Wisconsin State Journal Hits GOP for Voter Obstruction Efforts

The editorial page editor of the Wisconsin State Journal came out with an editorial hitting the Wisconsin GOP initiatives in which "Republicans keep pushing for partisan advantage."

Firstly, good job, Scott Milfred.

Defending the Wisconsin Constitution, Article III, Section 1 ought not to be a partisan exercise as the news and editorial editors of the leading GOP dailies apparently believe.

Still, a few omissions from the State Journal's news and editorial coverage of GOP voter obstruction efforts deserve mention.

1. With respect to the voter GOP's photo identification card legislation, it's misleading to state the legislation is "tied up in the courts."

GOP-crafted photo ID is permanently enjoined from taking effect because it is unconstitutional, and has been found to be unconstitutional by two different judges. No one, who is objective, seriously disputes that the GOP's voter ID is unconstitutional under Wisconsin's expansive right to vote.

Ask any constitutional law professor, besides the GOP's Rick Essenberg.

Nowhere in the editorial is the word Constitution found.

2. Yes, the Republican Party is pushing for partisan advantage. But that's a sterile description for violating the constitutional rights of Wisconsin citizens. This attack on voting is an attack on fundamental rights, the very foundation of the state of Wisconsin. No need for the State Journal's Milfred to let the GOP off so easily. Nowhere in the editorial are the words civil rights found either.

3. Finally, the Republican Party has lied about its mission, objectives, and aims of the voter obstruction program. The editorial again lets off the Republican Party by omitting the fact the GOP's elected officials routinely lie to the Wisconsin people. When someone lies over and over, it follows that the person is a liar. Seems a compelling syllogism. Nowhere in the editorial are the words lie, mislead or misrepresent found either. Corrupt is also strangely omitted.

Nice job. But as the GOP attacks Wisconsin's foundation, and the moment is gravely serious because the four GOP justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court still could render an outrageous ruling upholding the photo ID-obstruction legislation [voted in by the GOP in a straight, party-line vote], I have to give the editorial an B-minus.

Ernest A. Canning on the War on Wisconsin

Ernest A. Canning is a Vietnam veteran and
critic of Scott Walker and the GOP's war on voting

Update: Wisconsin Supreme Court refuses to take up voter ID cases (April 16, 2012)

If-ya-can't beat 'em, disenfranchise 'em. The purpose of photo ID can be seen in the adverse impact on the poor, the elderly, minorities and students, none of whom tend to vote for GOP candidates

Ernest A. Canning is a Vietnam vet (4th Infantry, Central Highlands 1968), and arguably the most incisive analyst on Scott Walker and the Republicans' attempt to keep registered voters from voting in Wisconsin. The war against voting is fought in a nationwide theater, but the Recall against Scott Walker has given Wisconsin voter obstruction national prominence as the most restrictive Voter ID in the nation, and for the moment the most important.

Check out his interview with Joan Brunwasser at OpEd News.

Two cases remain in federal court, and two in Wisconsin state court.

Wisconsin federal court cases

• Frank v. Walker, (Case 11cv1128), U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin 
• Jones et al v. Jones v. Deininger et al (Case 2:12-cv-00185), U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin 

Wisconsin State Cases

• League of Women Voters of Wisconsin v. Walker (Case 11CV4669)
• Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP v. Walker (Case 11CV5492)

Wisconsin Constitution, Article III, Section 1
"Every United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district in this state is a qualified elector of that district."

Voter Reg Forms Put Voter Obstruction on Display

Wisconsin Voter Registration Form - GAB form 131

Update: The Wisconsin Legislature's webpage on Suffrage, voting, has been changed while under GOP control since 2011 with the following misleading sentence added: "An Indiana statute requiring citizens voting in person on election day, or casting a ballot in person at the office of the circuit court clerk prior to election day, to present photo identification issued by the government did not violate constitutional standards. Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, 553 U.S. 181, 128 S. Ct. 1610, 170 L. Ed. 2d 574 (2008)."

This sentence is misleading for several reasons. 

1. Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (2008) is a federal case based upon a facial challenge to a state law obstruction voting. Crawford relied upon the weak warrant to vote under the United States Constitution. 

2. The Wisconsin Constitution—the topic of the Wisconsin Constitution's webpage—includes a strong, affirmative right to vote under ARTICLE III, Suffrage.

3. The Wisconsin Constitution is specifies the laws that may be enacted to regulate elections, enumerating the specific conditions under which the qualifications of voters (electors) may be changed by the enacting of laws under Section 2. 

This GOP pretension, a disingenuous political talking point, is hawked by Wisconsin's GOP Attorney General, J.B. Van Hollen.
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The revised Wisconsin Voter Registration form (at right) used in the first election in February requiring a GOP-approved photo ID shows two facts that complement the new photo ID requirement presented at the voting rolls table.

One, apart from the photo ID requirement, voter registration in Wisconsin is a rigorous process, and includes a mandatory voter signature attesting that under pain of "fine or imprisonment under State and Federal laws," the information provided on a registration form is not false information.

Only after having registered can a voter then proceed to the voting rolls table where he or she presents the GOP-approved voter ID.

28 Days

Secondly, in the same field where a voter attests to true information, a voter must acknowledge that he or she has resided at the given address for at least "28 consecutive days immediately preceding this election," moved up from 10 days by the Republicans.

The significance of this increase in the residency requirement is clear when applied to mobile voting demographics.

To take 2008 as an example, all residents of UW-system dorms (where students this coming Fall semester move in roughly on August 29-30 as is typical) would have been disenfranchised from voting in the wards of their dorms in the 2008 September 9 primary election. Students moving in off-campus, typically Aug. 14-15, would also have been disenfranchised from voting in their new wards.

This year the Fall primary election is held on August 14.

But when one considers the some 7,240 dorm students at UW-Madison alone, the some 182,000 students on all of the 26 campuses of the UW-System, and the some 382,000 students at the Wisconsin Techical College System, the GOP's 28-day residency requirement's capacity to disinfranchise voters and cause confusion is clear among this mobile demographic that leans Democratic in its voting patterns.

Confusion, frustration, and disenfranchisement are of course the objectives.

Voters Not Happy on First Day of Voter ID Law

Wisconsin Tech school students: Still waiting
on word from Scott Walker

Update III: Madison voters turned away at polls for lacking photo ID. "She was fairly recently in a car accident and couldn't make it to the DOT to get a Wisconsin ID," said Melanie Sax, the chief elections inspector at the polling location at Trinity United Methodist Church on Vilas Avenue. The woman, who does not drive, has neither a driver's license nor a state ID.

That woman is Marge Curtin—disenfranchised.

Update II: 69-year old veteran Gil Paar was shocked when poll workers told him his photo I.D. from the V.A. wasn’t on the accepted list. ... “There’s a possibility that a veteran could have only this type of I.D., because he’s had a stroke, let’s say, up at the V.A. hospital. And because of that, he had his driver’s license taken away. So case in point, he would have only this Veterans Administration I.D. through the hospital.

“And they’re telling me I can’t use it, I couldn’t use it. this is not right. you’ve got a guy who serves, does his time in the Air Force, or Army or the Navy, and then he comes home and can’t vote? What the f—- did I go in for?” (Racine Jounral-Times)

Update: U.S. senators on Tuesday asked the Government Accountability Office to study what they called an "alarming number" of new state laws that will make it "significantly harder" for millions of eligible voters to cast ballots this November.

As an observer from the NAACP looked on, the 200-plus voters in one Fitchburg voting district yesterday presented an electorate irritated with the GOP's new voter ID requirements.

Wisconsin's voter ID law was passed without any Democratic votes, and no dissenting Republican votes.

Rejected, per the new statute, yesterday was an Army Reserve ID that did not include an expiration date.

Many comments from voters were made to election workers: Including "What's next, retina scans?" and "Here to pay my poll tax."

One woman who was inexplicably purged from the polls and tried to re-register objected to the voter registration process as too invasive.

Though the voter ID law, Republicans say, is intended to stop rampant voter impersonation at the polls, not one case of voter impersonation in Wisconsin has been prosecuted going back decades.

