Federal Appeals Court Issues Opinions On Rejection Of Voter ID Appeal

Judge Against Rehearing Says Wisconsin Residents Have Had 3 Years To Get IDs

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The Flamingo sculpture outside the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago. Photo: Jason Mrachina (CC-BY-NC-ND).

Judges on a federal appeals court in Chicago have issued decisions explaining their recent vote that denied a rehearing of Wisconsin’s voter ID lawsuit.

The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals split 5-5 on whether to reconsider a recent court order that effectively reinstated Wisconsin’s voter ID requirements, after they had been on hold thanks to a district judge’s injunction. The split vote left them one vote short of the majority needed.

Writing for the five who did not want to reconsider the case, Judge Frank Easterbrook said Wisconsin’s voter ID law was enacted in May of 2011. Wrote Easterbrook, quote: “Voters in Wisconsin who did not already have a document that Wisconsin accepts (a driver’s license, for example) have had more than three years to get one.”

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Easterbrook also said that the burden of getting a photo ID in Wisconsin is not “materially different” than in Indiana, which has its own voter ID law upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008.

Writing for the five judges who wanted to reconsider the voter ID ruling, Judge Ann Claire Williams said the court should not have altered the status quo in Wisconsin so close to the election. “It is simply impossible,” Williams wrote, “as a matter of common sense and of logistics — that hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin’s voters will both learn about the need for photo identification and obtain the requisite identification in the next 36 days.”

In a related development on Tuesday, Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board asked the legislature for $460,800 to fund a voter ID public information campaign. The GAB said it has TV ads ready to go — it just doesn’t have the budget to pay for them.