On April 1, Wisconsin voters will have the opportunity to enshrine a voter ID measure into the state’s constitution.
Voters will be asked whether the state’s founding document should be amended to require voters “present valid photographic identification verifying their identity in order to vote in any election,” with this requirement being “subject to exceptions which may be established by law.” In a recent poll among registered Wisconsin voters conducted by The Marquette Law School, 73 percent of respondents said they support the proposed voter ID amendment. In addition, more recent national polls have found that at least 80 percent of Americans support voter ID.
But despite voter ID policy popularity both statewide and nationally, Democrats are fighting the referendum soon to appear on the Wisconsin ballot.
The ballot proposal was approved by the Republican-led Assembly “with no support from Democrats,” CBS News reported in January. While there are presently no legal challenges to the current voter ID laws already in place in the state, “Democrats said photo ID requirements are often enforced unfairly, making it more difficult for people of color, the disabled and poor people to vote,” according to the outlet. They also “argued that lawmakers should focus instead on other issues such as gun control, clean water, affordable housing, and expanding access to child care.”
Multiple left-leaning voter activist groups have also come out against the proposal. Souls To The Polls Wisconsin, a purportedly “left-of-center” get out the vote group, called the referendum “harmful” in a social media post last month.
“This newest amendment proposal would enshrine Wisconsin’s strict voter ID law in the state constitution–disenfranchising thousands of eligible voters and limiting the court’s ability to protect our voting rights,” the post reads.
The executive director of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC), Nick Ramos, similarly suggested to a local NBC affiliate that the referendum would “make it harder for people to vote.” (According to conservative watchdog InfluenceWatch, WDC has a history of “target[ting] the financial supporters of Republican and conservative policy leaders” and pursues policy goals “decidedly left-of-center.”)
In addition, the Wisconsin chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a “nearly 100-year-old left-leaning activism organization,” according to InfluenceWatch, issued a statement in February urging voters to vote “no” on the measure, arguing that voter ID laws “disenfranchise” voters. The ACLU of Wisconsin Union along with more than 20 other organizations also signed onto a joint letter opposing the measure last month. WDC and Souls to the Polls Wisconsin are also among the signers.
Voter ID Is Already Law
Even if Wisconsinites do not pass the referendum, the state still has a voter ID law in place. But, as noted by Politifact, “if passed, it would elevate the law to the state constitution, making it harder for the state Supreme Court to overturn it or future lawmakers to repeal it.”
In 2011, then-Gov. Scott Walker signed a voter ID law that briefly went into effect before a series of lawsuits put the law on hold in 2012. The law faced a series of challenges by the Wisconsin League of Women Voters, the ACLU, the NAACP, and the League of United Latin American Citizens.
These lawsuits argued the law was unconstitutional or tantamount to voter suppression. As PBS Wisconsin outlines in its “Timeline Of Voter ID Rules In Wisconsin,” the Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled the law to be constitutional in 2013, though the law remained blocked as the NAACP lawsuit worked through the appeals process. The state Supreme Court upheld the law in 2014 before the United States Supreme Court temporarily blocked the law again. The law went back into effect during the 2016 election cycle.
The law currently remains in effect and was active during the 2024 election cycle. Currently, Wisconsin voters must present a form of photo ID in order to vote. Voters who do not present an ID when attempting to vote may cast a provisional ballot that will later be counted so long as the voter provides an acceptable form of ID to election officials before 4 p.m. on the Friday following the election.
Republican State Sen. Van Wanggaard, who is sponsoring the voter ID measure, said, “We can be sure that a new lawsuit challenging [the current laws’] constitutionality is coming,” according to the Associated Press, adding that he is “not willing to risk” the law being struck down by the state Supreme Court.
Wanggaard said in a statement to The Federalist that this referendum is a “common sense election integrity measure” and that without it, “it calls into question who is voting in our elections.”
“The main reason for the amendment is to protect it from our newly liberal and unburdened-by-precedent Supreme Court,” Wanggaard told The Federalist. “I have little doubt that the Liberal wing of the Wisconsin Supreme Court would overturn its previous ruling that Voter ID is constitutional.”
The race for control of the state Supreme Court is perhaps the top-ticket issue in the April 1 election, with spending on the race reportedly surpassing $30 million.
[READ: Conservatives Can’t Allow Wisconsin’s Upcoming Supreme Court Race To Fall Through The Cracks]
Notably, Susan Crawford, the Democrat-backed candidate chosen to run for the state Supreme Court, represented plaintiffs as an attorney on one of the cases challenging Wisconsin’s voter ID law in 2011.
Wisconsin’s liberal-led Supreme Court has recently ruled against other election integrity efforts in the state, including overturning its own ruling banning absentee ballot drop boxes last July.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
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