The state’s first major test of its voter ID law arrived with historic turnout and scattered long lines, prompting Republicans to dismiss claims it suppresses the vote and Democrats to maintain it played at least a role in some delays.
U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman also said Tuesday that he thought the law would help Republicans win the presidential election in Wisconsin for the first time in 32 years, and a former legislative aide said he would quit the Republican Party over the voter ID law, calling it the “last straw.”
In general, voting went smoothly, but there were lines of an hour or more in a few locations statewide, especially near college campuses such as Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
In most cases, the delays at the polls had more to do with the historic number of voters who showed up and less to do with the photo ID law.
Of course, even if relatively few voters were disenfranchised (and I believe that it is more than a few, which would not show up in a look at long lines), it is wrong to disenfranchise people for no good reason.