Van Hollen asks court to lift voter ID injunction

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In the wake of a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision upholding the state’s Republican-passed voter ID law, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen is asking a federal appellate court to lift an injunction on the law in a federal case.

The motion, filed Tuesday, asks the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to lift Eastern District of Wisconsin Judge Lynn Adelman’s permanent injunction on the law, commonly known as Act 23, while the case is being appealed. The hope is for the law to be in effect for the election in November, according to a news release from Van Hollen’s office.

The request comes after the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in a pair of rulings last week, upheld the law. One ruling, however, said it was not fair to require voters who do not have a government-issued ID to have to pay to obtain one, and it laid the groundwork for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to give exceptions to potential voters who qualify for a payment waiver.

According to Tuesday’s motion, the court’s groundwork “will likely decrease the burden that voters might experience in complying” with the law.

Opponents of the law have said Act 23 would disenfranchise about 300,000 potential voters who do not have a government-issued ID. But the ruling says that Adelman’s made a mistake, since the state’s evidence would have shown that more than 90 percent of Wisconsin’s voters already have an ID.

Finally, the motion also says the state has a good chance of prevailing upon appeal.