But Republicans remain optimistic they can stop enough Democratic-leaning citizens from voting to sway a close election, concentrating on suppressing college and tech students, the elderly and black voters in Milwaukee.

A research report by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute shows that over 177,000 elderly persons in Wisconsin aged 65 and older do not possess a driver's license or state photo identification.

Scott Walker Gets to Decide If Tech School IDs Are Okay to Vote

Tech School ID - Okay with Scott Walker?

Look for Scott Walker to allow technical school IDs to be used to vote in Wisconsin elections.

If Scott Walker uses his power grab—making him the final arbiter of administrative rules—to forbid technical school IDs from being used to vote in Wisconsin elections, Walker's corruption and bad faith will be on full display.

The power of Walker to veto administrative rules was gained by a 2011 Walker-called legislature special session that was supposed to center on job creation, as noted by Democrats and good government observers.

Look for Walker to allow technical school IDs to be used to vote in Wisconsin elections.

With the spotlight on Walker corruption and legal challenges to the voter obstruction law likely to result in its being struck down before November, Walker cannot afford more naked displays of corruption that can be easily prevented.

From the State Journal:

It's now up to the governor to decide whether technical school IDs can be used to vote in Wisconsin.

The Government Accountability Board on Tuesday approved a change in election rules that would add technical school IDs to the list of acceptable voter IDs.

That list includes state driver's license, state ID, university or military ID, passport, naturalization papers and tribal IDs.

Wisconsin Voter Suppression in Action

Here is a video of a mother trying to get her son a voter ID card in Wisconsin.

For anyone who hasn't seen this, please consider watching this DMV bureaucrat at work:



Apparently, "bank activity" is a requirement, and these DMV workers even write down how much money the young man has in his account.

Starting this fall, all Wisconsin IDs and driver's licenses will be made in California and take up to two weeks to receive in the mail. You used to walk out of the DMV with your license until Scott Walker became governor.

On top of that, he wants to close as many as 16 DMV offices. Funny how they're mostly in Democratic voting districts.

No Voter IDs Required for Recall Elections

The above headline is a fact.

Voters do not need a new Voter ID "until the Presidential Preference Primary in the Spring of 2012," as the Wisconsin Governmental Accountability Board clearly states.

Unfortunately, the Wisconsin State Journal editors appear committed to confusing the issue in its hard-copy edition of the Sunday paper.

It's top-of-the-fold Sunday piece includes a teaser with a sub-headline Voter ID Law, "find out what you'll need to bring to the polls."

Inside the State Journal on p. 11, the below-the-fold lede in the referenced piece reads: "Voters in Tuesday's primary election and next month's state Senate recalls won't have to show a picture ID."

Running this fact on page one as a method of informing readers is not so hard. One would think hyping this fact on would be instructive.

Timing of Challenges

As the right to vote in Wisconsin is well-protected in the Wisconsin Constitution and state statute, ...

[See] ... The Wisconsin Constitution vests and warrants the right [to vote] at the time of election. Every one having the constitutional qualifications then, may to go the polls, vested with this franchise, of which no statutory condition precedent can deprive him, because the [Wisconsin] constitution makes him, by force of his present qualifications, a qualified voter at such election" [Wis. Const, art III, section 1] Wood v. Baker, 38 Wis. 71: (August 1875)] Wisc. - Wisconsin Supreme Court

... it's likely that a challenge in state Court is forthcoming.

But timing is critical to achieve the objective of halting the GOP-desired disenfranchising of Democratically leaning voters.

So, a Wisconsin court judicial injunction against the voter suppression bill that would, one fears, be overturned by a corrupt Wisconsin Supreme Court has to be timed so that the ultimate result is adjudicated during or shortly before the presidential general November 2012 election.

Federal Challenges

As noted here in February:

A federal court challenge seems unlikely as one effect of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (No 07-21) (2008) upholding an Indiana voter ID law is that "future challenges to voter laws must 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.]

On the other hand, a federal challenge could be filed after the Presidential Preference Primary in the Spring of 2012, with the result being that the suppression act is enjoined before the November general election.

