Federal Judge Strikes A Critical Blow Against Wisconsin’s Voter Suppression Law
Source: Think Progress
On Tuesday, a federal judge in Wisconsin handed down a decision that will drastically weaken that states voter ID law, an increasingly common method of voter suppression that is often favored by conservatives because it effectively shifts the electorate rightward. Although the decision leaves the law in place, it permits voters who are unable to obtain an ID to sign an affidavit at the polls testifying to that inability and to receive a ballot.
Notably, Judge Lynn Adelmans decision provides that any voter who completes and submits an affidavit shall receive a regular ballot, even if that voter does not show acceptable photo identification and that no person may challenge the sufficiency of the reason given by the voter for failing to obtain ID. Thus, the state will not be able to prevent voters from casting a ballot by claiming that an individual voter is able to obtain an ID through reasonable efforts.
Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/07/19/3799982/federal-judge-strikes-critical-blow-wisconsins-voter-suppression-law/
X_Digger
(18,585 posts)chillfactor
(7,681 posts)jpak
(41,780 posts)*GOP dictionary for loser
yup
MiniMe
(21,810 posts)jtuck004
(15,882 posts)think that leaves a lot of wiggle room this side of a contempt citation.
nikto
(3,284 posts)Conservatives.
ailsagirl
(23,692 posts)Indydem
(2,642 posts)If they are shown to have lied, fibbed, distorted, or even mid-remembered in signing the affidavit, you can guarantee the Walker administration will prosecute them to the absolute fullest extent of the law.
Every person who signs one of these must be prepared for a thorough investigation, and they better have their t's crossed and their i's dotted, or they will claim fraud.
Furthermore, each and every one of the cases where there was a glitch, hiccup, or error will be touted by republicans across the country as PROOF that there IS voter fraud and voter ID is critical to fair elections.
I'm not so sure what all of you are happy about.
That law needs to be overturned in its entirety.
meow2u3
(24,899 posts)I'd include my thumbprint on the affidavit. This way, the voter would have indisputable proof of identity, unless, of course, the state is hellbent on illegally disenfranchising him or her.
Moonwalk
(2,322 posts)...investigate a lot of affidavits. What if there are 1000? 5000? 10,000....? Determined as the Walker folk are, are they *that* determined to dig through all those dotted "i's" and "t's" and take all these people to court? And (2) let's say they make an example of one or five voters...well, that puts them and these laws in the spotlight and not in a good way (persecuting some old lady for an undotted "i"?). (3) They can only do all that investigating AFTER the election.
Which means, they lose. The whole idea here is to make it so hard to vote that people won't bother. But this makes it easy for people to vote again. So, even if Walker & Co. make it hellish on those who signed affidavits, they've LOST. Because they couldn't scare people away before the election, only after. And AFTER, if democrats are in power is going to be a very bad idea. Repukes in power would let them get away with that, Dems won't.
In short, these laws and any punitive measures (like investigations of affidavits) only work if they can be done before someone casts their votehence keeping them from voting--not after. So. THAT is why we're happy. It'd be better if the law was gone, but this neuters it. That's better than nothing.