By of the

Madison — A trial over Wisconsin's voting laws kicked off Monday with a former aide to a Republican state senator testifying that GOP senators were "giddy" over the prospect the state's 2011 voter ID law could keep some people from voting.

Todd Allbaugh, who worked at the time for then-Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center), said some senators expressed a lack of enthusiasm to take up the voter ID legislation early that year during a private meeting of Republicans. Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) then made the case for the bill, he testified.

"She got up out of her chair and hit her fist or her finger on the table and said, 'Hey, we've got to think about what this would mean for the neighborhoods around Milwaukee and the college campuses,'" Allbaugh said.

Schultz said they ought to consider what they would be doing to people's ability to vote, according to Allbaugh. That elicited a response from Glenn Grothman, who at the time was a state senator and now is a member of Congress.

"Grothman said, 'What I'm concerned about here is winning, and that's what really matters here. ... We better get this done quickly while we have the opportunity,'" Allbaugh said.

"I've characterized it as giddy and that's part of what bothered me so much," Allbaugh testified.

Allbaugh named two other senators — Leah Vukmir and Randy Hopper — as being gleeful over passing the bill.

"They were politically frothing at the mouth," he said of Vukmir and Hopper, who lost a recall election a few months after the voter ID law passed.

Allbaugh said some Republican senators did not express a strong opinion on the bill and three — Rob Cowles, Neal Kedzie and Luther Olsen — were "ashen faced" over the prospect of taking up the voter ID bill. (Kedzie stepped down from the Senate in 2014.)

The excitement some had for passing the voter ID law prompted Allbaugh to decide to leave the Republican Party after being active in GOP politics his whole life, Allbaugh testified. Allbaugh did not mention that for years after that he continued to work for Schultz, who took increasing flak for opposing some Republican proposals and did not seek re-election in 2014.

Allbaugh first described the GOP meeting last month in a Facebook post and interviews with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other news outlets. But he went into more detail Monday by naming specific senators and their reactions.

After stories appeared about Allbaugh's comments last month, Grothman contacted him. Grothman said he did not recall making the statements but did not dispute Allbaugh's recollections, Allbaugh testified.

"He said, 'Well, here's the thing ... I fundamentally believe Democrats cheat, OK? I do. And I don't believe our side does,'" Allbaugh testified.

Allbaugh was the first witness to take the stand in what is expected to be a nine-day trial over the state's voting laws. The case is being heard by U.S. District Judge James Peterson, who was appointed by President Barack Obama.

The lawsuit was brought by the liberal groups One Wisconsin Institute and Citizen Action of Wisconsin Education Fund, which argue state officials intentionally meant to make it harder for minorities to cast ballots through a series of laws and rules adopted over the past five years.

"Restricting access to the ballot box was not a consequence, but rather the very purpose of these laws," lawyer Josh Kaul told the court.

Assistant Attorney General Clay Kawski disputed those claims and emphasized that Wisconsin had its highest turnout in more than 40 years in its presidential primary last month under those laws.

"Wisconsin elections are fair, easy to navigate and open to all," Kawski said.

The groups are challenging aspects of the state's voter ID law, limits on early voting and a host of other measures, such as the elimination of straight-ticket voting.

The voter ID law was blocked for years by court orders but was put back in place this year after the state Supreme Court and a federal appeals court found the law was constitutional.

Attorneys for the state argued Allbaugh's testimony was not relevant to whether the ID law is constitutional.

Grothman, Vukmir and Lazich made no immediate response to requests for comment made through their aides.

In an interview, Olsen said as he recalled the main concern of voter ID proponents was to pass a constitutional law. These supporters thought the measure would help Republicans by eliminating fraud, he said.

Olsen said he didn't think that voter ID would strike any major blow against hidden fraud or suppress the vote substantially. His hope was that the law would give the public more confidence in election results, he said.

"I felt it was more the perception (fraud) was happening than the reality," he said.

The state Division of Motor Vehicles provides free IDs for voting, but some people face difficulties in getting them because they don't have birth certificates or other documents proving their identity.

The lawsuit challenges the system such people have to use to get free IDs, saying it can send people into a bureaucratic black hole.

"You can pick your literary analogies here, whether it's Kafka or Dickens or something else," Kaul said of the process.

Nannette Mayze of Milwaukee testified about her repeated unsuccessful attempts to try to get an ID for voting for her father, who has had two strokes and has difficulty walking.

Her father goes by the name on his Social Security card, Johnny Randle, but his Mississippi birth certificate lists his name as Johnnie Randall, and Wisconsin officials declined to give him an ID card because of the discrepancy.

Mayze and her father frequently visited DMV centers and she had numerous phone conversations with DMV officials to provide information about her dad, such as the names of members of his extended family and schools he attended.

At times they asked her for information she had already provided, she testified. At one point, a DMV official told her Randle may have to legally change his name to get an ID.

"He started laughing," Mayze testified. "He said that was stupid, stupid."

Others with similar stories are expected to take the stand in the coming days. Kaul said one person had waited more than 600 days to find out whether she would get an ID.

Two women died while waiting to find out if they would get an ID. DMV Administrator Kristina Boardman sought to have one of those cases listed as a "customer initiated cancellation" of the request for an ID, Kaul said.

GOP Gov. Scott Walker, who signed the voter ID law in 2011, put in place new rules last week that will allow people who can't readily get IDs to receive temporary receipts that would allow them to vote while state officials track down their birth certificates or figure out discrepancies on documents.

The attorneys for those challenging the law called the changes inadequate and a last-minute effort to make sure the law survives the lawsuit.

Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.