Contact: Rep. David Bowen, (608) 266-7671
MILWAUKEE – Yesterday, the US Supreme court refused to re-instate North Carolina’s Voter ID restrictions, deemed unconstitutional in a ruling by a 9th circuit court judge that declared African Americans “were targeted with surgical precision” and that it “impose[s] cures for problems that did not exist.” This bill is one of numerous others that have passed around the country, including in Wisconsin.
With news reports that as many as 300,000 eligible Wisconsin voters would not have been able to participate in the 2016 Fall election as a result of the Voter ID Disenfranchisement law, Rep. David Bowen (D-Milwaukee) called for Governor Walker not to enforce the Republican Voter ID law in 2018 elections, including the Governor’s race.
“Governor Walker and majority Republicans’ Voter ID law stopped potentially hundreds of thousands of people – many of them from communities of color – from casting ballots in the 2016 election,” said Bowen. “That should be of great concern to anyone who cares about the integrity of our elections.”
In the 2012 Presidential election, the City of Milwaukee had 41,000 more ballots cast than the 2016 election, a turnout reduction that very possibly correlates with the Republican Voter ID law.
“This level of voter disenfranchisement by Governor Walker and majority Republicans is incredibly damaging to democracy and prevents communities of color from having a voice,” said Bowen. “I demand Governor Walker not engage in modern-day point-shaving and instead run fair elections.”
