Understanding the Proposed Amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution that will appear on the April 1 Spring Election ballot in a Christian Faith Context
Doug Poland, partner at Stafford Rosenbaum LLP, Ruling Elder at Covenant Presbyterian Church, Madison
Wisconsin voters who cast a ballot in the Spring Election on April 1 will be confronted with a question on their ballot that, if it receives a majority of “yes” votes, will amend the Wisconsin Constitution. It is important for all Wisconsin voters to understand why this question has been placed on the ballot and what it will mean for voters in our state if it receives a majority of “yes” votes. And it is important for all of us who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ to consider the purpose and potential impact of this proposed amendment in the context of our shared faith.
A Christian faith contextual perspective on what it means to live in community.
The sayings and teachings of Jesus Christ, the Old Testament writings that were the foundation of Jesus’ understanding of God and how God calls us to live, and the letters of the apostle Paul to early Christian congregations convey a consistent and clear message: our fate as humans is tied to one another and the way that we live together in community. Scripture repeatedly teaches that God demands that we both recognize and honor the beloved nature and inherent equality of all people, and that all we say and do must conform to that ethic. Conversely, it teaches that we do not thrive in the way that God envisions and intends for us when we ignore the plight of others and instead place ourselves in a preferential position.
The Old Testament prophets across centuries are emphatic about this, repeatedly promising God’s blessings to the nation if it works for the justice and well-being of all in the community but warning that ignoring the needs of all and failing to ensure justice for all will bring God’s wrath and result in disaster:
“Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and who write unjust decrees; To turn aside the needy from justice and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that they may plunder the widows and that they may rob the fatherless!” (Isaiah 10:1-2)
“Thus says the Lord: Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor; and do no wrong, do no violence to the strangers, the fatherless, and the widows, nor shed innocent blood in this place. … [I]f you will not listen to these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.” (Jeremiah 22:3-5)
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassion every man to his brother; And do not oppress the widow nor the orphan, the poor nor the proselyte; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in his heart. But they refused to hearken, they rebelled and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. … And I scattered them among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them ….” (Zechariah 7:9-14)
As a Jewish rabbi well-steeped in the writings of the Old Testament prophets (Matthew 5:17; Luke 4:17-19, 21), Jesus’ teachings build on the words of the prophets, reinforce God’s concern for the poor and marginalized among us, and mandate that we minister to their needs, and spell out how his followers are to live:
“I say to you who hear, Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you, And bless those who curse you, and pray for those who compel you to carry burdens. And to him who strikes you on the cheek, offer to him the other; and to him who takes away your robe, do not refuse your shirt also. Give to every one who asks you; and from him who take away what is yours, do not demand it back again. Just as you want men to do to you, do to them likewise.” (Luke 6:27-31)
“Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me. Then the righteous will say to him, Our Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you? Or thirsty and gave you drink? . . . The king will answer, saying to them, Truly I tell you, Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these brethren, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:34-40)
Jesus further taught through the parable of the lost sheep that God’s blessings are for all and that no one is left out of the community. (Matthew 18:12-14 and Luke 15:3-7) And as Jesus made clear through his instruction to his Twelve disciples that they bore responsibility for feeding the crowds of people who had gathered to hear him speak (Mark 6:35-37), we all are responsible for each other’s well-being.
The apostle Paul, who was among the first to create and minister to congregations of followers of Jesus after Jesus’ crucifixion, wrote extensively in his letters to those early churches how they were to treat and live with one another as a beloved community. Paul spoke metaphorically of the members of Christian congregations as being “the body of Christ and individually members of it,” emphasizing that “the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,” and that “God has so tempered the body together, and has given greater honor to the member which is inferior, [t]hat there may be no discord in the body, but that they may care one for another, all members should be equal . . . [s]o when one member is in pain, all the members suffer with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-27) As reflected in his letters, Paul’s concept of Christian community was very different than how others lived in the world around him. In their book, The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan put it this way: “[B]ecoming part of a Christian community meant following a Lord crucified by empire and entering into a way of life that countered the normalcy of imperial civilization.” The observation that we, as Christians, are called to a different way of treating one another than we see displayed by the culture in which we live, has just as much relevance for us now as it did for Paul’s congregations 2,000 years ago.
As we approach the time to vote on another proposed amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution, I encourage us all to reflect on how scripture repeatedly and emphatically calls us, as followers of Jesus Christ, to ensure that we practice the radical caretaking and inclusion of all within our communities to which scripture calls us. This calling is not limited to our relationships within our respective congregations but extends to all aspects of our lives together, including the decisions we make in casting our ballots to shape the laws that govern our state.
The question that will appear on the November 5 ballot.
In addition to any referendum questions that appear on the ballot for the April 1 Spring Election in any particular municipality and are limited to voters in that municipality, there is one question that will appear on the ballot of every voter throughout the state. That question seeks to impose as a constitutional requirement an obligation that already exists under Wisconsin law: requiring that each voter present valid photographic identification to verify their identity. The question that will appear on the April 1 ballot reads as follows:
Question: “Photographic identification for voting. Shall section 1m of article III of the constitution be created to require that voters present valid photographic identification verifying their identity in order to vote in any election, subject to exceptions which may be established by law?”