But the voter suppression bill is crafted to meet the federal test of the burden imposed on eligible voters vis a vis the "integrity and reliability of the electoral process itself." [Harper’s standard. Anderson v. Celebrezze, 460 U. S. 780 , n. 9.]

The fact is that the GOP program to suppress and obstruct voters is not deemed relevant to corporate media coverage.

One would think that the integrity and reliability of the process facilitates and does not obstruct legal voting. That is an incorrect assessment.

Barry Sarlin (TPM) notes:

Former President Bill Clinton weighed in on Republican efforts in several states to pass new restrictions on voting, comparing the measures to the Jim Crow laws of the past.

'There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today,' Clinton said in a speech at a Campus Progress conference in Washington.

No such remarks from President Obama yet who apparently feels that fighting for the right to vote is a politically losing proposition, just not worth the trouble.

Wisconsin

Of course, it is possible that the tortured reasoning that would lead the Wisconsin Supreme Court to uphold the voter suppression bill is too much even for the state Republican justices.

Let's hope a judge hearing the state challenge notes, as did Judge Sumi in 2008 on the concerted GOP voter suppression effort, the Roth v. LaFarge School District Board of Canvassers (2004) [No.02-0542] case:

[T]he Supreme Court four years ago pretty cogently summarized what the law is. The court ... concluded in Roth v. LaFarge School District Board of Canvassers in 2004, this is Justice Crooks speaking for a unanimous court: It is evident, the court said, noting Wisconsin's proud history of protecting the right to vote, 'It is evident that this court has constantly placed a premium on giving effect to the will of the voter.' And not just the will of the voter with respect to whether there's a checkmark in the right place, whether, if we were in Florida, hanging chads, or any other formal problem, but the will of the voter in terms of the ability to go to the polls, vested with the franchise [to vote].

Fighting for "the will of the voter in terms of the ability to go to the polls, vested with the franchise," sounds like the American thing to do, certainly the Wisconsin thing to do.

Justice Crooks in Roth v. LaFarge School District Board of Canvassers (2004) [No.02-0542] writes:

¶ 44 Wisconsin's general principle of inclusion supports the conclusion of counting the vote in this case. As the majority correctly recognizes, this principle is supported by our precedent, 'Wisconsin courts have consistently noted that they do not want to deprive voters of the chance to have their votes counted.' Majority op., ¶¶ 19-25 (citing e.g., State ex. rel. Wood v. Baker, 38 Wis. 71 (1875), Ollmann v. Kowalewski, 238 Wis. 574, 300 N.W. 183 (1941), Hackbarth v. Erickson, 147 Wis.2d 467, 433 N.W.2d 266 (Ct.App.1988)).

Faced with an array of anti-democratic forces in the press and GOP, whether President Obama is worth the trouble of casting a vote for is a different, wide-open question; Obama cannot be depended on to act as if our vote counts.

On Voting—Wisconsin Constitution, Article III, Section 1

Wisconsin Constitution, Article III, Section 1:

"Every United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district in this state is a qualified elector of that district."

Ultimately, the Wisconsin Supreme Court will weigh this fundamental right of citizens to vote against the stated policy rationale of the "Photo ID" bill (AB 7)— protecting the "integrity of our election process," as Gov. Walker alleges in a blatant lie repeated endlessly by Republicans nationwide.

The judicial process of protecting the rights of Wisconsin citizens against the temporary majority of Republicans controlling the legislature and the governor's office will offer an object lesson in how the Courts protect the fundamental rights in this state's representative democracy.

To paraphrase David Boies arguing another civil rights case on the federal level:

There are certain rights in Wisconsin that are so fundamental, so valued, that the Wisconsin Constitution guarantees them to every Wisconsin citizen regardless of what a temporary majority of Republican pukes are willing to spend $millions on to keep their party in power, irrespective of what a majority of Wisconsinites may want.

Walker to Sign Voter ID-Suppression Law, Challenge Certain

Republicans do not look at voting and democracy the way most Wisconsin citizens do. For most of us, if you are legally a citizen, you have the right to vote.

