Capitol Report
By State Representative, Leon D. Young
Leon D. Young
It goes without saying that I am extremely disappointed with the recent U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that turned away a legal challenge to Wisconsin’s Voter ID law.
The only good news in this ruling is the law won’t be enforced for the April 7 election because it’s only two weeks away, but voter Id will be required in subsequent elections.
Let’s be clear on this point, this voter ID requirement was rushed through the Republican controlled Legislature for one intended purpose: To make it more difficult for Democratic supporters to vote – plain and simple.
As was evident last session, Republicans sent an inordinate amount of time enacting voter suppression laws, including severely limiting early voting and making it harder for seniors in residential facilities to vote.
Moreover, a federal judge estimated that this Republican suppression law could disenfranchise up to 300,000 Wisconsin voters.
Walker, a likely 2016 Republican presidential candidate, is a longtime proponent of voter ID requirements and signed Wisconsin’s into law in 2011.
But it was only in effect for one low-turnout primary in 2012 before legal challenges kept it on hold.
Not surprisingly, Walker said in a statement, “This is great news for Wisconsin voters.
As we said, this is a common sense reform that protects the integrity of our voting process, making it easy to vote and hard to cheat.”
Once again, this is a complete and utter falsehood on the governor’s part. In truth, voting fraud is extremely rare in our state.
There appears to have been only one documented case of voter fraud in Wisconsin between 2004 and 2012, that was committed by a man who had obtained a ballot in the name of his deceased wife.
With that being the case, what’s the real intent of this blatant deceit to deny ballot access to thousands of eligible Wisconsin voters?
Under the guise of fixing a problem that just doesn’t exist, Walker and his cronies are bent on manipulating the election process to suit their own purposes.
This is precisely the “problem” they allege needed fixing.