On April 1, Wisconsin citizens will have the opportunity to enact a voter ID determine into the country’s constitution.  ,
Citizens will , be asked , whether the state’s founding document may be amended to require citizens “present legitimate picture identification verifying their identity in order to vote in any election”, with this condition being” content to instances which may be established by law”. In a recent poll among listed Wisconsin citizens conducted by The Marquette Law School, 73 percent of respondents said they support the proposed voting ID article. In contrast, more latest countrywide polls have found that at least 80 percent of Americans support vote ID.
But despite voter ID plan popularity both nationwide and regionally, Democrats are fighting the election soon to look on the Wisconsin vote.
The vote proposal was approved by the Republican-led Council” with no help from Democrats”, CBS News reported in January. While there are currently no constitutional challenges to the current voting ID laws already in place in the condition,” Democrats said picture ID requirements are typically enforced badly, making it more difficult for people of color, the disabled and weak people to vote”, according to the store. They even “argued that politicians should focus instead on different issues such as gun power, clean water, inexpensive accommodation, and expanding access to infant care”.
Many left-leaning voting campaigner groups have even come out against the plan. Souls To The Surveys Wisconsin, a apparently “left-of-center” get out the vote party, called the election “harmful” in a social media post next month.
” This newest amendment proposal would enshrine Wisconsin’s tight voter ID laws in the state constitution–disenfranchising thousands of qualified voters and limiting the judge’s ability to protect our election right”, the post reads.
The executive director of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign ( WDC ), Nick Ramos, similarly suggested to a local NBC affiliate that the referendum would “make it harder for people to vote”. ( According to conservative watchdog InfluenceWatch, WDC has a history of “target]ting ] the financial supporters of Republican and conservative policy leaders” and pursues policy goals “decidedly left-of-center”. )
In addition, the Wisconsin chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a “nearly 100-year-old left-leaning activism organization”, according to InfluenceWatch, issued a statement in February urging voters to vote “no” on the measure, arguing that voter ID laws “disenfranchise” voters. The ACLU of Wisconsin Union along with more than 20 other organizations also signed onto a joint letter opposing the measure last month. WDC and Souls to the Polls Wisconsin are also among the signers.
Voter ID Is Already Law
Even if Wisconsinites do not pass the referendum, the state still has a voter ID law in place. But, as noted by Politifact, “if passed, it would elevate the law to the state constitution, making it harder for the state Supreme Court to overturn it or future lawmakers to repeal it”.
In 2011, then-Gov. Scott Walker signed a voter ID law that briefly went into effect before a series of lawsuits put the law on hold in 2012. The law faced a series of challenges by the Wisconsin League of Women Voters, the ACLU, the NAACP, and the League of United Latin American Citizens.
These lawsuits argued the law was unconstitutional or tantamount to voter suppression. As PBS Wisconsin outlines in its” Timeline Of Voter ID Rules In Wisconsin“, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled the law to be constitutional in 2013, though the law remained blocked as the NAACP lawsuit worked through the appeals process. The state Supreme Court upheld the law in 2014 before the United States Supreme Court temporarily blocked the law again. The law went back into effect during the 2016 election cycle.
The law currently remains in effect and was active during the 2024 election cycle. Currently, Wisconsin voters must present a form of photo ID in order to vote. Voters who do not present an ID when attempting to vote may cast a provisional ballot that will later be counted so long as the voter provides an acceptable form of ID to election officials before 4 p. m. on the Friday following the election.
Republican State Sen. Van Wanggaard, who is sponsoring the voter ID measure, said,” We can be sure that a new lawsuit challenging]the current laws ‘ ] constitutionality is coming”, according to the Associated Press, adding that he is” not willing to risk” the law being struck down by the state Supreme Court.
Wanggaard said in a statement to The Federalist that this referendum is a” common sense election integrity measure” and that without it, “it calls into question who is voting in our elections”.
” The main reason for the amendment is to protect it from our newly liberal and unburdened-by-precedent Supreme Court”, Wanggaard told The Federalist. ” I have little doubt that the Liberal wing of the Wisconsin Supreme Court would overturn its previous ruling that Voter ID is constitutional”.
The race for control of the state Supreme Court is perhaps the top-ticket issue in the April 1 election, with spending on the race reportedly surpassing$ 30 million.
]READ: ConservativesCan’t Allow Wisconsin’s Upcoming Supreme Court Race To Fall Through The Cracks ]
Notably, Susan Crawford, the Democrat-backed candidate chosen to run for the state Supreme Court, represented plaintiffs as an attorney on one of the cases challenging Wisconsin’s voter ID law in 2011.
Wisconsin’s liberal-led Supreme Court has recently ruled against other election integrity efforts in the state, including overturning its own ruling banning absentee ballot drop boxes last July.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
