(CN) - Despite predictions that turnout for Wisconsin's April 5 presidential primaries will be the highest in nearly four decades, officials are confident reliance on the state's much-litigated voter photo ID requirement will be relatively trouble free.
The law, 2011 Wisconsin Act 23, was in effect for the state's nonpartisan spring primary in February 2012, but not the presidential primary in April of that year. Courts enjoined enforcement of the law in March 2012.
In Wisconsin, nonpartisan primaries are held for for various state and local elective positions, such as circuit court judge. In 2012, less than 20 percent of registered voters turned out out to express a preference in that contest.
This year, the state's Government Accountability Board is expecting more than twice as many Wisconsin residents to make their way to the polls.
"Lines will be a little longer than usual in a presidential primary because the new photo ID requirement adds some time to each voter's check-in," accountability board spokesman Reid Magney told Courthouse News. "However, Wisconsin has an average wait time of 8.2 minutes, according to the Pew Center's Election Performance Index.
" Not the shortest lines in the country, but certainly nowhere near the longest of 30 minutes-plus minutes you see in places like the District of Columbia and Florida," he said.
And nowhere near the five hour-plus lines voters encountered during Maricopa County, Ariz.'s epic fail at what should have been a routine presidential primary election just over a week ago.
Primary voters in Arizona's most populous county were stunned on March 22 to show up to cast their ballot and be confronted with lines like they'd never seen before. The cause was a decision by Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell to cut the number of polling places by 70 percent from 200 down to 60.
The result as morning dawned on primary day in Arizona was that there was only one polling place for every 108,000 Phoenix residents.
Initially, Purcell blamed the voters for the long lines, saying in effect, that if fewer had wanted to vote, the reduction in polling places would not have been a problem.
She later attempted to walk back those comments amid a firestorm that included calls for investigations and her resignation saying "we certainly made bad decision, and ... didn't anticipate there would be that many people going to the polling places.
"We were obviously wrong and that's my fault," she said, adding, "I will not resign."
In the aftermath of the Arizona contest, Sen. Bernie Sanders called the long lines a "disgrace."
"In the United States of America, democracy is the foundation of our way of life," the Democrat said. "What happened in Arizona is a disgrace. I hope that every state in this country learns from that and learns how to put together a proper election where people can come in and vote in a timely manner and go back to work."
With Arizona imbroglio still very much on people's minds, Magney said the accountability board is "not aware of any major changes in polling places," adding that the number of polling places in the state is determined by Wisconsin's 1,853 municipal clerks.
Which brings us back to voter photo ID law.
Voters can also show non-photo ID everything from a paycheck or government-issued check with the voter's name and address on it, or a utility bill, but this again allows them only to cast a provisional ballot which by law will only be counted with the voter shows elections official a proper photo ID by noon on the Friday after an election.
