Supreme Court asked to block Wisconsin voter ID Iaw

WASHINGTON (WITI/AP) — Opponents of Wisconsin's voter identification law are asking the Supreme Court to keep officials from enforcing it in the November election.

Legal papers filed Thursday, October 2nd with the Supreme Court say there's not enough time to implement new ID requirements in the five weeks before the election.

A federal judge struck down the law last spring -- saying it's unconstitutional. A three-judge panel ruling allowed the voter ID requirements to be reinstated. Last week, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago was deadlocked on the issue, voting 5-5 and leaving the law intact.

Opponents of the newly reinstated voter ID law are now taking their fight to the Supreme Court.

"You're gonna have confusion. You're gonna have to chaos -- and the best thing to do is for the Supreme Court to step in and say 'let's take a deep breath here,'" ACLU of Wisconsin Director, Chris Ahmuty said.

The ACLU argues one month isn't enough time for some voters without photo IDs to get one. Senator Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), who supports the law, says she's open to extending hours at DMV locations.

"Let's see how it goes in the next couple of weeks in terms of the demand, and see what we need to do. I think that could be an option if there's a rush on the DMVs," Senator Darling said.

"Let's see how this goes for a couple of weeks?! That's really incredible. The election will practically be here," Ahmuty said.

The Milwaukee Election Commission is preparing for an election in which voter ID is in place.

Milwaukee Election Commission Director Neil Albrecht says the commission will retrain about 2,000 poll workers, and 200 to 300 more that will be hired to make sure everything goes smoothly on November 4th.

"We're actually calling back all those election workers. They all received training for this fall election cycle over the summer. We're calling them all back to provide them information on the photo ID requirement," Albrecht said.

Albrecht says he's surprised the law was reinstated this close to election day, but says he believes his office will be ready.

Supporters of the law are confident the public will be prepared.

"I think people are pretty used to having to use IDs for different things in our world, and I think most people will have them," Senator Darling said.

Albrecht says a couple common concerns are whether voters can use an ID or driver's license with an old address, or if the card is expired.

You can use a card with an old address, and you can use an expired ID - as long as it hasn't been expired for longer than two years.

CLICK HERE for information on acceptable forms of ID for voting

CLICK HERE for information on obtaining a FREE state ID for voting

CLICK HERE for information on voter ID via the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board.

CLICK HERE for complete coverage on the voter ID issue via FOX6Now.com.