(Photo by Drew Angerer | Getty Images)

Wisconsin voters will weigh in on a constitutional amendment to enshrine the state’s photo ID requirement to vote in the state Constitution in the April 1 election. 

On ballots this spring, voters will be asked “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?”

If approved, the state Constitution would be changed to include the provision that “no qualified elector may cast a ballot in any election unless the elector presents valid photographic identification that verifies the elector’s identity and that is issued by this state, the federal government, a federally recognized American Indian tribe or band in this state, or a college or university in this state.” 

The provision would give the Legislature the authority to determine which types of ID qualify as acceptable. Current law includes state issued driver’s licenses and photo IDs, U.S. Passports, military IDs and unexpired university IDs (expired student IDs are allowed if proof of current enrollment such as a tuition receipt or course schedule is provided). 

In several recent elections, Wisconsin Republicans have put constitutional referenda on the ballot in an effort to make policy changes without needing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ signature. 

Wisconsin has had a state law requiring voters to have an acceptable photo ID to register to vote and cast a ballot since 2011. During debate over the law, Republican lawmakers discussed its potential to help the party win elections by suppressing the vote of minority and college-aged people who tend to vote for Democrats. 

Democrats and voting rights groups said the law amounted to a “poll tax.” A 2017 study found that the law kept 17,000 people from the polls in the 2016 election. 

Since its passage, a number of court decisions have adjusted the law, leading the state to ease restrictions and costs for obtaining a photo ID — particularly for people who can’t afford a high cost or don’t have proper documents such as a birth certificate. 

Republicans in Wisconsin and across the country have increasingly focused on photo ID requirements for voting since conspiracy theories about election administration emerged following the 2020 presidential campaign. 

The process to amend the state constitution requires that a proposal pass the Legislature in two consecutive sessions and then be approved by the state’s voters in a referendum. 

If passed, the amendment would change little for Wisconsin voters because the existing law has been on the books in its current form for nearly a decade. When the amendment was proposed, Republicans said its goal was to protect the photo ID law from being struck down by the courts. 

“I cannot say for certain how the Wisconsin Supreme Court would rule on voter ID laws, but I’m also not willing to risk the Wisconsin Supreme Court declaring voter ID laws unconstitutional,” Sen. Van Wanggaard said at a public hearing on the proposal. 

But Democrats say it’s unnecessary to amend the constitution to add something that’s already in state law and accuse Republicans of including the referendum on the ballot in this election in an effort to increase Republican turnout in the contested races for state Supreme Court and superintendent of schools. 

“It’s my feeling, and it’s a feeling of most people, that you don’t legislate via changing the constitution,” Rep. Lee Snodgrass (D-Appleton) said at a March 17 panel on the referendum. “I think that there is pretty wide evidence that this is hitting the ballots for political reasons. I think that the majority party is afraid of what happens if we get into the majority and if we decide that existing law needs to be amended or changed or overturned entirely.”

Snodgrass added that  “we are essentially wasting everybody’s time by adding this to the ballot. And I think we’ve had five of these now already. So it’s a pattern, and it’s politically motivated.”

Elon Musk and President of Argentina Javier Milei speaking at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. | Photo by Gage Skidmore

Fresh from spending nearly $300 million to influence the 2024 elections, the richest person in the world has set his sights squarely on Wisconsin. Elon Musk is apparently not content with taking a chainsaw to the lives of thousands of hard-working federal employees engaged in providing health care to rural American children and veterans, with slashing Medicaid for millions of our most vulnerable citizens, with cutting projects seeking desperately needed cures for cancer, Ebola and other deadly diseases and with eviscerating foreign assistance that thousands of people all over the world rely on for survival. Musk is now also carpet bombing Wisconsin with millions of dollars for negative ads and cash infusions to influence the outcome of the upcoming April 1 election to fill an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

After 30 years of distinguished service, the Court’s most senior justice, Ann Walsh Bradley announced her retirement last year.  Now, with the fast-approaching election to determine her successor in just a matter of days, voters will decide the ideological composition of the majority on the court and therefore the future direction of Wisconsin and quite possibly the nation.   

In January, when Musk announced he was invading our state, he falsely proclaimed on Twitter: “Very important to vote Republican for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to prevent voting fraud.” He’s wrong on all counts. In the first place, candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court don’t run for election with party labels. Our judicial elections are nonpartisan – at least they are  supposed to be. Secondly, voting fraud does not occur in our state because we have long had strong safeguards in place to prevent it. Voting fraud is a complete and total non-issue in Wisconsin and a distraction from real and serious attacks on democracy such as ongoing voter suppression proposals and laws that already make it more difficult to vote here than previously.

But the unelected Musk, whose craving for national attention and power rivals that of his partner Donald Trump, has a direct financial interest in a matter that could end up before the state’s high court.  Wisconsin is one of nearly half the states in the nation that prohibit auto manufacturers from being able to directly sell their vehicles to the public because it would provide those manufacturers with a competitive advantage over independent dealers. Musk’s car company, Tesla, has sought and been refused an exemption to the law by state courts, most recently in December. A sympathetic Wisconsin Supreme Court influenced by Musk’s heavy spending in the current election – already well over $12 million and rising — is in his crosshairs as well as enhanced overall political influence and power beyond our state. 

In a campaign that is already the most expensive judicial election anywhere in the nation in U.S. history, Musk may end up as the single largest campaign spender through his “Building America’s Future” Super PAC and other avenues to influence the outcome in Wisconsin with his limitless out-of-state millions. How much will he spend? No one knows. But it is very important that Wisconsinites know that Musk has quickly emerged as the single most dominant source of campaign cash and political influence in this election and in our state.  

It will be up to Wisconsinites to decide if they approve or not of this unelected richest person in the world buying control of our highest court while at the same time continuing his unprecedented destruction of so many vital national services and safeguards Wisconsinites depend on. 

The voters of Wisconsin can prevail over Musk and his millions by turning out in force – by returning their absentee ballots in time to be counted, or by showing up and voting early in person or at their polling place on the first day of April – Election Day.  At the ballot box, each of us still has more voice and control over our destiny than even the richest person in the world who can’t vote here and who knows and cares little or nothing about Wisconsin other than as a place for him to sell more Teslas and ruin more lives.

On the evening of March 6 Musk’s multimillion dollar Space X Starship exploded in the skies over the coast of Florida shortly after it was launched.  Thank goodness no lives were lost but it was nonetheless a spectacular failure.  The April 1 Wisconsin Supreme Court election could be  another spectacular failure for Musk and his gargantuan bankroll.  It is entirely in the hands of Wisconsin voters to decide.