All Republican members of the Wisconsin State Assembly and Senate voted in favor of the constitutional amendment, whereas all Democratic members voted against it. Because it is a proposed constitutional amendment, it is not subject to veto by Wisconsin’s Governor, Tony Evers. More than 20 voting rights, justice, and faith groups have taken a position opposing the proposed amendment, including the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, ACLU of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Disability Vote Coalition, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, Wisconsin Interfaith Voter Engagement Campaign, Souls to the Polls Wisconsin, and others. An overview of the reasons that these groups oppose the proposed constitutional amendment may be found here.
Further information on the ballot question and proposed constitutional amendment may be found on the University of Wisconsin Law School's State Democracy Research Initiative website.
Evaluating the proposed constitutional amendment in a faith context.
Before 2011, Wisconsin’s laws prioritized voter participation and access. Wisconsin’s approach to voter registration required voters to show identification only if they were first-time voters who had not verified their identity when registering by mail. In 2011, however, the Wisconsin Legislature adopted, and then-Governor Walker signed into law, one of the most restrictive voter identification laws in the U.S. That law, which remains in effect today (as Wisconsin Statute section 5.02(6m)), allows fewer forms of identification than most other states and requires photo ID for mail absentee voting. Proponents of the proposed constitutional amendment concede that it does not add to the existing law.
So, if the proposed constitutional amendment would not change Wisconsin’s voter ID requirements, why is it being proposed? The answer is to give the Legislature, and not the Wisconsin courts, the final say on what identification is required. As the law currently stands, courts potentially could rule that some of the provisions of the voter ID law included in our state’s statutes violate the Wisconsin constitution, or could find that they cannot be applied in certain circumstances. If the very same voter ID requirements are enshrined in the Wisconsin Constitution, however, courts could not invalidate or find exceptions to the voter ID requirements. Supporters of the amendment, therefore, justify enshrining the existing law in the state constitution to prevent Wisconsin courts from potentially holding that some of its provisions violate the state constitution, even though the state courts have not done so since the law was passed 14 years ago.
If amending the Wisconsin Constitution to include the existing voter ID law would not change the law other than preventing the courts from potentially ruling that it violates the state constitution in certain circumstances, then voters might ask, “What’s the harm?” One of the main concerns about the laws as they currently exist is that they effectively disenfranchise a significant number of Wisconsin voters either by preventing or deterring otherwise qualified voters from voting. In a study published in the Election Law Journal in 2019, University of Wisconsin political science Professor Ken Mayer and Ph.D. candidate Michael DeCrescenzo presented the results of their research into the impact of Wisconsin’s voter ID laws on voting in the 2016 election. They found that Wisconsin’s strict voter ID laws had two major impacts on voting: a direct effect that prevents otherwise qualified voters from voting due to bureaucratic obstacles imposed by law, for example, because those voters lack and cannot obtain the required identification or are told at the polling place that their ID is insufficient; and second, an indirect effect from the confusion caused by the technical and administrative details of the law that are not understood, which deters people from voting even when they possess the required ID but mistakenly believe they do not. The authors estimate that ten percent of nonvoting registrants were deterred from voting by the voter ID law, and that six percent of nonvoters were prevented from voting by the voter ID law.
As concerning as it is that the voter ID law excludes potentially 15% of eligible Wisconsin voters from exercising the most fundamental right we have—what the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called “the precious right to vote”—it is even more concerning that authors of this study found that the impact of voter ID laws “are larger among individuals who are black, earn lower incomes, and have less formal education.” The authors summed up their study by noting that “[t]he number of people affected by voter ID requirements exceeds—by orders of magnitude—the number of cases of voter impersonation that ID laws are purportedly designed to prevent.” Media reports have brought a human face to this impact. If the proposed amendment passes on April 1, none of the potentially tens or even hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin voters who are prevented or deterred from voting by the ID requirements would have any recourse in our courts. Without even the possibility of any exceptions that courts might find in particular circumstances, the local, state, and national representative bodies that we elect to represent the interests of “We the People” would not reflect their choices, preferences, or voices.
In considering how to vote on April 1, we, as Christians, should consider the adequacy of Wisconsin’s existing laws to achieve the purported goal of the proposed amendment—requiring a particular type of photographic identification to vote—and how an unnecessary proposed constitutional amendment would work without exception to disproportionately disenfranchise members of our community who do not have the same type of access to proof of their identity as others of us have. The Old Testament prophets, the teachings of Jesus, and Paul’s words of wisdom to early Christian communities instruct us that we cannot thrive when we fail to ensure inclusion of and participation by all community members in our decision-making and governance. Wisconsin’s current voter ID laws, which the proposed amendment seeks to enshrine in our state constitution, have the demonstrated effect of preventing a significant number of members of our community from having a say in Wisconsin’s governance through the ballot box. As followers of Jesus Christ, rather than double-down on this exclusion of some members of our community by voting in favor of this proposed constitutional amendment, we should demand that our legislators devise laws that are sufficiently flexible to accommodate the particular circumstances of those eligible voters who cannot comply with the voter ID law such that they are not excluded from participating in the democratic process of elections.
This article was prepared by the author in his personal capacity. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect the views of Stafford Rosenbaum LLP or Law Forward, Inc.
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