Right to Vote

December 19, 2011 Madison - The American Civil Liberties Union sued the State of Wisconsin on Tuesday over a new law requiring voters to show government-issued photo identification, charging that the measure violates the U.S. Constitution.

The lawsuit says that the state is infringing on some citizens' right to vote and to be treated equally under the law and amounts to a kind of poll tax on voters who lack the documents needed to get an approved ID.

To vote, Wisconsin residents will be required to show a driver's license, state-issued ID card, military ID, passport, tribal ID, college ID or naturalization certificate. To keep the law from being a poll tax, the measure requires the state Division of Motor Vehicles to waive the normal $28 fee for state IDs for people who seek them for the purpose of voting.

But the ACLU suit notes that to get a free state ID, voters must present the DMV with a birth certificate, passport or other documentation. Birth certificates cost $20 in Wisconsin, and there are also fees for the other types of documentation as well.

The lawsuit lays out the case of Ruthelle Frank of Brokaw who serves on her village board and has voted religiously since 1948. Frank, 84, has never had a birth certificate, the lawsuit says.

The state has a record of Frank's birth, which would allow her to have a birth certificate made. But her maiden name is misspelled in those records, meaning Frank could have to pay extra to have it corrected.

The lawsuit also lays out of the case of Barbara Oden, a 57-year-old resident of Milwaukee who has no photo ID, birth certificate or Social Security card. The lawsuit says that Oden has no income or savings and was denied a Social Security card because she doesn't have a photo ID.

December 19, 2011 A third lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Wisconsin's new law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls has been filed.

The Milwaukee chapter of the NAACP and Hispanic rights group Voces de la Frontera filed the lawsuit on Friday in Dane County Circuit Court arguing the law violates the right to vote under the state constitution.