Republicans, on the other hand, see voting as impeding their political power, a right that must be altered to favor its regime.

Wisconsin, more so than the U.S. Constitution and federal statutes, makes obstructing voters very difficult. The fight to protect our right to vote is on. A legal challenge is certain.

Scott Walker and the Republicans want to obstruct voting, Wisconsin wants to keep this right.

From One Wisconsin Now:

First of all, the right to vote is guaranteed to citizens of Wisconsin in our state constitution. The right to rent a movie, open a checking account, go to the bar, get on an airplane or any other similar activity is not, and requiring an ID for these types of activities is not a barrier to exercising a constitutionally-protected right. Voter ID is fundamentally different.

There is absolutely no evidence of a widespread conspiracy to commit voter fraud. Wisconsin's Republican Attorney General JB Van Hollen has made prosecuting so-called voter fraud one of his top priorities. However, after a two year investigation into the 2008 election, Van Hollen has found a scant 11 potentially improper ballots out of nearly 3 million total votes cast. Of those, eight involved felons who voted while out in the community on probation or parole, a situation that voter ID would not remedy. That leaves 3 potentially bad votes out of 3,000,000 votes, or about 0.000001% of all votes cast. Voter ID is a solution in search of a problem.

The bill's authors, Republican Rep. Jeff Stone and Sen. Joe Leibham, have modeled their bill after Indiana's Voter ID law, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. According to the Supreme Court case upholding Indiana’s Voter ID bill, the lower court found “99 percent of Indiana’s voting age population already possesses the necessary photo identification to vote under the requirements.”

Wisconsin’s population is substantially less likely to have a state-issued identification. Those without state-issued photo identification and who would need to obtain one under the Wisconsin Voter ID bill include:

• 23 percent of all elderly Wisconsinites over the age of 65
• 17 percent of white men and women
• 55 percent of all African American males and 49 percent of African American women
• 46 percent of Hispanic men and 59% of Hispanic women
• 78 percent of African American males age 18-24 and 66 percent of African American women age 18-24

[Driver License Status of the Voting Age Population in Wisconsin, 6/05]

Yes, the bill as written does have a provision to provide free identification for some Wisconsinites. Each and every one of these people would have to take the time off (in many cases unpaid) from work or family obligations to flock to Wisconsin DMVs. However, access to the DMV is a problem in Wisconsin; Indiana provides its residents exponentially more access to its Department of Motor Vehicles offices to obtain identification.

Wisconsin and Indiana have similar voting age populations (4.35 million vs. 4,8 million), but Wisconsin is 50 percent larger geographically than Indiana (54,314 sq. miles vs. 35,870 sq. miles). Indiana not only provides its residents 50 percent more DMV offices than Wisconsin (140 to 91), but also nearly three times the total hours these facilities are open.

Also consider:

Twenty-six percent of Wisconsin’s 91 DMVs are open one day a month or less, while none of Indiana’s are open less than 100 days a year and nearly all are open over 250 days a year.

Wisconsin has only one DMV with weekend hours, while Indiana has 124 offices with weekend hours.

Three Wisconsin counties have no DMVs, no Indiana county is without a DMV.

Over half of Wisconsin’s 91 DMVs are open on a part-time basis, while Indiana provides full-time DMVs in every county. ...

The need to expand the numbers and operational hours of Wisconsin DMVs to provide appropriate access could increase the $70 million biennial Wisconsin DMV budget by as much as 50 percent on top of the current $5 million price tag to provide free identifications.

Requiring eligible voters to produce ID at the polls is an unnecessary hurdle to exercising our right to vote which will prevent many people from voting. The "widespread voter fraud" that this bill is aimed at "fixing" does not exist, and the microscopic number of double votes will be FAR outpaced by the number of people who will be prevented from voting by the voter ID requirement. In a time when Wisconsin faces a $3 billion budget deficit, we simply cannot afford to double the DMV budget. Voter ID is a big-government, budget-busting solution in search of a problem; a solution that will make it more difficult to practice our most fundamental right.

That is why we oppose voter ID.

