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Presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders criticized Wisconsin’s controversial voter ID law and Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday evening while calling for the American people to stand together and vote during a campaign stop in Onalaska Wednesday.

Sanders, a Democrat from Vermont, called the law, which went into effect this year after a prolonged legal battle, a “massive, undemocratic effort to suppress the vote,” during his speech to 3,321 people at the Onalaska OmniCenter.

Sanders admitted to losing his fair share of elections since his political career began in the 1970s before accusing Republicans in favor of the law of trying to rig elections with the law, which has been widely criticized for its effect on people of color and the working poor who face obstacles obtaining ID cards.

“It has never occurred to me and I think to most candidates that the way you try to win an election is to make it harder for people who might vote against you to participate in the election,” Sanders said. “That is political cowardice.”