Wisconsin voting law hearings done, but no change will come before Aug. 9 primary

Steve Doyle not happy with
how things have gotten this far

After a nine days in the courtroom, final arguments wrapped up a trial on Wisconsin election law changes in federal court Thursday.

A ruling is expected soon. Onalaska State Representative Steve Doyle finds it hard to believe it got to this point.

“When we make it more difficult for people, who aren’t like us, who have a drivers license or an easy way to prove our identity,” Doyle said. “When we make it hard for people like that to vote. That’s un-American.”

Doyle thinks it would be great to overturn the worst of the changes to voting, like voter ID.

“Now all the sudden we’re saying, ‘Well, we don’t want everybody to vote, only certain people or certain groups to vote.’ And that’s just wrong,” Doyle said. “When Wisconsin passes a law prohibiting communities from having their town clerk’s office open for extra hours because people might vote, that otherwise wouldn’t vote. To me, that’s just anti-American.

“That’s not the way I was raised to think of what our civic duty should be in this state.”

No matter what the ruling is, nothing will change in time for Wisconsin’s Aug. 9 primary. That’s been promised by the federal judge wrapping up the trial.

It’s not clear whether any ruling that is made on those election laws will change how voters cast ballots for the presidential election in November.  

The trial focused on whether minorities and young people, among other groups, are disproportionately burdened by recently enacted Wisconsin laws.