By Brad Friedman on 3/13/2014, 6:50pm PT  

Meanwhile...Back up in Wisconsin, where two different courts have already found the Republicans' polling place Photo ID restriction law to be in violation of the state constitution, a decision on an appeal waits at the state Supreme Court.

But, no worries, if that Court also agrees that it's unconstitutional to deny WI voters their right to vote, Gov. Scott Walker is ready to call the state legislature back into an emergency session to try to pass another such law, according to the Journal Sentinel...

Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday he would call a special legislative session if courts this spring do not uphold the state's voter ID law, which has been blocked since soon after it was enacted.

Shortly after taking over all of state government in 2011, Republicans passed a law requiring voters to show photo ID at the polls. In 2012, two Dane County judges blocked the measure.

Those cases are now before the state Supreme Court, which is expected to rule by June. Separately, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman is considering two other cases that argue the voter ID law violates the U.S. Constitution and federal Voting Rights Act.

Despite the fact that an expert on voter fraud testified during one of the trials last year that there was only one single case of voter impersonation in WI that might have been deterred by such a law over the past 10 years, the Wisconsin State Journal reports that Walker sees this issue as very very urgent --- the only one, in fact, that is urgent enough that he would find it necessary to call for a special session of the legislature, for some reason...

Walker told reporters Tuesday that he sees voter ID as the most "pressing" election-related issue facing Wisconsin, and he would like the requirement to be in place "before the next election."

"The only real thing I thought that was pressing, and it may still continue to be pressing depending on what the courts react on, is voter ID," Walker said.

So why is Walker suddenly so panicked to put in place a voting restriction that could keep tens of thousands of otherwise perfectly legal Wisconsin voters from being able to cast their vote as usual?

Back to the Journal Sentinel for one potential answer...

"If something broke from either the Wisconsin Supreme Court or from Judge Adelman, then if the governor called us into a special, great," [Republican state Senate Majority Leader Scott] Fitzgerald said. "I think that'd be appropriate."

He also held open the possibility lawmakers could call themselves back into the session --- rather than having the governor do so --- in what is known as extraordinary session.

Such a move could help ensure the voter ID requirement is in place for the November elections, when Walker will be on the ballot for re-election.

Oh. Got it. In January, Walker's upcoming re-election contest, totally coincidentally, was being described as "a real horse race". This week, Republican polling outfit Rasmussen calls the race "a dead heat".

Cue longtime Rightwing demi-god Paul Weyrich, father of the modern day Republican voter suppression movement...

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Article Categories: Election Reform, Election Fraud, Rights And Freedoms, Wisconsin, Photo ID Laws, Scott Walker, Election 2014