Judges Put Election Reforms in Wisconsin on Hold, Except for Voter ID

[Geee]

Heritage Foundation:

On Monday, a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused without comment to stay a Wisconsin district court opinion in One Wisconsin Institute v. Thomsen that threw out changes the state legislature had made in early voting rules as well as other changes such as the residency requirement for new voters.

 

However, the state’s voter ID law will remain in place for the November election because the district court judge, James D. Peterson, a President Barack Obama appointee, stayed his earlier ruling against the ID law on Aug. 11.

 

Peterson didn’t have much choice on that issue: The same three-judge panel that refused to stay his overall ruling had issued a stay on the voter ID issue on Aug. 10 in a second district court case in Wisconsin, Frank v. Walker.

 

In that case, another federal judge, Lynn Adelman, a Bill Clinton appointee and former Democratic state senator, required the state to allow anyone who signed a form stating they could not obtain an ID to vote—despite the fact that Adelman admitted “most voters in Wisconsin either possess qualifying ID or can easily obtain one.”