For release: Wednesday - January 8, 2025
Image: Wisconsin Capitol under banner "Holding Power Accountable"
Tell Your State Legislators to Oppose Enshrining Voter Suppression in the Constitution
The November 2024 election in Wisconsin produced results in the state legislature that much more accurately reflect the evenly divided, 50/50 state Wisconsin really is. To underscore that point, Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin won reelection by just 29,000 votes out of 3.4 million cast and Republican Donald Trump won the state by about the same 29,000 vote margin. By almost every measure we are the most “purple” state in the nation.
One might think that given those results and with a more closely divided state legislature (Republicans now hold a 18 to 15 majority over Democrats in the State Senate and a 55 to 44 margin in the Assembly), there would be more bipartisanship and working together on the part of Republicans and Democrats. This would put a stop to the hyper partisanship and polarization of the past 14 years. Certainly, the voters of Wisconsin have spoken loudly that they seek more cooperation and agreement in place of continued division, distrust and partisan conflict.
Unfortunately, Republican leaders in both chambers of the Legislature are doubling down on the hyper partisanship by making their first order of business in the 2025-26 legislative session, passage of an extremely divisive and misguided constitutional amendment. They seek to enshrine in the Wisconsin Constitution one of the most onerous voter suppression measures in the nation – Wisconsin’s 13-year-old voter photo ID law.
That constitutional amendment is embodied in Senate Joint Resolution 2 in the State Senate and Assembly Joint Resolution 1 in the State Assembly and both are being suddenly scheduled and rammed through committees and fast-tracked to the floor of each chamber this week and next so that it can appear on the April 1st Spring election ballot. This is another effort to confuse the public, avoid bipartisan consensus and bypass the Governor to make law by amending the state constitution.
These measures have only Republican supporters in the Legislature. Not a single Democratic legislator, nor Gov. Evers, nor any voting rights organization support these measures or maneuvers. They should be defeated and discarded because they make will make it more difficult for many eligible Wisconsinites to vote because the voter ID restrictions are limited and complicated.
"I am extremely disappointed that the Republican legislators are continuing to ignore their constituents,” said Penny Bernard Schaber, the Chair of Common Cause Wisconsin and a former state representative from Appleton. “Wisconsinites want legislators to cooperate and work together for all of Wisconsin. It is long past time for our Republican legislators to recognize this and to get down to work," she added.
Wisconsin makes it more difficult for its citizens to vote than almost any state in the nation. The voter photo identification law – first passed in 2011 and finally made effective in 2016 – is perhaps the most restrictive and extreme in the nation. It is ranked among the 9 most restrictive voter ID laws and it is by far the most extreme in the upper Midwest.
In our region neither Minnesota nor Illinois require any photo ID to vote. Michigan does but allows voters to sign an affidavit attesting to their identity if they do not have the requisite photo ID. Indiana and Ohio have strict photo ID laws but neither state is as restrictive or extreme as Wisconsin. What did we do to deserve such harsh and suspicious treatment? Proponents of this voting suppression measure contend it is needed to prevent non-existent voter “fraud.” But the facts show us there is no voter fraud. It just doesn’t exist. There wasn’t any in Wisconsin before the 2011 voter ID law was passed. There isn’t any in those states without voter ID requirements now.
Why have it then? Because Republicans have calculated that requiring specific forms of photo ID to vote will make it more difficult for certain segments of Wisconsin voters to be able to obtain that form of ID. This includes people of color, residents of urban areas who rely on public transportation and have no need for a driver’s license, and college and university students. Enshrining this onerous law into the Wisconsin Constitution will make it much more difficult to repeal or even to modify.
Wisconsin would be one of the very first states in the nation to enshrine voter suppression in its state constitution. Do Wisconsin voters deserve that kind of contempt and ill-treatment by a slim legislative majority for the sole purpose of clinging to political power? Of course not.
Take action today by contacting both your Wisconsin State Senator and your State Representative and demand they demonstrate their respect for you by voting AGAINST Senate Joint Resolution 2 in the State Senate and Assembly Joint Resolution 1 in the State Assembly.
Find your State Senator and your State Representative from the official Wisconsin State Legislature webpage here where you will be provided names, phone numbers, and a link to their email addresses.
On Wisconsin. Forward!
Jay Heck, Executive Director, Common Cause Wisconsin
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Jay Heck
608/512-9363 (cell)
Common Cause in Wisconsin
152 Johnson St, Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
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