Voter Turnout Improves with Wisconsin Voter ID Law; Law Still Challenged by the Left

Wisconsin’s voter ID law is still being attacked by the left despite the Supreme Court allowing the 7th Circuit decision upholding the law to stand.  Wisconsin columnist Christian Schnieder took a good look at the reality of the impact of the law on voters during its first test last month.

[I]f voter ID was intended as a voter suppression tool, it has failed miserably.  In [Tuesday, February 16th's,] spring primary elections – elections that the Journal Sentinel called a “test” for the new voter ID law - voting spiked sharply.  Further, as of Tuesday night, no reports had surfaced of people not being able to vote because they lacked proper identification.  

In Tuesday’s statewide Supreme Court justice primary, turnout increased 55% over the last contested Supreme Court spring primary.  In 2013, statewide voter turnout was 363,675; on Tuesday, over 563,386 voters cast ballots.  Even in the 2011 Supreme Court primary, held just days after the Act 10 drama began, only 420,110 citizens voted.  

Voter turnout numbers have substantially increased since the implementation of the law and are therefore having the complete opposite effect of what current voter ID opponents allege.

And it’s not as if the increase was due to white, rural voters turning out in droves.  Turnout nearly doubled in the City of Milwaukee, where 60% of Wisconsin’s African-American residents live.  

[. . .] This should come as a surprise to no one.  In both Indiana and Georgia – states that had recently passed voter ID laws – African-American voting actually increased after the laws went into effect.  So on Tuesday, given all the dire predictions of vote “suppression” we’ve heard for years, let’s hope the law’s opponents were properly equipped with egg-resistant face protection.   

At some point, the growing mounds of evidence that voters are not disenfranchised by voter ID laws will have to drown out the continued assertions to the contrary. Elections in voter ID states continue to see record-breaking turnouts. The groundless claims perpetually asserted by the left will eventually fall on deaf ears as citizens realize the truth about voter ID laws -- that they protect the integrity of elections without disenfranchising or discouraging voters.