Welcome to the latest edition in our war on voting series. This is a joint project of Meteor Blades and Joan McCarter.

This week we found out that Wisconsin has joined Texas in flouting judges' rulings and continuing to disenfranchise voters. Ari Berman, writing for The Nation, broke the story with the case of this voter:

Madison, WI— Zack Moore, a 34-year-old African-American man, moved from Chicago to Madison last year. He worked at a car wash and then a landscaping job before breaking his leg and becoming unemployed. After staying with his brother, he’s now homeless and sleeping on the streets of Madison. On September 22, he went to the DMV to get a photo ID for voting, as required by Wisconsin’s strict voter-ID law. He brought his Illinois photo ID, Social Security card, and a pay stub for proof of residence. But he didn’t have a copy of his birth certificate, which had been misplaced by his sister in Illinois, so the DMV wouldn’t give him an ID for voting. “I’m trying to get a Wisconsin ID so I can vote,” Moore told the DMV. “I don’t have my birth certificate, but I got everything else.” Under Wisconsin law, the DMV should’ve given Moore a credential he could use for voting within six business days. But that never happened. They told him to “drive down there [to Illinois] and get [a birth certificate] and come back.” That would cost Moore money he didn’t have. If he entered what the state calls the ID Petition Process (IDPP), it would take six to eight weeks for him to get a voter ID and he most likely wouldn’t be able to vote by Election Day. “I’m disappointed in the government,” Moore said after leaving the DMV. “I guess they’re trying to keep people from voting.”

That’s exactly what they’re doing, Mr. Moore. The story, which was accompanied by one in the Milwaulkee Journal Sentinel, is the result of the hard work of VoteRiders, a group opposed to voter ID laws that also helps people get IDs. VoteRiders sent people to 10 DMV offices to see if they were complying with the law, and “DMV employees gave the visitors answers ‘all over the board’ regarding how long it would take to get an ID.” Mr. Moore got three different answers from three different DMV employees, one telling him he couldn’t get any kind of ID or credential at all without a birth certificate, a second one telling him he could do it without the birth certificate, but “there was no way to know how long it would take,” and the third saying it would take six to eight weeks, not in time for the election. The correct answer would have been to give him his credential then and there so he could take advantage of early voting, which has started in Wisconsin.

As a result of this reporting, a federal judge has ordered the state to investigate this incident to determine if it has been violating his order from last July requiring the state to make sure there was a “safety net” in the form of these credentials. The state has one week to investigate and report back. So Mr. Moore might get to vote after all.

For more on this week in the war on voting, head below the fold.