Court stays ruling striking down part of Wisconsin voter ID law

The trial court’s ruling, in turn, came in response to an appeals court ruling in April finding that the state’s 2011 voter ID law would likely prevent people from voting who had legitimate difficulties obtaining documentation to get IDs, and it tasked the trial court with coming up with a method to help those people.

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, a Republican, said he was pleased with the ruling. He took issue with the process Wisconsin created to let those without an ID obtain a temporary receipt that lets them vote while they apply for the card.

In a separate appeal by the ACLU, the appeals court allowed for the district court to hash out a narrow remedy allowing voters facing certain obstacles in attaining the required IDs to vote via affidavit.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Republican, called Wednesday’s appeals court decision “a step in the right direction”.

Wisconsin is one of several Republican-led states that have passed voter ID laws in recent years amid fear of fraudulent voting by illegal immigrants and others. That method was the affidavit, which the appeals court ruled Wednesday wasn’t targeted enough, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is among the plaintiffs challenging the voter ID law, said in a statement that the decision “guarantees the disenfranchisement of vulnerable Wisconsin citizens in November”. “The decision recognized that his previous ruling is likely to be reversed in light of Supreme Court precedent…” In that case, Judge James Peterson also struck down a portion of the Voter ID law. Opponents say more than 600,000 registered voters lacked one of seven suitable IDs under the law.

“We conclude both that the district court’s decision is likely to be reversed on appeal and that disruption of the state’s electoral system in the interim will cause irreparable injury”, reads the judges’ order.

On July 19, Adelman issued an injunction against Wisconsin’s voter ID requirements, writing that “a safety net is needed for those voters who can not obtain qualifying ID with reasonable effort”. “I will continue to represent the State of Wisconsin and defend the rule of law until the case is resolved”, he said.