{"id":14967,"date":"2025-01-27T19:03:14","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T20:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=14967"},"modified":"2025-01-27T21:57:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T21:57:00","slug":"battleground-wisconsin-set-for-referendum-on-enshrining-voter-id-in-state-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=14967","title":{"rendered":"Battleground Wisconsin Set for Referendum on Enshrining Voter ID in State Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/battleground-wisconsin-set-for-referendum-on-enshrining-voter-id-in-state-constitution\/dsignal\/2025\/01\/27\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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by Fred Lucas<\/h5>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wisconsin, one of the seven presidential battlegrounds states, could become one of just a handful of states to have\u00a0voter ID<\/a>\u00a0requirements enshrined in its state constitution.<\/p>\n

A total of 36 states have some form of ID requirement to vote, although only 22 require photo IDs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.<\/p>\n

However, only a few states have it in their constitution. In 2011,\u00a0Mississippi adopted<\/a>\u00a0it in the state constitution, and Arkansas and Nebraska passed similar constitutional amendments in the following years.<\/p>\n

Nevada\u2014also a battleground state\u2014was the most recent to\u00a0adopt voter ID<\/a>\u00a0requirements in its state constitution in a ballot measure in November<\/p>\n

Wisconsin\u2019s Republican-controlled Legislature approved Assembly Joint Resolution 1 to put the\u00a0voter ID measure<\/a>\u00a0on the ballot for the state\u2019s April 1 election, when voters will cast ballots for a seat on the state Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin<\/a>\u00a0already has a voter ID law, but if the Legislature were to change hands, a constitutional amendment would make it more difficult to do away with. Gov.\u00a0Tony Evers<\/a>\u00a0is a Democrat, and the state\u2019s elected Supreme Court is controlled by Democrats.<\/p>\n

Former Wisconsin Gov.\u00a0Scott Walker<\/a>, a Republican, who signed the\u00a0voter ID law in 2011<\/a>, stressed in a post on X last week that the law can be protected from an activist state Supreme Court if it is in the state constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made it easy to vote, but hard to cheat, when I signed a law requiring photo identification to cast a ballot,\u201d Walker said in the post. \u201cNow, Wisconsin voters can ensure an activist court can\u2019t take this commonsense reform away by voting to put it in the state constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

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We made it easy to vote, but hard to cheat when I signed a law requiring photo identification to cast a ballot. Now Wisconsin voters can ensure an activist court can\u2019t take this commonsense reform away by voting to put it in the state constitution. pic.twitter.com\/25tGcoqWwn<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) January 15, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Legislature approved the ballot measure on a mostly party-line vote, with Democrats opposing and Republicans backing it.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Francesca Hong, a Democrat, blasted the proposed amendment as \u201cvoter suppression.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, my Republican colleagues in the legislature prioritized protecting their power over the people of Wisconsin by passing\u00a0AJR-1<\/a>,\u201d Hong said in a post on X. \u201cThey chose enshrining voter suppression into the constitution over passing legislation to help working people save money and cut living costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Today, my Republican colleagues in the legislature prioritised protecting their power over the people of Wisconsin by passing AJR-1. They chose enshrining voter suppression into the constitution over passing legislation to help working people save money and cut living costs.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Rep. Francesca Hong \ud64d\uc724\uc815 (@StateRepHong) January 14, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As explained in my book \u201cThe Myth of Voter Suppression<\/a>,\u201d states with voter ID laws typically have higher turnout during elections, and such laws consistently have had the support of about 70% to 80% of the public in most polls across party and racial demographics.<\/p>\n

Opponents of voter ID laws made dark predictions that didn\u2019t come true, noted state Sen. Howard Marklein, a Republican, during a floor speech earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just haven\u2019t had many issues. This is so well ingrained in the public, which I think is why there is such broad-based acceptance,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are so many things we can\u2019t do in our lives right now without some proof of identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

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I was proud to cosponsor and vote for legislation that would add voter ID requirements to the Wisconsin State Constitution. This common sense reform is approved by the vast majority of Wisconsinites and now heads to you, the voters, for final approval! pic.twitter.com\/ovPAkCSJJ8<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Senator Howard Marklein (@SenMarklein) January 8, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mississippi<\/a>\u00a0first adopted voter ID in its constitution in 2011 when voters approved the measure, and the following year, voters in\u00a0Minnesota rejected<\/a>\u00a0a similar proposal, according to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

In 2018, voters in the states of\u00a0Arkansas<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0North Carolina<\/a>\u00a0approved a constitutional amendment to required voter ID,\u00a0according to the National Conference of State Legislatures<\/a>.\u00a0However, the North Carolina law was struck down in court.<\/p>\n

Four years later,\u00a0Nebraska<\/a>\u00a0voters approved Initiative 432 to require voters to present photo ID, and went into effect in 2024,\u00a0according to Ballotpedia<\/a>. Meanwhile,\u00a0Nevada<\/a>\u00a0voters approved a similar constitutional amendment in November.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n

Fred Lucas is chief news correspondent and manager of the Investigative Reporting Project for The Daily Signal. He is the author of \u201cThe Myth of Voter Suppression: The Left\u2019s Assault on Clean Elections<\/a>.\u201d
\nPhoto \u201cPeople Voting\u201d by Lorie Shaull<\/a>. CC BY 2.0.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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Appeared at and reprinted from DailySignal.com<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
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The post Battleground Wisconsin Set for Referendum on Enshrining Voter ID in State Constitution<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/battleground-wisconsin-set-for-referendum-on-enshrining-voter-id-in-state-constitution\/dsignal\/2025\/01\/27\/ by Fred Lucas \u00a0 Wisconsin, one of the seven…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14968,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14967\/revisions\/14968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}