[EL] That out of state license

Wed May 10 07:38:02 PDT 2017

Under Wisconsin law, after becoming a resident of the state in 2015, Reynolds had 60 days to get a Wisconsin driver's license. Wisc. Statutes Chp. 343, so it appears that by election day 2016, for 9 months or more Mr. Reynolds had been tooling around the Dairy State illegally, but fortunately was not caught.

So, which is a worse--that until he goes to the DMV and turns in his Illinois license for a Wisconsin license, Mr. Reynolds can't vote, thus forfeiting an infintisimal chance of altering the election outcome, or that until he goes to the DMV and turns in his Illinois license for a Wisconsin license, he can't legally drive to his local party headquarters to engage in volunteer activity, where his activities might actually influence a dozen or more votes to support his favored candidate? (And can't legally drive himself to the polls to vote, to the airport to board a plane, to the bank to open a checking account, or to the drug store to buy cold medicine, the examples used in the article.)

This is actually a serious question, to which I don't know the answer with certainty. I do know that governments generally have lots of rules that don't serve much purpose and that often infringe on ordinary liberties, whether constitutionally guaranteed or not, but support for such constraints seems widespread. I wish more people were more skeptical of government's asserted "interests" generally.

And I thank Mr. Reynolds for his service to our country.

Bradley A. Smith

Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault

   Professor of Law

Capital University Law School

303 E. Broad St.

Columbus, OH 43215

614.236.6317

http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx

________________________________
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on behalf of Rick Hasen [rhasen at law.uci.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2017 12:23 AM
To: Election Law Listserv
Subject: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/10/17

“In Wisconsin, ID law proved insurmountable for many voters”<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://electionlawblog.org/%3fp%3d92456&c=E,1,pq4V2ZcsBHa5fBxCb-MJvqnAQZZF7v2TYLmDCReds1r2pxFU5N7cbxcjqGZ1lNyz4UD4O64z2JFrCm7IN0hrVH3FdwwMkifll4lxc1_Db4vI&typo=1>
Posted on May 9, 2017 9:05 pm<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://electionlawblog.org/%3fp%3d92456&c=E,1,xNEongnvVNHg513szCSihi3ed2r9eDGEesRQscfwctPpZTjQwPy8mKLKMnSipi4JYLs3qajpkFLIRsJrlCgh-K6fDeaTW5ADSBQZsi2vq3dSGJxD1ls,&typo=1> by Rick Hasen<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://electionlawblog.org/%3fauthor%3d3&c=E,1,VGx8gEWwanShCDDLAkczi9sgZ0A9RcqDazSYNzM0dT26FGYh-pnmbT_2JI1lVO6MWqScwMIjEniq_qWfL7QX8lq9UjaMOMZ3IbbsdwPugaueAr_3cPMJ&typo=1>
AP:<http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/In-Wisconsin-ID-law-proved-insurmountable-for-11132489.php>
When Sean Reynolds<http://www.seattlepi.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Sean+Reynolds%22> went to his polling place at a local ice skating rink on Election Day, he showed his valid driver’s license. The problem? It wasn’t issued in Wisconsin.
Reynolds, 30, was taken aback. He had moved to Madison in 2015 to find work after leaving the Navy and receiving his associate’s degree from a university in neighboring Illinois. After successfully registering to vote in Wisconsin using an online website, he thought all he needed to show at the polls was a current photo ID. After all, his Illinois ID was good enough to board a plane, open a checking account and purchase cold medicine.
“Coming home and being denied the right to vote because I didn’t have a specific driver’s license is very frustrating,” said Reynolds, who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan providing support for special forces. “I was a little incredulous that they wouldn’t accept another state’s driver’s license. I didn’t understand why it was not a valid form of ID.”
Reynolds said he had been working 50-hour weeks, receiving hourly pay, and could not afford to take time off from his job in security management to visit a local DMV and transfer his license from Illinois….
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D92456&title=%E2%80%9CIn%20Wisconsin%2C%20ID%20law%20proved%20insurmountable%20for%20many%20voters%E2%80%9D>
Posted in election administration<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://electionlawblog.org/%3fcat%3d18&c=E,1,fejluzo-pR4EIa_TOPKeQ4_06hvcXSTX_t3S16goOJud8YtAQ4n601S-bdf4SZtk1xDYjiM0iBjk0rvKAackBedN9RjMk1mXVxM6RQDczr5DKCbgqI-4n28,&typo=1>, The Voting Wars<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://electionlawblog.org/%3fcat%3d60&c=E,1,ZniLMrBOXQQTezTs6sNxeN-AQNljteSB_Ozw-fnfZl10Q9DS6fhX6OkooeT_qeAAqAEDNYqG9KC1ggw44He0QOAcmS5VzjTSpkpgwQ,,&typo=1>

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