GOP Leadership Considering Next Steps For Overturned Voter ID Law

Republican leaders are hedging on their promise to call a special session on voter ID after it was overturned by a federal judge Tuesday.

Judge Lynn Adelman wrote that Wisconsin’s voter ID law would deter substantial numbers of eligible voters from casting a ballot, especially blacks and Latinos. Adelman acknowledged that legislators might amend the law, but said it was “difficult to see how an amendment to the photo ID requirement could remove its disproportionate racial impact and discriminatory result.”

It was a fairly blunt message to state lawmakers, and one not particularly well received by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Burlington.

“Well, luckily, we live in a republic, where a single arrogant federal judge doesn’t get to dictate to the elected Legislature what happens,” he said.

Vos said, however, that after Adelman’s ruling, there was a chance lawmakers would not return this year for a special session to change the voter ID law.

“If our best route of action is just to appeal it to the 7th Circuit and then also to the Supreme Court, of course we’ll go that route,” Vos said.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said Republicans were reviewing their options.

The governor’s office said it was reviewing the decision. Assembly Democratic Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, said Republicans needed to figure out whether an appeal was viable.

“They now have a state and a federal court who have said this is unconstitutional,” Barca said. “So it seems like they have so little regard for the taxpayer’s money when it comes to spending money in court to protect their electoral interest.”

Barca also said, however, that a special session on voter ID would be a misplaced priority, since there were other issues that deserved more attention.