Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker\’s re-election chances just took a dramatic upward turn.
Excerpted from Monica Davey\’s article in this morning\’s New York Times:
Afederal appeals court on Friday permitted Wisconsin to restore arequirement that voters provide photo identification before castingtheir ballots, allowing the long-debated state law to take effect intime for a hard-fought election on Nov. 4.
Intheir order, the panel of three judges described Wisconsin\’srequirement as “materially identical” to a statute in Indiana,which was upheld in 2008 by the Supreme Court. The panel also notedthat Wisconsin had introduced new procedures to make it easier toobtain photo identification cards, reducing concerns raised monthsago by a federal court judge who had blocked Wisconsin\’s law,saying that it disproportionately affected blacks and Latinos.
Thefinding was seen as a victory for Gov.Scott Walker, a Republican who along with a Republican-controlledLegislature had approved the requirement in 2011 and who faces are-election challenge from Mary Burke, a Democrat, in November. Thelaw was put on hold not long after it was enacted, as challenges werefiled in state and federal courts.
Wow, what a radical concept. Voters in Wisconsin will have to show they are who they say they are before voting – in other words, they have to meet the same “stringent” standard required to write checks in the supermarket or get a library card.
I\’ve said this many times in here, but it bears repeating now: people who tell you that requiring Voter ID suppresses the Black or Latino vote are overt racists. They are saying, in so many words, that Black and Latino people are less capable than Whites of obtaining a Voter ID; they are inferior to White people. If that isn\’t a racist slap in the face, tell me what is.
In my opinion, there is, and has always been, one reason for demanding that people should not have to identify themselves before voting: to enfranchise people who do not have a legal right to vote.
And it is clear to me that the people who argue loudest and longest that there should be no Voter ID requirement are the people who most want illegal voting to take place.
May they lose every challenge to Voter ID, every time they mount one.
