Late Friday, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated Wisconsin’s voter ID law, which has been on hold for years.
That’s a big deal. A bigger deal is that the election is only weeks away.
“The decision has thrown everything into chaos,” Kristin Hansen of the ACLU told me. She said that she was concerned that elections workers would take the opportunity to overly scrutinize voters’ IDs as a way to intimidate them at the polls. Also of concern is the law’s impact on transgender voters, whose current appearance may not match their photo on their ID. She said she feared that the new regulations would deter people from voting because it seems like it’s such a hassle.
“I would hate to think that someone wouldn’t vote just because there’s a new requirement,” she said.
The state Government Accountability Board is trying to figure out how to implement this law at this late date. More than 11,000 absentee ballots have already been sent out without instructions for voter ID. The GAB will hold a press conference tomorrow—let’s hope that they have developed instructions for clerks around the state.
Another wrinkle is how to obtain an ID that can be used for voting. As One Wisconsin Now pointed out, although Walker is making it easier to obtain an ID at DMVs, that’s still pretty difficult to do, since 26% of DMVs are only open one day a month and more than half are open only on a part-time basis. Let that sink in for a minute.
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Brendan Fischer, writing for Center for Media and Democracy, has a good overview of Friday’s oral arguments, including the judges on the case—one of whom is one of the ex-wives of Charlie Sykes.
And this is what democracy is supposed to look like?
