Study: 63,000 eligible voters would be blocked by GOP voter obstruction law

Update: In a continuing and blatant lie, GOP still crying, "voter fraud." This time is in John Lehman (D)-Sen. Van Wanggaard (R) recount. Corporate media plays dumb again; media may not be pretending.

In one county alone.

Plaintiffs in Frank v. Walker, (Case No 2.11-cv-1128), challenging the GOP voter ID act in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin have released social scientific research concluding that Latino and African American eligible voters in Milwaukee County are disproportionally likely not to have Republican-approved voter IDs.

The social scientific findings in the study specifically researching the February 2012 Wisconsin primary present evidence in the federal challenge bolstering the plaintiffs' case in light of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (No 07-21) (2008) upholding an Indiana voter ID law.

The landmark Crawford case is seen by civil rights experts as compelling "future challenges to voter laws [to] be filed with respect to the application of a specific law—after its controversial mandates are already applied in an election," as noted by the Brennan Center, a leading civil rights organization. [See also Justin Levitt's The Truth About Voter Fraud.]

The Crawford case featured a challenge to Indiana's law as unconstitutional on its face, a high legal hurdle that many observers see as a tactical mistake in retrospect as one rationale behind the Crawford ruling is lack people disenfranchised presented in the court record.

With a mountain of evidence demonstrating disenfranchisement, the Frank plaintiffs may end up in the U.S. Supreme Court amid national and state Republican determination to obstruct non-Republican voting citizens.

For more information see Out in the Cold at Age 84: Wisconsin's Ruthelle Frank Fights for Her Right to Vote and the Frank et al v. Walker complaint.
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From the Pew Center on the States

The battle over voter ID continues, and in Wisconsin, it is being fought in the courtroom. Two (state) judges recently blocked the state’s law requiring photo ID at the polls from taking effect.

Plaintiffs opposing the law in federal court retained researchers to examine the rates of possession of accepted photo ID among the voting eligible population (VEP) and registered voters in Milwaukee County, the state’s most populous county.

Based on survey results, 9.5 percent of the county’s VEP—slightly more than 63,000 eligible voters—and 8.7 percent of registered voters were found to lack the proper ID.

The findings also revealed the rates of inadequate identification were significantly higher than the countywide figure among minorities but lower among white voters:

• 14.9 percent of eligible and 11.3 percent of registered Latinos
• 13.2 percent of eligible and 15.3 percent of registered African-Americans
• 7.4 of eligible and 6.0 percent of registered Whites

The study concludes in part:

....Wisconsin('s) voter ID law, which requires individual to possess an accepted form of photo ID before being granted access to a ballot, disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minorities, the elderly, an those of low socio-economic status. (Barreto, Sanchez. p. 32)