chaos,” said DaleHo, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Voting RightsProject, in a conference call with reporters this morning.
“There are fewerthan seven weeks before election day and no court has ever let anidentification law like this go into effect this close to an election based onlast-minute changes to the law," Ho said. "It will cause confusion and disenfranchisement,which will not create any kind of benefit to the state. The state will not beharmed in any way by letting this election proceed under the sameidentification rules that have been in effect in all of Wisconsin’s save onethroughout its entire history.”
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman agreed with theACLU and their allies that studies show that more than300,000 qualified voters would be disenfranchised by the voter ID requirement.More than 70,000 unregistered voters would be disenfranchised as well.
And, of course, the burden would falldisproportionately on African American and Latino voters, students, theelderly, low-income voters, and those born out of state.
“The Voting Rights Act was specifically passedacknowledging the many burdens minority voters already face and this lawfurther compounds the problem by adding additional burdens,” said Darryl Morin,LULAC National VP-Midwest.
He scoffed at the new ad hoc procedures released theday before the three-judge panel ruled.
“Let me be clear,” Morin said. “This process willonly work for individuals who are born in the state of Wisconsin. There iscurrently nothing in place to address eligible voters who are not from thestate of Wisconsin or from Puerto Rico, for instance.”
He cited a 2011 study showing that 75% of whiteresidents in Wisconsin were born in the state. But just 59% of African Americanand 43% Latino Wisconsinites were born in the state.
A disproportionate number of minority voters will be“essentially locked out of the polling booth for no reason other than thislaw,” Morin said.
Now, let’s do the math.
The district court found that 300,000 qualified Wisconsinvoters don’t have acceptable ID for voting under this law.
That means the state would have to issue about 6,000voter IDs per day leading up to the election to ensure that all of these folkscould vote on Nov. 4, Ho noted.
“It’s simply not possible,” Ho said.
And more than 11,000 absentee ballots have alreadybeen sent out without the voter ID requirement. Hundreds of those ballots havealready been returned, Ho said.
“This election is in fact already underway,” Hosaid.
The state Government Accountability Board (GAB) hasno money in its budget for public education and outreach on voter ID, Ho noted.
Yesterday, the GAB’s chief, Kevin Kennedy, said theboard would use and revive the materials it had created after the law was passed in 2011. (It was in force in one low-turnout primary backthen, before the court halted it.)
Attorney John Ulin said that when the Legislaturepassed the voter ID law, the GAB had planned to roll out the new regulationsover the course of eight months. Now, in just seven weeks, the GAB is forced to train more than1,800 municipal clerks and educate the public about the rules, which can betricky if you don’t have an acceptable ID.
Even worse, the state Department of Motor Vehicles(DMV) offices, where voters can obtain an ID that’s acceptable for voting, havespotty operating hours. An eye-popping 43 of 92 DMV offices are only open twodays per week for a total of 10 hours. In two counties, DMV offices won’t beopen at all before election day.
“There is simply no chance that this law can beimplemented effectively by November,” Ho said.
That’s why they’re askingthe full 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review Friday’sdecision, made by three Republican-appointed judges, that revives Wisconsin’svoter ID law, one of the most restrictive voter ID laws in the country.
That three-judge panel said that they were OK withnew voter ID rules cooked up by the Walker administration and released viapress release the day before their decision.
But voter ID opponents say there’s simply not enoughtime to implement the changes.
Friday’s decision is a “recipe for chaos,” said DaleHo, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Voting RightsProject, in a conference call with reporters this morning.
“There are fewerthan seven weeks before election day and no court has ever let anidentification law like this go into effect this close to an election based onlast-minute changes to the law," Ho said. "It will cause confusion and disenfranchisement,which will not create any kind of benefit to the state. The state will not beharmed in any way by letting this election proceed under the sameidentification rules that have been in effect in all of Wisconsin’s save onethroughout its entire history.”
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman agreed with theACLU and their allies that studies show that more than300,000 qualified voters would be disenfranchised by the voter ID requirement.More than 70,000 unregistered voters would be disenfranchised as well.
And, of course, the burden would falldisproportionately on African American and Latino voters, students, theelderly, low-income voters, and those born out of state.
“The Voting Rights Act was specifically passedacknowledging the many burdens minority voters already face and this lawfurther compounds the problem by adding additional burdens,” said Darryl Morin,LULAC National VP-Midwest.
He scoffed at the new ad hoc procedures released theday before the three-judge panel ruled.
“Let me be clear,” Morin said. “This process willonly work for individuals who are born in the state of Wisconsin. There iscurrently nothing in place to address eligible voters who are not from thestate of Wisconsin or from Puerto Rico, for instance.”
He cited a 2011 study showing that 75% of whiteresidents in Wisconsin were born in the state. But just 59% of African Americanand 43% Latino Wisconsinites were born in the state.
A disproportionate number of minority voters will be“essentially locked out of the polling booth for no reason other than thislaw,” Morin said.
Now, let’s do the math.
The district court found that 300,000 qualified Wisconsinvoters don’t have acceptable ID for voting under this law.
That means the state would have to issue about 6,000voter IDs per day leading up to the election to ensure that all of these folkscould vote on Nov. 4, Ho noted.
“It’s simply not possible,” Ho said.
And more than 11,000 absentee ballots have alreadybeen sent out without the voter ID requirement. Hundreds of those ballots havealready been returned, Ho said.
“This election is in fact already underway,” Hosaid.
The state Government Accountability Board (GAB) hasno money in its budget for public education and outreach on voter ID, Ho noted.
Yesterday, the GAB’s chief, Kevin Kennedy, said theboard would use and revive the materials it had created after the law was passed in 2011. (It was in force in one low-turnout primary backthen, before the court halted it.)
Attorney John Ulin said that when the Legislaturepassed the voter ID law, the GAB had planned to roll out the new regulationsover the course of eight months. Now, in just seven weeks, the GAB is forced to train more than1,800 municipal clerks and educate the public about the rules, which can betricky if you don’t have an acceptable ID.
Even worse, the state Department of Motor Vehicles(DMV) offices, where voters can obtain an ID that’s acceptable for voting, havespotty operating hours. An eye-popping 43 of 92 DMV offices are only open twodays per week for a total of 10 hours. In two counties, DMV offices won’t beopen at all before election day.
“There is simply no chance that this law can beimplemented effectively by November,” Ho said.
