In A Supreme Election, WI Voters Will Decide Voter ID Question

While Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election is in the national spotlight, there’s an important election integrity issue on Tuesday’s ballot as well. In fact, election law watchdogs will tell you that the Supreme Court race and a referendum on enshrining the Badger State’s voter ID law into the Wisconsin constitution go hand-in-hand. 

“They really are bound together in this election,” Annette Olson,  chief executive officer of the Madison-based MacIver Institute, told The Federalist Monday in a phone interview. 

The conservative think tank has been advocating for the election integrity ballot question for years. It’s taken a while to get here. 

Proposed amendments to the state’s constitution must be approved in two consecutive sessions of the legislature. The Republican-controlled assembly and Senate have passed the measure twice. Now the question is in the hands of the voters. Ballot questions do not require the approval of the governor, which would have been the death knell for the voter ID provision. Democrat Gov. Tony Evers, a dutiful servant of the far left, surely would have vetoed it. 

‘Unless You Want to Cheat’

The question is pretty straightforward: “Shall section 1m of article III of the constitution be created to require that voters present valid photographic identification verifying their identity in order to vote in any election, subject to exceptions which may be established by law?” If voters approve, the Wisconsin constitution will state that “no qualified elector may cast a ballot in any election unless the elector presents valid photographic identification that verifies the elector’s identity and that is issued by this state, the federal government, a federally recognized American Indian tribe or band in this state, or a college or university in this state.”

Voters who aren’t able to present a valid photographic ID on election day will be allowed to cast a provisional ballot, but valid ID must ultimately be presented in order for the ballot to count. 

Leftist groups like the League of Wisconsin Voters have been fighting against voter ID for years, insisting it disenfranchises voters. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t. The law includes a process for those without proper IDs to obtain them through the Wisconsin Division of Motor Vehicles. Since 2011, the DMV has issued some 1.5 million free ID cards for voting, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.

“Why would you not have someone produce identification to show they’re eligible to vote unless you want to cheat?” state Sen. Van Wanggaard, a Racine Republican who was lead sponsor of the constitutional amendment in the legislature, said this week in an interview with The Federalist. 

As Wanggaard notes, the election integrity measure is an “80-20 issue.” A recent Marquette University Law School poll found 77 percent of Wisconsin voters surveyed said they support a photo ID requirement to vote, with just 22 percent opposed. Support over the past dozen years — through a dozen polls — has been high, with the lowest level of approval for photo ID at 58 percent in October 2014. 

‘You’ve Seen the Court Just Blow Stuff Up’

Wisconsin’s voter ID law has been on the books since 2011, surviving court challenges. The amendment wouldn’t “significantly alter” the current law, as the League of Women Voters concedes, but it would make it more difficult for future legislatures to get rid of the photo ID requirement. It would also stymie activist courts from legislating from the bench — a very real concern if liberals retain their 4-3 majority in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election. 

Susan Crawford, the far-left candidate in the costly and nationally-watched race, served as lead attorney for the League of Women Voters’ unsuccessful lawsuit attempting to kill the photo ID requirement. The Dane County judge, whose disdain for the law is well-known, has called voter ID “draconian” and has likened it to a “poll tax.” Crawford won’t say whether she would recuse herself if she is elected and a voter ID lawsuit comes before the Supreme Court. 

Justice Janet Protasiewicz, a leftist who’s election victory in 2023 gave liberals control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court for the first time in 15 years, has refused to recuse herself from another case that looks destined for Wisconsin’s court of last resort. Despite having protested against the state’s Act 10 law limiting public-sector collective bargaining, Protasiewicz denied a request by the state GOP to step aside from hearing the lawsuit. And Protasiewicz publicly noted her displeasure for Wisconsin’s legislative maps and other policies while campaigning for the Supreme Court seat. 

Wanggaard said the voter ID law is so important because the court under liberal leadership has become more aggressive in its judicial activism. 

“In the last two years you’ve seen the court just blow stuff up,” the senator said. “Prior to that, you had some certainty to what the law was. Now, they want to go back and look at anything they didn’t like politically and make a change if it doesn’t fit their agenda.” 

Liberal activists argue voter ID laws are unnecessary in part because voter fraud rarely — if ever — happens. Wanggaard was the victim of election fraud during Wisconsin’s leftist-led recall elections of 2011 and 2012. A Racine man pleaded guilty to two counts of election fraud after he admitted to forging “at least seven names on petitions” to recall the senator, according to the Heritage Foundation’s Voter Fraud Report. Wanggaard was one of several Republican senators targeted in the recall movement for supporting Act 10. 

“Prosecutors dropped seven charges of identity fraud in exchange for the plea, and prosecutors in nearby Kenosha County agreed not to charge [Mark] Demet for similar election offenses committed there,” the Heritage report states. “Demet claimed he was driven by extreme animus towards Republicans that led him to allow his emotions to ‘run wild’ in the ‘toxic’ political environment in the state of Wisconsin.” 

He was sentenced to pay $2,500 in fines.

‘Get Out and Vote!’

President Trump on Monday weighed in on Wisconsin’s voter ID constitutional amendment question. 

“This, and other Election Integrity measures, including banning Drop Boxes, and Same Day Voting with Paper Ballots, can only happen if you GET OUT AND VOTE!,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account. In the same message, the president urged Wisconsinites to vote for Schimel. 

“PLEASE GET OUT AND VOTE YES ON QUESTION 1, AND VOTE FOR BRAD SCHIMEL TO THE SUPREME COURT, TOMORROW, APRIL 1ST. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote. 

In November, Wisconsin joined a growing list of states to add a Citizen Only Voting Amendment to their constitutions, spelling out that noncitizens are prohibited from voting in Wisconsin elections. Federally, the House is set to again take up the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require documented proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. The same leftist groups and accomplice media players pushing a ‘no’ vote on Wisconsin’s voter ID referendum are vehemently opposed to the SAVE Act. 

Olson said election integrity advocates are “feeling pretty good about” the referendum’s chances. The MacIver Institute CEO said the Supreme Court election has overshadowed the ballot question, though.

“If you are going out to vote, make sure you’re taking a deep look at this constitutional amendment, as well. They really go hand in hand,” Olson said. 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.