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Wisconsin asks court to OK voter ID for 2014 election

The state of Wisconsin is asking a federal appeals court to allow Wisconsin's voter identification law to be enforced during this fall's general election.

In a filing Tuesday with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, lawyers for the state ask that a federal district court judge's injunction blocking the law on grounds that it would be racially discriminatory be lifted until the state's appeal of that decision can be resolved.

"The balance of harms tips in Defendants’ favor because the district court’s impermissibly broad injunction purports to permanently enjoin a voting regulation that is designed to preserve the right to vote of all eligible Wisconsin voters," Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and other state lawyers wrote in the new motion (posted here).

The motion also argues that District Court Judge Lynn Adelman's order was too broad because it appears to prohibit Wisconsin from enforcing any voter ID law, even if state legislators were to try to fix the statute.

The law took effect in the 2012 primary election but was blocked later that year by a county judge. Last week, Wisconsin's Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law.