We're in another one of those interesting moments in Wisconsin where some of the more egregious acts of our state legislature are again in court. Despite our governor's assertion that Voter ID is working "fine" in the state, the current lawsuit in Wisconsin Western District court seems to be arguing otherwise. Walker is unwilling to admit that there's a problem here, yet he seems willing to write administrative rules to "fix" it. Well, only a little bit.
Voter ID has been a painful issue right down then line, attempting to save us from the dire consequences of impersonation fraud at the polls. Fraud for which nobody seems ever to find evidence. The current case argues, I think convincingly, that the whole Voter ID law is a bare-faced attempt to disenfranchise voters who are likely to vote Democratic. Let's hope that the court sees the point here and is willing to act on it.
Meanwhile in Federal court the law suit on district gerrymandering begins tomorrow, with the plaintiffs asking that all of the 2011 redistricting be thrown out, and a new less-partisan district plan instated. This will be interesting to see, in that the Republicans are arguing that partisan activity in re-districting is normal, and everyone does it. Still, the 2011 redistricting seems to have struck out in an entirely new direction for Wisconsin, with districting very carefully built with computer models to improve the chances of Republican election victories around the state.
Clearly the answer here is not litigation (though that will help) but simply to replace our antiquated and partisan congressional districting with a fairer law and a fairer plan. And litigation is, unfortunately, the only force that might make this happen in our wildly polarized state.
Let's hope for the best in both of these suits. Voting is way too important to be pushed around by a political party this way, no matter what party it is. Let's make voters and districts equal under the law.