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March 15, 2012

Judge Rules Wisconsin Voter ID Law Unconstitutional

Judge Rules Wisconsin Voter ID Law Unconstitutional

A Wisconsin Judge on Monday ruled that the state's voter Identification law, which would have disenfranchised large numbers of black men and women,  violates the state’s  constitution.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Richard Niess ruled that the suffrage provision of the Wisconsin Constitution does not give the state's legislature power to enact a voter-identification provision that has the effect of disenfranchising otherwise qualified voters merely because they lack one of the limited forms of acceptable identification.

The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Education Network in January sued to overturn the law that required registered voters to show a state-issued driver's license or other state-issued identification in order to vote. Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed the bill into law last May.

The League of Women Voters, which is based in Madison, Wis., challenged the Voter ID law on the grounds that the Republican-enacted legislation had created a new class of voters, which violated the state's constitution.
The Wisconsin Constitution excludes felons and individuals judged to be incompetent from voting, but the new law creates a third class of citizens who may not vote—those who don't have a photo ID, the League's lawyers argued before the court.

Although the new law required residents to present a state-issued identification card, a leaked memo disclosed that Wisconsin officials planned to make it difficult for individuals to obtain an ID.

The Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles was supposed to issue free ID for voting, but the memo instructed DMV employees not to mention the availability of free identification cards.


A resident seeking the identification credential also had to present a birth certificate, passport or certificate of naturalization, which cost money to obtain. The law's opponents called the requirements a poll tax.

According to a research report by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on the driver's license status of the voting age population in Wisconsin, the black vote would suffer because 55 percent of black men and 49 percent of black women in the state did not have valid driver's licenses. This compares with 17 percent of white men and 17 percent of white women, who do not have valid driver's licenses, the report found.

Melanie G. Ramey, state president of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Education Network, issued a statement reasserting that voting is a right protected by the U.S. Constitution.

“Voting is not like cashing a check or getting on an airplane,” Ramey said. “Those activities are not protected by the Constitution. Voting is one way in which all citizens are equal and that is worth fighting for.”

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