Federal judge throws out discriminating Wisconsin voting laws

Also overturned many rules that limited voting

The November election in Wisconsin could look a lot different than anticipated.  

That’s the expectation after a federal judge’s ruling that invalidates a number of recently enacted voting rules in the state.

The outcome that was expected by Robert Kraig, from Citizen Action of Wisconsin. Kraig’s group was a plaintiff in the suit that challenged the voting laws.

“These voting restrictions enacted by the Republicans in the legislature and Gov. (Scott) Walker … served no public purpose or voter integrity purpose whatsoever,” Kraig said. “You have a political party in Madison that literally wants to hold power by disenfranchising people and getting them not to vote. That’s a fundamentally un-American thing to do.”

Some findings by the federal judge, says Kraig, were a condemnation of state politics. 

One finding especially, “found that some of these restrictions that violated the 15th Amendment,” Kraig said. “The amendment after slavery that banned discrimination voting based on color or race.”

The judge agreed that, at least one law was focused on limiting the number of black and Latino voters who went to the polls.

The judge also tossed out some limits on early absentee voting hours and got rid of four-week residency requirements, among some other changes.  

“The city of Milwaukee, for example, and other larger cities like Madison are,” Kraig said, “not only going to have weekend and early voting, they’re going to be able to have multiple locations. The judge also threw out those restrictions. And, it’s also going to be easier for students to vote.”

Local clerks are still waiting for guidance from the state on how to proceed for the November elections but no changes will be made for next week’s partisan primary.