LWV WI response to Attorney General Comments on Voter Photo ID Law

Attorney General Brad Schimel recently suggested that tens of thousands of Wisconsinites were prevented from voting in the November 2016 election and that resulted in wins for President Trump and Senator Johnson. Let’s do the math: the margins of victory in these races were more than 22,000 votes for President and 99,000 votes for U.S. Senator. Is the Attorney General suggesting that without voter ID there would have been that many people in our state voting fraudulently, and all of them for the other candidates? If the problem is that widespread, why has neither Mr. Schimel nor any Attorney General before him been able to identify and prosecute a single case of voter impersonation in Wisconsin?

We agree that the voter photo ID law has prevented Wisconsin citizens from voting - eligible citizens who have the full right to cast a ballot. We don’t know how many, but we do know they outnumber those who were ever found guilty of voter impersonation which is the argued purpose of the voter photo ID law. Wisconsin voters were prevented from exercising a fundamental citizen right by a law requiring an ID to vote that was unneeded and unfair from the start. As the top law enforcement officer of the state, Attorney General Schimel should provide substantiated proof to his claims rather than spuriously discrediting elections and disparaging Wisconsin voters. 

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The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes informed citizen participation at all levels of government. The League has women and men members across the state and 20 local Leagues that focus on making democracy work. Follow @LWV_WI on Twitter.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  CONTACT:  Erin Grunze, Executive Director

April 17, 2018  608-256-0827; egrunze [at] lwvwi.org