Today, the opponents of Wisconsin’s voter ID law sent an emergency plea to Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, the high court judge who oversees the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. The ID opponents want the Supreme Court to vacate the three-judge’s decision to allow voter ID to be implemented before the Nov. 4 election.
Is this a long-shot bid? It isn’t the most common request, but it’s basically all that these folks have, so there’s nothing left to lose. Another group of opponents have sent a request to the state Supreme Court, but since the majority of those justices are Republicans in robes, I would say that there's a slim to none chance of getting a fair hearing there.
In my opinion, the ACLU et al. have an absolutely reasonable request. The state cannot fully implement voter ID at the 11th hour, and shame on the five Republican-appointed appellate court judges for allowing this law to go into effect at this late date.
The U.S. Supreme Court has issued decisions that prohibit voting rule changes so near to an election. That’s why the word “chaos” is constantly used to describe Wisconsin’s current electoral changes.
What’s more, almost 12,000 voters requested absentee ballots prior to the ID law’s sudden revival in September. Hundreds already voted. None of them needed a photo ID to vote. Now clerks must contact all of these voters and would-be voters and tell them that although they did everything properly at the time, the rules are being backdated so that they’re now lawbreakers. OK. Right.
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Lastly, the state isn’t doing anything to help voters get IDs or even spread the word about voter ID. Those needing an ID must go to a DMV office. Not easy, especially when half of them are only open two days a week. The state isn’t doing anything to expand ID application sites—say, to local city halls, mobile units or online applications. And the GOP-controlled Legislature certainly isn’t rushing to provide the GAB with more money for poll worker training or public outreach. The budget-writing committee is co-chaired by state Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), who'd famously declared that if voter ID had been implemented during the 2012, Mitt Romney would have carried Wisconsin. So, Darling isn't really a neutral party in this, just like voter ID isn't a politically neutral law.
Will this have an impact on the Nov. 4 election? Almost certainly. According to yesterday’s Marquette University Law School poll, about 20% of those surveyed didn’t know that they would need to bring an ID to the polls. How wonderful. So what happens when these folks show up without an ID? What if conscientious voters try to get an ID but it doesn’t come through in time for the election? What if the lines at the DMV are so long that people just get frustrated and go home?
An estimated 300,000 qualified voters have been instantly disenfranchised by voter ID. Roughly 70,000 more are qualified but not registered. Even if some or most of these folks obtain an ID before Nov. 4, there will still be plenty of non-IDed voters who aren’t allowed to cast a ballot. This could swing elections all over the state. Not only the gubernatorial race, but tons of smaller races on the ballot, races that can be decided by just a few hundred—or fewer—votes. These folks don't get a second chance to vote. Nov. 4 is it.
Just something for Justice Kagan to think about.
Photo credit: The White House
