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ACLU Comment on Wisconsin Voter Ballot Access Decision

Case: Frank v. Walker: Fighting Voter Suppression in Wisconsin
October 19, 2015 1:30 pm
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MILWAUKEE – A federal district court today rejected a request to increase access to the ballot for Wisconsin voters. The American Civil Liberties Union sought to expand the list of acceptable identification to include IDs for veterans and students attending technical colleges, as well as out-of-state driver's licenses.

Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, said:

"Wisconsinites face barriers to the polls due to the limited forms of ID mandated under the state's restrictive voter ID law. It's unconscionable that even veterans, who have so valiantly served our country, can't use their government-issued IDs under this law. People should have a broader range of common-sense options. We are looking at our next steps as we continue efforts to dismantle these obstacles to voting."

The ACLU, the ACLU of Wisconsin, the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, and Dechert LLP are co-counsel in this case, Frank v. Walker, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

More information is at: https://www.aclu.org/voting-rights/frank-v-walker-fighting-voter-suppression-wisconsin

Frank v. Walker: Fighting Voter Suppression in Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s voter ID law is one of the harshest in the country and requires voters to produce one of a few specified forms of photo identification in order to vote. This restriction imposes a substantial burden on the right to vote by requiring photo identification that many voters do not have, and that many voters cannot easily obtain, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. In addition, the Wisconsin voter ID law violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits the use of voting practices that have a negative impact on racial and language minorities. The law has a disproportionate impact on black and Latino voters, who are twice as likely to lack photo ID accepted for voting in Wisconsin compared to white voters.

Source: American Civil Liberties Union