On Thursday, the Advancement Project, an organization funded by the convicted felon George Soros, will sue Wisconsin over the new state Voter ID law. Mr. Soros might question why the Advancement Project is using his money to attack a law that got its first trial yesterday, and everything seemed to go smoothly. There were not mobs of voters turned away at the polls. Nor were there multitudes of disenfranchised racial minorities.
The Advancement Project press release about the lawsuit to be filed tomorrow was posted at various sympathetic blogs, and then it mysteriously vanished. I called the Advancement Project and asked why.
Erika Maye in the press office told me the press release was pulled, not because everything went well in yesterday’s Wisconsin debut of Voter ID, but rather because “the lawyers didn’t want the announcement out before the lawsuit was filed.” Here’s the vanished presser from the Advancement Project:
WISCONSIN SUED OVER RACIALLY DISCRIMINATORY VOTER LAW
FIRST SUIT TO SPECIFICALLY CHARGE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
78 PERCENT OF YOUNG BLACK MEN COULD BE BARRED FROM THE POLLS
Milwaukee, WI – Advancement Project, joined by the League of Young Voters and the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, will file the first lawsuit based on a claim of racial discrimination against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and members of the Government Accountability Board charging that a newly enacted restrictive voter identification law specifically discriminates against African American and Latino voters.
The lawsuit, to be filed Thursday February 23, challenges Wisconsin Act 23 under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits the institution of any electoral procedures that deny or abridge the rights of citizens to vote on account of race or color.
“This law is a part of the largest legislative effort to turn back the clock on voting rights in our nation in over a century and shows how essential the Voting Rights Act is to allow all Americans their right to vote,” states Advancement Project co director Judith Browne Dianis, one of the nation’s leading civil rights litigators. “If this bill is allowed to stand it will undermine the basic fabric of our nation’s democracy.”
Studies in Wisconsin have confirmed that racial minorities, especially African American and Latino voters, are far less likely to have a Wisconsin-issued ID, finding that roughly half of the state’s African Americans and Latinos lack a valid driver’s license. Specifically, a 2005 study determined that 55% of Black males and 46% of Hispanic males – as compared with only 16% of white males – lack a driver’s license. Among females, 49% of African Americans and 59% of Latinas lacked a driver’s license as compared to 17% of Whites.
When age and race are considered together, the disparities become far more pronounced: an astounding 78% of African-American males (as compared with 36% of White males) aged 18-24 lack a driver’s license, and 66% of African-American females (as compared with 25% of White females) aged 18-24 lack a driver’s license. The study also found a disparate impact on Latino voters: 57% of young Latino males age 18-24 lack a driver’s license, as compared to 36% of White males age 18-24.
One of the lead plaintiffs is Bettye Jones, 77, who was born at home in Tennessee and had no birth certificate filed of her birth. She has voted in every election since 1956 and advocated as a civil rights activist for the Voting Rights Act. Despite being a registered voter, and having a valid and current ID from another state, she will not be allowed to vote. She has tried in vain to get a voter ID and will be disenfranchised in April’s primary elections as a result.
Wisconsin’s law, the strictest voter identification law in the nation, requires citizens to present limited forms of current, government-issued photo identification before receiving a ballot. Commonly held forms of identification like state or federal employee IDs, veterans’ cards, most college and university identification cards, and out-of-state or expired driver’s licenses are not allowed.
So if I get it right, this lady from Tenn. has been voting all this time, but won’t be able to now, because she can’t get ID, in turn because she doesn’t have a birth certificate. There has to be a way around this, if only someone would take the time to work through the bureaucracy and get the job done. At least as far as I know, no one’s trying to disenfranchise actual voters, it’s the ones who don’t exist or who are dead that Republicans are worried about, and the Unions and their Democratic backers are counting on in the coming election.
