A federal appeals court declined Friday to hear an appeal before a full panel of judges on the court to Wisconsin’s voter ID provision before November.
The decision deals a setback to the American Civil Liberties Union and other challengers to the law.
The court said the provision of the law can remain in place for now based on the representation of the state that it had enacted a rule for the next election that requires the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles to automatically mail a free photo ID to anyone who comes to the DMV one time and initiates the free ID process.
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that the “state assures us” that the temporary credentials “will indeed be available to all qualified persons who seek them.”
“No one must present documents that for some have proved challenging to acquire; no one must show a birth certificate, proof of citizenship and the like,” the court said.
Sean Young, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, expressed reservations about the representations of the state.
“There’s no reason to believe that the state’s latest eleventh-hour ’emergency’ procedures will work any better than its past failed policies,” Young said.
“Courts nationwide have concluded that unnecessary and burdensome restrictions on voters are discriminatory and unconstitutional, ” he added.
