Laws that limited in-person absentee voting to one location, limited early voting hours and eliminated weekend voting are unconstitutional, Peterson ruled.
The 2013 law limiting hours for in-person absentee voting “intentionally discriminates on the basis of race,” Peterson wrote in a 119-page decision.
“I reach this conclusion because I am persuaded that this law was specifically targeted to curtail voting in Milwaukee without any other legitimate purpose. The legislature’s immediate goal was to achieve a partisan objective, but the means of achieving that objective was to suppress the reliably Democratic vote of Milwaukee’s African Americans,” Peterson wrote.
Take note that Milwaukee’s suburbs are Governor Scott Walker’s base; he’s been running against the inner-city population there for twenty years.
The judge
also overturned laws that increased the residency requirement for voters from 10 days to 28 days, prohibited distributing absentee ballots by fax or email and required “dorm lists” used as proof of residence to include citizenship information.
The judge also overturned a provision of the voter ID law banning the use of expired but otherwise qualifying student IDs at the polls.
Federal appellate judges on Friday struck down a 2013 law limiting voting options and requiring voters to show photo ID at the polls, declaring in an unsparing opinion that the restrictions “target African Americans with almost surgical precision.”
The three-judge panel of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals found that the law was adopted with “discriminatory intent” despite lawmakers’ claims that the ID provision and other changes were designed to prevent voter fraud.
[snip]
The ruling prohibits North Carolina from requiring photo identification from voters in future elections, including the November 2016 general election. It restores a week of early voting and preregistration for 16- and 17-year-olds, and ensures that same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting will remain in effect.
Acting on a request made by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Shawnee County District Court, Judge Larry Hendricks on Friday issued an injunction preventing Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach from implementing a dual voter registration system in the August primary election.
The dual registration system that Kobach attempted to create would have allowed thousands of qualified Kansas voters to vote in federal elections, but prohibited them from voting in state and local elections due solely to their method of registration.
How’s that for blatant discrimination, not to mention ridiculous vote rigging? “Oh, we’ll let you vote for President and Congress, but don’t you even think about voting for local officials like state legislators. If I let you do that we might lose our majority in the State Legislature!” Freaking Kobach is a real piece of work. He’s been attempting to restrict voter access and deport immigrants for his entire career, all on the flimsy pretext of preventing individual voter fraud.