Lunchtime Musings: Walker should delay Voter ID

With tens of thousands of absentee ballot voters potentially deprived of their vote;

With handfuls of elections officials scrambling to determine a course of action on how to implement the new ID law;

And with an uncountable number of citizens lacking the proper paperwork, adequate time, or documents in their hands needed to enter the voting booth;

With all of these concerns in mind, voter ID ought to be delayed at least one more election cycle.

It is certainly within Governor Scott Walker's power to issue such a delay. Even the 7th District Court ruling last week allows Wisconsin to take such action, stating:

"The state of Wisconsin may, if it wishes...enforce the photo ID requirement in this November's elections."

That "may" is important, legal jargon equivalent to saying, "action CAN be taken, but it's up to the powers that be to decide IF it should."

If Walker is interested in doing the right thing, he will issue an executive order delaying the court's judgment until next spring.

If he's more worried about winning his re-election campaign, he will ignore the visibly chaotic situation and do nothing.

Hopefully Walker will do the admirable thing. But I'm not holding my breath.