Federal Judge Blocks Wisconsin GOP's Cuts To Early Voting
A federal judge on Thursday blocked controversial cuts to early voting and other changes to election law that Wisconsin Republicans pushed through during a controversial lame-duck session and now-former Gov. Scott Walker signed late last year.
U.S. District Judge James Peterson said the changes to Wisconsin’s voting law, which included limiting early voting to two weeks before an election, violated a 2016 court order blocking the state from making similar changes. Ruling on a lawsuit against the limits, he said it wasn’t even a close case.
In 2016 he blocked a Wisconsin law that restricted early voting to two weeks before an election on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Counties could have only one early voting location. The measure that state Republicans passed in December ― and was blocked Thursday ― also allowed only two weeks of early voting but didn’t restrict it to weekdays and said it could take place at any time.
In his earlier ruling, Peterson blocked Wisconsin from enforcing “the state-imposed limits on the time for in-person absentee voting,” he wrote. Putting a two-week cap on early voting, he said, violated his order. He was unpersuaded by an argument that his 2016 order didn’t apply because Wisconsin had passed a new law.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/wisconsin-early-voting-cuts-blocked_us_5c40ddd5e4b041e98ffc00d8
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