Ruthelle Frank doesn’t have a photo ID. She doesn’t have a birth certificate either. As a lifelong resident of a small village in rural Wisconsin, she’s never really needed one. In order to get a valid copy, she’d have to pay $20 to the state Register of Deeds and upwards of $200 more in legal fees to correct a misspelling of her maiden name. Yet beginning in February, she will be turned away from the polls unless she can produce an official state ID card, denied the right to vote under Wisconsin's restrictive new voter ID law despite being perfectly eligible to cast a ballot.
It’s precisely because of people like Ruthelle that earlier today the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s voter ID law and calling it out for what it is: an unconstitutional act that will deprive citizens of their basic right to vote. And it’s precisely because of this type of anti-democratic legislation that this very evening, just hours after our lawsuit was filed, Attorney General Eric Holder delivered a major speech addressing the nationwide attack on the right to vote that we’ve been witnessing throughout 2011.
Ruthelle is one of seventeen plaintiffs in our lawsuit, but she is certainly not alone. Countless Wisconsin residents – including veterans, minority voters and seniors who have been voting for decades – will be turned away from the polls under the state's restrictive photo ID requirements. Take Carl Ellis for example, another plaintiff in today’s suit and a 52-year-old veteran of the U.S. Army. Carl is currently living in a homeless shelter and his only photo ID is a veteran ID card, which under the new law will no longer be acceptable as a form of identification. “If I can serve my country, I should be able to vote for who runs it,” he says. Then there’s Anthony Sharp, a 19-year-old who lives with his family and doesn’t have enough income to afford a $20 certified copy of his birth certificate just to be able to vote. His view? “You shouldn’t have to pay all this money to be able to vote.”
The ACLU has been at the forefront of the resistance to voter suppression efforts all around the country, and today’s lawsuit is just another example of our pushback against this unprecedented assault. Here in Maine we’ve been fortunate to stave off the national trend so far, though it’s certainly taken a lot of hard work. Our resounding success last month restored same-day voter registration and sent a clear message that Mainers will not accept barriers to our constitutional right to vote -- but we’re not out of the woods yet!
Next month, the Maine legislature will revisit LD 199, a voter ID bill that will deny thousands of eligible voters – particularly minorities, the elderly, and folks with lower incomes – the chance to exercise their constitutional right to vote, just as we’re seeing in other states all around the country. Today the focus is on Wisconsin and the ACLU’s defense of voting rights there, but it won’t be long before the voter ID fight is right at our doorstep. And when that day comes, the ACLU of Maine will be right there, standing up for the Ruthelles of the world who have just the same right to vote as everyone else.
