IT’S REAL
Wisconsin’s voter ID Law was passed in 2011. Last year, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman declared the law unconstitutional because it disproportionately affected black and Hispanic residents. He noted that in-person voting fraud is extremely rare. He added, there appears to have been one documented case of voter fraud in Wisconsin between 2004 and 2012, and that was committed by a man who obtained a ballot in the name of his deceased wife.
A three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision in September ruling that it did not violate the Constitution. The full appeals court deadlocked 5-5 on the issue, leaving the panel's decision in place.
Many of us have argued that the law was intended to disenfranchise Black, Brown, poor, students and elderly voters who vote for the Democratic Party. Supports of the law have argued that it was intended to maintain the integrity of the voting system. Note, however, that there is no evidence of wide-spread, voter fraud in the state of Wisconsin. On Tuesday, Congressman Glenn Grothman was interviewed by WTMJ-4’s Charles Benson, and here is the discussion:
Charles Benson: “Take me forward to November. You know that a lot of Republicans since 1984 in the presidential races have not been able to win in Wisconsin. Why would it be any different for Ted Cruz or a Donald Trump.”
Congressman Glenn Grothman: “Well, I think Hillary Clinton is the weakest candidate the Democrats have ever put up and now we have photo ID and I think photo ID is gonna make a little bit of a difference as well.”
In addition, Todd Allbaugh, former Chief of Staff to former Wisconsin Republican Senator, Dale Schultz said, “You wanna know why I left the Republican Party as it exists today? …I was in the closed Senate Republican Caucus when the final round of multiple Voter ID bills were being discussed. A handful of the GOP Senators were giddy about the ramifications and literally singled out the prospects of suppressing minority and college voters. Elected officials planning and happy to help deny a fellow American’s constitutional right to vote in order to increase their own chances to hang onto power. A vigorous debate on the ideas wasn’t good enough. No, they had to take the coward’s way out and come up with a plan to suppress the vote under the guise of ‘voter fraud.’”
