A federal judge on Friday struck down a string of Wisconsin voting restrictions passed by the Republican-led legislature and ordered the state to revamp its voter identification rules, finding that they disenfranchised minority voters.
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Wisconsin is one of several Republican-led states that have passed such voter ID laws in recent years amid fear of fraudulent voting by illegal immigrants and others.
The changes will not affect the impending August 9 election, as Peterson said he did not want to disrupt the partisan primary.
State Department of Justice spokesman Johnny Koremenos said the agency still is reviewing Peterson’s ruling.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said in a tweet that he was “disappointed in the decision by an activist federal judge” and expected to file an appeal.
The two liberal groups who brought the lawsuit decided Friday – One Wisconsin Institute and Citizen Action of Wisconsin Education Fund Inc. – argued the restrictions were unconstitutional and discriminate against the poor, racial minorities and younger voters who are more inclined to vote Democratic.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter ID law in 2008 and since then such laws have flourished around the country.
But Peterson wrote there’s “utterly no evidence” that voter fraud is a problem. He did, however, find some of Wisconsin’s election laws to be unconstitutional. “To put it bluntly, Wisconsin’s strict version of voter ID law is a cure worse than the disease”.
The ruling comes a week after another federal judge ruled voters in Novembercould cast ballots without showing ID if they submitted statements at polling places saying they could not easily get a state-issued ID card.
“I am persuaded that this law was specifically targeted to curtail voting in Milwaukee without any other legitimate objective”, he wrote.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman in Milwaukee issued a preliminary injunction this month allowing people who haven’t been able to obtain IDs to vote in the November 8 election if they sign an affidavit explaining why they couldn’t get the identification.
“We argued Gov. Walker made it harder for Democrats to vote and easier for Republicans to cheat, and the judge agreed”, said Scot Ross, director of One Wisconsin Now.
But Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said the laws “protected the integrity of our elections and people’s right to vote”.
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The order resets the rules for voting less than four months before the presidential election. “It’s also an obvious attempt to usurp the power of the legislature”.
