Op Ed: Voter ID law intended to rig elections in favor of Wisconsin Republicans

In a recent interview, Republican Congressman Glenn Grothman (R-Campbellsport) was asked how he thinks potential GOP nominees will fare in the 2016 Presidential election. In his response, Grothman said, “Now we have photo ID…photo ID is gonna make a little bit of a difference,” confirming that the purpose of voter ID is not to prevent voter impersonation, but to rig elections in favor of Republicans. Rep. David Bowen (D-Milwaukee) released the following statement in response to Republicans’ recent admission of their intentional fraud against the people of Wisconsin:

“At least Congressman Grothman is telling the truth. The Republican Party has been deliberately deceiving the public about the one true goal of voter ID since their voter suppression effort was first conceived. Now that they have been honest about its purpose, they should work with Democrats to repeal this anti-democratic law.”

If Grothman’s comments weren’t convincing enough, a former staffer for a Republican state senator recently recalled discussions that took place at meetings he was in when senators were drafting Wisconsin’s voter ID legislation. Here is what the GOP staffer had to say:

“A handful of the GOP Senators were giddy about the ramifications and literally singled out the prospects of suppressing minority and college voters. Think about that for a minute. Elected officials planning and happy to help deny a fellow American’s constitutional right to vote in order to increase their own chances to hang onto power. A vigorous debate on the ideas wasn’t good enough. Inspiring the electorate and relying on their agenda being better to get people to vote for them wasn’t enough. No, they had to take the coward’s way out and come up with a plan to suppress the vote under the guise of ‘voter fraud.’”

Politifact recently rated “true” an assertion by Congressman Pocan (D-Vermont) that more people are struck by lightning than commit the type of voter fraud that voter ID was purported to prevent, the suggested existence of which Republicans have now made clear is the real fraud in this debate. Bowen concluded, “Wisconsin Republicans’ recent confession that the goal of voter ID is to rig elections for Republicans shows there is no ethical purpose in keeping this law in place. It should be repealed.”