The first legal challenge to an elections law under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), since the United States Supreme Court shot down preclearance protections under Section 5 of the VRA in June, is under way with little to no fanfare. On Nov. 4, 2013, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman will hear a challenge to Wisconsin’s voter identification law brought by Advancement Project, a civil rights advocacy group, and pro bono counsel Arnold & Porter. In 2011, the state’s Republican-led legislature passed a law that would require voters to present a government-issued ID in order to cast a ballot in local, state and federal elections. The new measure would have counted Wisconsin among nearly three-dozen states with voter ID laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Republican proponents say such laws protect against voter fraud. But Democrats and other detractors argue there is little evidence of rampant voter fraud to support the need for such changes, but instead, the laws unfairly hinders minorities, the elderly and the poor from participating in elections.
“As the leading democracy of the world, the U.S. should work to keep our voting system free, fair, and accessible to all Americans,” said Advancement Project Co-Director Penda Hair in a statement. “Yet we are witnessing the greatest assault on voting rights in decades.”
In March 2012, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Richard G. Niess ruled in favor of the League of Women Voters and others, who claimed Wisconsin’s new law erected barriers to full citizen participation in the voting process.
Full Article: Advocates quietly challenging voter ID law | Florida Courier.