Patrick Marley

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Liberal groups asked a federal judge Monday to throw out limits on early voting Gov. Scott Walker signed last week as he prepares to leave office.

The filing also asked U.S. District Judge James Peterson to overturn parts of the lame-duck law related to the state's requirement to show ID at the polls. If successful, temporary voting credentials would be valid for 180 days instead of 60 days and students could use their college IDs to vote even if the IDs had expired.

It is the first legal action over the sweeping lame-duck law Walker signed Friday to curb the powers of his Democratic successor, Tony Evers, and the incoming Democratic attorney general, Josh Kaul. More litigation could follow.

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Monday's filing is focused only on the early voting limits and voter ID elements of the law — all of which are similar to provisions that Peterson found unconstitutional in 2016.

That ruling came in a lawsuit brought in 2015 by One Wisconsin Institute and Citizen Action of Wisconsin Education Fund. Monday's filing contended the new law violated aspects of Peterson's 2016 ruling and asked him to throw out those parts of the law.

“The Wisconsin Republican attempts to rig the rules on voting were unconstitutional in 2016 and they’re unconstitutional today,” said a statement from Scot Ross, executive director of One Wisconsin Institute.

The groups made their filing with legal assistance from the National Redistricting Foundation, a group aligned with Democrats and headed by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

The new early voting limits were included in legislation Republicans rushed into law after Democrats won every statewide office in the Nov. 6 election. In addition to the voting limits, the legislation shifts duties to lawmakers and away from Evers and Kaul.

The restrictions on early voting come just after a round of record early voting for a midterm election. Nearly 565,000 people voted early, either in person or by mail.

The law Walker signed Friday limits in-person early voting to two weeks, allowing at most 13 days of early voting.

In the most recent election, local governments were able to offer as much early voting as they wanted. Madison and Milwaukee — the state’s largest cities and its Democratic strongholds — provided six weeks of it this fall. Smaller communities allowed early voting for much shorter periods.

Republicans contend it's not fair to have large cities offer early voting for so long when other communities don't have the resources to do that. Cities note, however, that early voting helps alleviate long lines on Election Day.

Under the law they passed, local governments would still determine when they allow early voting, up to the maximum of two weeks. Given that, early voting would not be uniform across the state because some municipalities would offer more of it than others.

The new limits differ slightly from the ones that were struck down two years ago. The previous limits restricted early voting to 10 days and required it to occur on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.

The new limits allow weekend and nighttime voting.

Bruce Spiva, the attorney for the groups, asked the court to act "well before" the April 2 election for state Supreme Court and local offices so that clerks can establish early voting periods longer than two weeks. The primary for that election is Feb. 19.

Voter ID provisions also at stake

In their 2015 lawsuit, the liberal groups challenged a range of Wisconsin's election laws, including its voter ID law. Peterson upheld the heart of the voter ID law but ordered the state to make changes to the system it uses to get voting credentials to people who have the most difficulty getting IDs.

Peterson ruled the state had to give voters temporary voting credentials that are valid for 180 days while they wait to get IDs. The lame-duck law shortened that to 60 days.

In Monday's filing, the groups asked the judge to overturn that part of the law and make the credentials valid for 180 days.

As originally written, the voter ID law allowed students to use their college IDs to vote, but the IDs could not be expired. Peterson threw out that portion of the law and said expired college IDs could be used for voting, just as expired driver's licenses can be used.

The lame-duck law again barred the use of expired student IDs. The groups asked to overturn that part of the law as well.

Appeal court yet to weigh in

In his 2016 decision, Peterson struck down some laws, such as the early voting limits, and upheld others, such as the voter ID requirement. Both sides appealed and the case has been before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago since then.

The appeals court has taken an unusually long time in considering the case and has given no indication of when it might rule.

For now, the attention is on Peterson and how he will rule on Monday's filing. Whoever he rules against can take the matter to the appeals court.

Peterson struck down the early voting limits in 2016 because he found they put burdens on African-Americans and Latinos living in the state’s largest municipalities and were “motivated in part by the intent to discriminate against voters on the basis of race."

Kaul, the incoming Democratic attorney general, as a private attorney represented One Wisconsin and Citizen Action in the lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s election laws. He has said he would recuse himself from the case as attorney general and let civil servants handle the defense of the state’s election laws.

Aides to outgoing GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel did not say how his office would respond to Monday's filing.