Senators Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders were able to net big victories this week when they won the Wisconsin presidential primaries for their respective parties, but there was also another big winner of Tuesday night's contests: Voter Identification laws.
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Based on reports from the ground in Wisconsin, Tuesday's primary elections pulled in record turnout and the most voter participation since the 1970s.
Wisconsin saw a record breaking voter turnout for the spring primary elections.
Election organizers say this is the largest turnout for a primary race in Wisconsin since 1972. Throughout the state the voter turnout was about 47.5%. In Dane County the estimated turnout was about 66%.
Organizers estimated a 40% turn out before the race started, but Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell says right away they knew they would exceed that estimate.
"Even by one in the afternoon there were places that had 50% turnout already. The state average was predicted at 40% so we were clearly early on out performing those state estimates. We ended up almost closing in on 70 percent turnout which is just unheard of in April," McDonell says.
But wait, what's this?
Across the state, poll workers are reporting larger-than-usual turnouts and long lines at some locales. Though this is the first major election under Wisconsin's voter ID law, there have been few reports of problems at polling places.
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Despite changes in voter ID and registration laws, election organizers say besides slowing down the poll lines, the new rules hardly had an impact on election night.
"A lot of that had to do with just the fact that the fact that you have to show id is that it takes more time. There's nothing you can do about that. It's an extra step for the poll workers," Government Accountability Board Director and General Counsel Kevin Kennedy says.
"That's actually a good sign because that tells us that very few people had problems with photo ID," Kennedy says.
Liberals have been demagoguing for years about how Voter I.D. laws disenfranchise voters. The 2016 Wisconsin presidential primary once again exposed their argument as completely false.
According to polling, 70 percent of American support Voter Identification laws and believe they are necessary to prevent fraud.
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