DOJ Urges Federal Appeals Court Not To Block Voter ID Again

Lawyers for the state urged a federal appeals court not to halt Wisconsin’s voter ID law again in a brief filed on Tuesday, saying such a move would give voters the “pinball treatment.”

The brief was in response to a petition filed by lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups appealing a recent ruling that reinstated Wisconsin’s voter ID law. The petition requests that the entire U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, and not just the three-judge panel that made the ruling, reconsider and again block the law, based on the plaintiffs’ assertion that there’s not enough time to implement it before this November’s election.

The state Department of Justice brief said that there’s no good reason to revisit the ruling. Wisconsin, the DOJ wrote, is already implementing voter ID, and blocking it again would pinball state and local election officials between enforcing the law and not enforcing it. Wisconsin’s DOJ said voters would feel the pinball effect too.

The brief said that the judges were “directly on point” when they relied on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 decision upholding Indiana’s voter ID law. The department also downplayed arguments that voter ID would create chaos at the polls this November: “People adjust,” it told the court.

A majority of the full court would have to agree to hear the appeal, which is not without precedent, but is nevertheless rare.

The court did issue one terse order on Tuesday, denying a brief filed by the liberal group One Wisconsin Now. That amicus brief sought to point out the differences between Indiana’s voter ID law and Wisconsin’s, namely that DMV offices in Wisconsin are fewer in number and have shorter hours.