Wisconsin Voter ID Legal Challenge Likely

Republicans buzzing that the Party will pass the nation's most restrictive voter ID legislation—obstructing and suppressing Democratically leaning voters—ought to ease up on their unseemly celebrating.

Update: See Bill May Deny Legal Voters Access to the Franchise and the Brennan Center for Justice for developments on legal challenges to the bill signed May 25, 2011.

The voter suppression bill will be litigated and likely prevented from taking effect. And at least some of its noxious provisions likely will be ultimately struck down as unconstitutional under the Wisconsin Constitution; hence the concomitant effort to amend the Wisconsin Constitution, and another bill to stop same-day registration of Wisconsin citizens.

A federal court challenge seems unlikely as one effect of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (No 07-21) (2008) upholding an Indiana voter ID law is that "future challenges to voter laws must 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.]

Voting is not very well protected under federal Constitutional law.

Voting is however, extremely well protected under Wisconsin Constitutional law.

The last time Wisconsin's partisan Attorney General, J.B. Van Hollen, engineered a major public effort to obstruct voters, Van Hollen lost and his desperate lawsuit was thrown out never to see the Courts again.

Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi's opinion in 2008 tossing Van Hollen's suppression case instructs today on the weight the Wisconsin Constitution and other Wisconsin statutes place on the right of citizens to cast votes [See Sumi's Opinion - Order and Hearing Transcript (Case No 08CV4085)].

Writes Sumi citing an early Wisconsin Supreme Court case protecting voters:

"The [Wisconsin Constitution] vests and warrants the right to vote at the time of election, and everyone having the constitutional qualifications then may to go the polls vested with this franchise, of which no statutory condition precedent can deprive him." [Wood v. Baker]

There is no clause in the Wisconsin Constitution that says you need a photo ID to vote.

Sumi, speaking from the bench in 2008, also cites a 2004 case bearing on the current voter obstruction law.

[T]he Supreme Court four years ago pretty cogently summarized what the law is. The court ... concluded in Roth v. LaFarge School District Board of Canvassers in 2004, this is Justice Crooks speaking for a unanimous court: It is evident, the court said, noting Wisconsin's proud history of protecting the right to vote, 'It is evident that this court has constantly placed a premium on giving effect to the will of the voter.' And not just the will of the voter with respect to whether there's a checkmark in the right place, whether, if we were in Florida, hanging chads, or any other formal problem, but the will of the voter in terms of the ability to go to the polls, vested with the franchise [to vote].

Political Consequences

Even given the God-awful communication strategies of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, it ought to become clear that the GOP-imposed burdens placed disproportionally upon the majority poorer, ethnic minorities (especially blacks in Milwaukee County), elderly, busy working families and rural voters (all of whom are less likely to have photo IDs) is an unacceptable barrier to voters being able to go to the polls, vested with the franchise to vote.

This is a years-long, national GOP effort and Republicans and Tea Partiers have their marching orders.

What is disgusting, even sad, is the disdain shown for democracy and duplicity involved.

I know Republicans who know very well exactly what this voter obstruction project is, and yet they have no remorse in lying; in fact, lying to my face.

The fact is political lies are still lies.

And one suspects that this lying, anti-democratic GOP program will offend most Wisconsin citizens' sense of fairness.

Sure, the Republican Party is simply after power.

But there is something uglier that the GOP uses to carry out this project: Racism.

The idea that a bunch of blacks and Latinos are out there voting will never sit well with many Republicans who—even as we approach 2012—are committed to a whites-only club in Wisconsin politics. You want to vote? How much money you make?

On a personal note, I grew up in a small Wisconsin city where 'nigger jokes' were frequent throughout Elementary school, and indeed through the public school experience. This racist culture is still very much with us in Wisconsin today.

The problem is kids picked up this culture at home. A worse problem is many of these children never grew up to realize that as an adult human being and Wisconsin citizen you have rights; and you stand up for the rights of those with whom you may disagree of whatever color or creed.

Let's hope this sentiment carries the day; and the Democratic Party communications team gets its act together fast. Better yet, Republicans dissenting from this despicable voter suppression project: We need your voice now.