One Wisconsin Institute, Inc. v. Thomsen

FINDINGS OF FACT & CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

JAMES D. PETERSON, District Judge

Mrs. Smith has lived in Milwaukee since 2003.1 She was born at home, in Missouri, in 1916. In her long life she has survived two husbands, and she has left many of the typical traces of her life in public records. But, like many older African Americans born in the South, she does not have a birth certifícate or other documents that would definitively prove her date and place of birth. After Wisconsin’s voter ID law took effect, she needed a photo ID to vote. So she entered the ID Petition Process (IDPP) at the Wisconsin…