Friday, December 16, 2011

The BRAD BLOG : ACLU's Federal Challenge to WI GOP's Photo ID Restrictions Could Reverse Similar Laws Nationwide

The BRAD BLOG : ACLU's Federal Challenge to WI GOP's Photo ID Restrictions Could Reverse Similar Laws Nationwide

The lead plaintiff in Frank vs. Walker [PDF], the ACLU's class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District, seeking to halt enforcement of the state's new photo ID voting restrictions, is 84-year old Ruthelle Frank.

As we previously reported, Frank has been a lawful resident of Brokaw, WI since her home birth in 1927. Although she has voted in every election since 1948 and is an elected member of the Brokaw Village Board, she learned that she may be barred from voting come February 2012 because she lacks one of the official photo IDs mandated by that state's new vote-suppressing photo ID law.

She was born at home, without a birth certificate, and will be forced to pay $20 to get one in order to get her supposedly "free" ID to vote. But even that may not be enough. Frank recently learned she may not be able to comply with the state GOP's Photo ID restriction unless she coughs up upwards of $200 to amend the Register of Deeds record of her home, which had misspelled her maiden name.

The feisty octogenarian, however, was not about to quietly accept this assault on a right she had exercised without interference for the past 63 years (see a video interview with her below), and so she agreed to lead the ACLU suit.

What's wrong with this picture? She should have sent some of the legislatures into a time out.

If you can't beat them in an election stop them from voting. ALEC is the same people who Bill and Melinda Gates are giving money to for ED reform, it sounds very democratic with a small d.

 



No This Isn't Nazi Germany but it's as close as we got: it's Scott Walker's Wisconsin.

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