The Independent View: Wisconsin Seeks to Revive Voter Photo ID Rule for Nov. General Election

Wisconsin is pressing for a court ruling to resurrect its voter photo identification law in time for the Nov. 4 election.

Wisconsin’s law, signed in 2011 by Republican Governor Scott Walker, who is seeking re-election, requires would-be voters to present a government-issued picture ID before they can cast a ballot.

Known as Act 23, the law was blocked by a Milwaukee federal court judge who in April ruled it had a disproportionate effect on poor black and Latino voters who don’t have a qualifying ID and lack the wherewithal to obtain one.

The showdown over the measure is scheduled today before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago comes as skirmishes over voting restrictions are being fought in Ohio and Texas in the seven weeks before citizens head to the polls. A trial over Texas’ voter ID law is under way in Corpus Christi. Ohio is appealing a federal court ruling barring it from shortening its in-person early voting time by a week.

Wisconsin has more than 3.3 million registered voters, according to the state’s Government Accountability Board. More than 90 percent of them have the required identification, the state said in a court filing. There are 300,000 who don’t have it, according to an opposing filing by the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued to invalidate the law.

Courts have reviewed dozens of challenges to voter requirements passed by Republican-dominated legislatures since President Barack Obama’s 2008 victory. Supporters of the laws say they’re needed to prevent voter fraud. Opponents contend the measures are aimed at suppressing the turnout of poor and elderly voters who may be more inclined to support Democrats.

In his April decision blocking the law, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman said while the state had a legitimate interest in requiring proof of identity, “virtually no voter impersonation occurs in Wisconsin and it is exceedingly unlikely that voter impersonation will become a problem in the foreseeable future.”

Wisconsin’s lawyers, in asking the federal appeals court to revive the law in time for the November elections, said the state Supreme Court created a procedure for voters who lack a photo ID to get one from the state’s motor vehicles department without having to pay for underlying documentary proof of identity.

That process, which takes effect Sept. 15, “will eliminate the potential financial burden that many voters who lack a birth certificate might experience with obtaining a free ID card from the DMV,” Wisconsin’s attorneys told the U.S. appeals court panel in an Aug. 4 filing.

Daniel Tokaji, a professor at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law in Columbus said if he were a judge, he would press the state’s lawyers for details on the workings of that program. “Often, these difficult constitutional questions depend on such details,” he said.

The cases are Frank v. Walker, 14-2058, and League of Latin American Citizens of Wisconsin v. Deininger, 14-2059, U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit (Chicago).

UPDATE
A three panel federal appeals court reinstated the Voter ID law for the 2014 General Election. The court did not issue a full opinion, saying it would do so "in due course".