Wisconsin Republican lets the truth slip: Voter ID will help GOP in general election

Every now and then it happens, a Republican tells the bald truth about why they do the nefarious things they do—to win. In this case it's about voter suppression in Wisconsin.

"I think Hillary Clinton is about the weakest candidate the Democrats have ever put up. And now we have photo ID, and I think photo ID is going to make a little bit of a difference as well," Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI), a supporter of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), told Milwaukee television station TMJ4 when asked how either Cruz or Donald Trump could win in November.

This is not the first time a Republican official came clean on the real purpose of voter ID laws. Last fall, GOP Congressman Glenn Grothman said Republicans would take Wisconsin this fall because "Now we have photo ID."  And if you go back all the way to 2012, Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Mike Turzai said basically the same thing about how that state's new law would give the state to Mitt Romney. (It didn't.)

But Wisconsin's law is one of the worst in the nation, and it caused serious problems for many voters Tuesday, as Ari Berman details. For example, Dennis Hatten, who had moved to the state three years ago and just wanted to vote. "It took six months for him to get a photo ID for voting, two trips to the polls and an hour to vote. 'I've never had any problems voting until I came to Wisconsin,' he said." Hatten is African American. While Hatten was finally voting, another would-be voter was turned away. His veteran's photo ID card wasn't good enough to get him a ballot.