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By Associated Press
MADISON, WI – A federal judge on Thursday voided the early voting restrictions passed by Wisconsin Republicans during a legislative session in the month from April, declaring the boundaries reflect the restrictions that he had blocked two years ago.
Republicans voted in December to limit in-person advance voting to no more than two weeks before an election. The move came after a difficult mid-term election in November, when the predominantly Democratic cities of Madison and Milwaukee held an advance vote for six weeks – much longer than in smaller, more conservative communities.
in the legislature and quickly convened the lame-duck session to pass bills that gov. Scott Walker, also defeated, could have signed before leaving office.
Walker and the Republicans argued that the early voting slot should be uniform throughout the state. , not left to each community to determine. Walker argued that it was an issue of fairness and that local communities could decide when, within two weeks, propose an advance vote.
A coalition of Liberal groups backed by former US Attorney General Eric Holder asked US District Judge James Peterson to cancel the restrictions three days after Walker promulgated them.
Peterson blocked the same two-week advance voting restrictions as well as a number of other voting laws drafted by Republican authors in 2016. State lawyers asked the 7th American circuit. The Court of Appeal overturned Peterson
The court of appeal has not yet ruled, but Peterson wrote Thursday that he could still enforce his own orders in the decision of 2016. He said that the restrictions of the lame duck early vote clearly imitated the limits that he had blocked in 2016.
"This is not a crucial issue," Peterson wrote. Later, he added: "The accused do not even attempt to show that there is a significant difference between the number of days allowed under the law on" ducklings "and the number of days allowed under from the previous law. "
Peterson blocked provisions of the lame law prohibiting voters from using expired student IDs and temporary IDs longer than 60 days as an ID in polling stations. He said these restrictions were too reflective of the laws he had abolished in 2016 that blocked expired and invalid student cards for more than 180 days.
Kit Beyer, spokesman for the Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, did not immediately respond to an email. look for a comment. Alec Zimmerman, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, made no comments in the immediate future.
Scot Ross, executive director of One Wisconsin Institute, one of the groups that pitched the challenge, said in a statement that Peterson had told Vos and other Republicans. "undoubtedly on the fact that they are not above the law." Republican attacks against the right to vote were unconstitutional when they were adopted, they were unconstitutional when the judge overturned them and they are now unconstitutional. "
Martha Laning, president of the Democratic Party, which is not a party in the lawsuits, said in a statement that Democrats would continue to face Republican attempts to "rig the system in their favor" and to sabotage our democratic processes with strong opposition ".
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