The standard shouldn’t be impact, it should be intent. If we use impact as the standard, no one’s ever going to get arrested for anything, or there’ll be a quota. The mind boggles at the logic that would arrive at something like that, and frankly the scenarios that come to mind when I think of this are beyond good taste. The question ought not to be whether the law will unfairly impact minorities, women, or anyone else (including whites or males or any other group). The question should be whether the law intentionally discriminates against a group by placing extra burdens on them. Is it more difficult for Black or Hispanic people to get identification, to vote or for anything else, than it is for Whites to do the same? Is it harder for a woman to get a driver’s license than a man? If not, then the complaints are in my mind invalid.
Otherwise, we’re in a world where everyone knows that Asians can’t play basketball, so we just don’t recruit Asian-American players into colleges with good basketball programs, banishing them to the Ivy League, and then when they turn pro after graduation, we keep shuttling them to minor league teams and letting them warm the bench….Oh wait…
This is of interesting note.
“”We have been very disappointed with (his) representation,” Neumann-Ortiz said.
She said a delegation approached Carpenter after he opposed in-state tuition and driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.”
http://elections.wispolitics.com/2012/02/first-witnesses-testify-on-impact-of.html
As a poll worker in Wisconsin on Tuesday I can tell you that most people were very happy that the voter ID law was finally in place here. Illinois’ law is stricter you have to register at least 60 days in advance and when you vote not only do you have to have a registration card but if a polling judge requires a picture ID you can only provide an IL State ID or IL Drivers license.
Also in Wisconsin you can get a WISCONSIN ID for FREE !!! To vote so what is holding them back – so you are telling me that miss Tennessee here has never driven or done anything needing WISCONSIN IDENTIFICATION in her 77 years she is full of it because as a Senior Citizen she has MEDICARE and if she is on MEDICAID she is required to have a WISCONSIN STATE ID for that service. ALSO Senior Citizens who are always going to vote absentee are not required to show proof of ID because they will not be at the polls. If she could get a Tennessee ID she could surely figure out how to get a WISCONSIN ID!!!
I have heard all of the excuses and none of them pan out … the thing is this will prevent all of the people who have been getting paid to vote multiple times and register under whatever name they want with our stupid same day vote same day registration and I know people were getting paid $100 to take the metra and the amtrak up from Chicago to vote in Kenosha, Racine, & Milwaukee – all you needed was someone to say you lived where you claimed to live now they have to prove it with a bank statement or a utility bill. It is killing the liberals that you also have to have lived in your residence for at least 28 days now not 10! CRY ALL YOU WANT – WISCONSIN SHOULD PASS ALL OF ILLINOIS VOTER LAWS then you will see real crying because the entire voting system and judges aren’t crooked like Crook County where you can register under false names and no one questions it and when they do the judges let them off.
How did this women get a driver’s license in a state that she doesn’t live in and without a birth certificate?
Our liberal friends are lying through their teeth. Anyone get get an ID, free of charge.
From the State of Wisconsin website:
“Starting in 2012, voters will be required to show a photo ID such as a driver license or state-issued ID in order to receive a ballot and vote. To learn about getting a free Wisconsin ID card, please visit the Wisconsin Department of Transportation website…”
and:
“ID cards used for voting are FREE. If you are a U.S. citizen, will be at least 18 years of age by the next election, and require a Wisconsin ID card to vote, please check the ID for FREE box when completing the Application…”
There are four reasons liberals oppose the Voter ID law:
1. It allows them to pose as brave defenders of the victims of racist Republikkkans.
2. It facilitates voting by people who are too stupid and lazy to get an ID.
3. It facilitates voting by people who are felons and non-citizens.
4. Evan a small number of illegal votes can swing a close election.
off topic. You’re catholic, a lawyer, and good at numbers…would you mind running the numbers on pedophile priests, public school teachers, rapes at Occupy protests, and the general population? B/c priests are supposed to be the 100% safe. And we freaked when they were, what 99%? Well, what about the 99% protestors? Or public school teachers? Or what group matches?
I’m not upset that they cleaned up churches. That’s great. But seriously- 99% of remarkably dedicated, holy people are being slimed for crimes ten years out of date, not done by them. It’s getting old. I’d like to hear what the church says about current things.