Wisconsin Votes to Enshrine Voter Photo ID Law in State Constitution
Residents vote at a polling place inside the Heritage Oaks apartment homes in
Madison, Wis., on April 1, 2025. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Wisconsin
voters approved a ballot measure on Tuesday that enshrines into the
state Constitution the photo identification requirement in order to cast
a ballot.Approximately 63 percent of voters
supported the ballot measure, while around 37 percent voted against it,
according to an unofficial tally by The Associated Press.Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine), who co-authored the amendment, said the
voter photo ID requirement will now become “the law of the land no
matter the political whims of the Supreme Court or Legislature.”“I want to thank the voters for overwhelmingly putting Voter ID into the constitution,” he stated on social media platform X. “Every elected Democrat and Susan Crawford oppose it.”
Judge Crawford is the Democrat-backed candidate who won
the Wisconsin Supreme Court race on Tuesday, defeating Brad Schimel, a
former attorney general who had President Donald Trump’s endorsement.The
requirement for voters to show valid photo identification before
casting a ballot is already mandated by state law, which was passed in
2011 and went into effect in 2016. Adding it to the state Constitution
will make it more difficult for the Legislature or courts to change it
in the future.Trump celebrated the measure’s approval on the
Truth Social platform on Tuesday, calling it a “big win for
Republicans,” as he noted that Democrats had pushed back against it.“It should allow us to win Wisconsin, like I just did in the presidential election, for many years to come!” Trump stated in a post on the Truth Social platform in caps.
Trump
narrowly lost Wisconsin to Joe Biden in the 2020 general election but
defeated Kamala Harris in the election last November to claim its 10
electoral votes.The voter ID amendment cleared its last
hurdle on Jan. 14 when the Republican-controlled state Assembly voted to
place the proposal on the statewide election ballot.Opponents had argued
that voter ID laws disenfranchise the elderly, people with
disabilities, and minorities, who may have difficulties in obtaining an
active form of photo ID.All Voting is Local, a voting
rights nonprofit, said that enshrining the laws in the state
Constitution will cause many voters to be excluded from the ballot box
in future elections.Sam Liebert, the organization’s state
director, said that the voter ID requirement affected turnout among
seniors, people of colors, people with disabilities, and those from
low-income households when it took effect in 2016.“We
should not be purposefully leaving eligible voters behind by setting up
additional barriers to the ballot, but unfortunately, those in the
Badger State have one more step to take before voting,” he said in a statement.The organization was one of the 23 signees of a letter issued
on March 5, which urged Wisconsinites to reject the proposed amendment
that the nonprofit said could risk “creating more barriers” for voters.State Republicans have defended
the voter ID requirement. Rep. David Murphy (R-District 56) said in
January that a liberal-dominated state Supreme Court “can find creative
ways to overturn statutes as unconstitutional” and that voters choosing
to enshrine the law to the state Constitution will protect it from
potential legal challenges in the future.State Rep. Amanda
Nedweski (R-District 61) demonstrated that if voter photo ID was
designed to suppress voting, it is doing a terrible job because voter
turnout in the 2024 general election was the highest in Wisconsin
history.State Rep. Joel Kitchens (R-1st District) told the Assembly in January that “voter ID keeps both sides honest.”
According
to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 36 states require
voters to present some form of identification at the polls, while 14 states and the District of Columbia do not require any documentation of identity to vote.As of April 2024, 21 states require photo identification to vote, while 15 states accept non-photo identification.
Steven Kovac and The Associated Press contributed to this report.