A Wisconsin judge Friday struck down portions of the state’s voter identification laws, dealing efforts to combat voter fraud a double blow after a judge earlier in the day blocked North Carolina’s voter ID statute.
U.S. District Court Judge James Peterson ruled that the measure had discriminated against minorities, writing that “Wisconsin’s strict version of voter ID law is a cure worse than the disease.”
Peterson has also turned back other election laws Republicans have put in place in recent years, according to the Milwaukee Journal.
“The Wisconsin experience demonstrates that a preoccupation with mostly phantom election fraud leads to real incidents of disenfranchisement, which undermine rather than enhance confidence in elections, particularly in minority communities,” U.S. District Judge James Peterson wrote.
Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel said he plans to appeal the decision.
