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(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s voter ID law has had no negative impact on voter turnout in the state since it was fully implemented, according to a new report from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.

Voter turnout, in fact, has slightly increased since the law went into effect. Wisconsin voters will vote on making voter ID a constitutional amendment April 1.

Democrats in the state have argued the amendment will disenfranchise voters.

The state’s current law, however, has had no negative impact on minority groups voting or Dane and Milwaukee counties.

The report found that socioeconomic factors such as poverty rates and education levels have a larger impact on voter turnout than voter ID laws.

“By analyzing decades of election data both before and after Wisconsin implemented Voter ID, we found a general rise in voter turnout, rather than the widespread disenfranchisement that critics often suggest,” said WILL Research Director Will Flanders. “Any claims suggesting Voter ID is ‘voter suppression’ are merely political scare tactics aimed at undermining faith in Wisconsin’s elections. Furthermore, it’s worth exploring whether Voter ID can actually increase turnout by strengthening confidence in Wisconsin’s election system.”

The research cited several studies that backed its conclusion across the country, with data showing that states with voter ID laws don’t have significantly different turnout than those without the law.

It also cited a Wisconsin study after the 2016 election where 1.7% said they didn’t vote because they didn’t have adequate ID while 1.4% said they were told at the polls that their ID was not adequate.

“It is well known among political scientists that individuals have a tendency to lie to pollsters regarding whether they voted or not,” the report said. “One key explanation for this is what is known as social desirability bias. In general, people do not want to ‘look bad’ to pollsters. As such, they may lie to the pollster about things that are perceived as socially undesirable, such as refraining from voting.”

Instead, WILL’s report looked at aggregate data of turnout change in the state and in key counties such as Dane and Milwaukee.

The study found that voter turnout has increased by 1.5%, on average, in the state since the law was implemented.

“This is an interesting result,” the report said. “While it is likely too large of a leap to say voter ID has increased turnout due to the correlational nature of our analysis, it seems that there is no negative relationship.”

(The Center Square) – Republicans at the Wisconsin Capitol continue to move through their to-do list. The latest was a slate of bills focusing on public safety.

The Assembly on recently approved:

● K9 Riggs Act – Increases penalties for causing injury to law enforcement animals. The bill is named after Kenosha County Sheriff Department K9 Riggs, who was shot by a criminal. Riggs survived and is now in retirement.

● Prosecution Reform – Requires approval from the court before prosecutors can dismiss serious charges.

● Parental Notification – Ensures parents are promptly notified of sexual misconduct in school.

● Criminal Case Database – Creates a new database of crimes in Wisconsin.

● Reckless Driving Crackdown – Allows for the impoundment of vehicles used in reckless driving offenses.

● Parole Revocation – Revokes extended supervision, parole, or probation if a person is charged with a new crime.

● Child Trafficking Penalties – Imposes life imprisonment for the crime of trafficking multiple children and requires restitution be paid to the victims.

● Theft Crimes – Increases the penalties for certain retail theft crimes.

● School Resource Officers – Ensures officers are put back into Milwaukee Schools.

“Cracking down on crime shouldn’t be a partisan issue, but in Madison, it has increasingly become so,” Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August said after Thursday’s votes.

Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, authored the K9 Riggs Act, which was named after a Kenoha police dog who was shot and wounded by a suspect back in 2021.

“Riggs’s heroism united the community, galvanizing support for local law enforcement just a year after rioters in Kenosha protested against them,” Nedweski added. “These dogs are not only invaluable members of the department; they are also family to their partners.”

But not every lawmaker was on board with the Republicans' public safety slate.

Milwaukee Rep. Ryan Clancy, D-Milwaukee, called the legislation "misleading and misguided."

“Once again, the Wisconsin legislature was forced to spend our time and resources considering badly written, badly conceived bills that will harm people and waste public resources," Clancy said in a statement. "It’s wildly irresponsible to even consider increasing penalties and interfering with the very few tools of leniency we have with a prison system holding 5,000 more people than intended. But here we are."

The slate of legislation will head to the Senate.

U.S. Rep. Riley Moore, R-WV, filed a bill on Friday to ban Chinese nationals from receiving student visas.

“Every year we allow nearly 300,000 Chinese nationals to come to the U.S. on student visas. We’ve literally invited the CCP to spy on our military, steal our intellectual property, and threaten national security. Just last year, the FBI charged five Chinese nationals here on student visas after they were caught photographing joint US-Taiwan live fire military exercises. This cannot continue,” he said.

Moore’s Stop Chinese Communist Prying by Vindicating Intellectual Safeguards in Academia Act (Stop CCP VISAs Act) has several cosponsors. The bill would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to prohibit the admission of Chinese nationals as nonimmigrant students, according to the bill language.

He points to the FBI last year charging five Chinese nationals who were in the U.S. on student visas at the University of Michigan after they were caught photographing joint US-Taiwan live fire military exercises at Camp Grayling in August 2023 claiming they were members of the media.

He also points to a Chinese student attending the University of Minnesota who was sentenced to six months in prison last October for taking drone photographs of naval shipbuilding operations at Newport News Shipbuilding in Norfolk, Virginia. Moore also points to a former Illinois Institute of Technology graduate who was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2023 for spying for the Chinese government, acting as an agent of China’s Ministry of State Security and making a material false statement to the U.S. Army when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve.

“Congress needs to end China’s exploitation of our student visa program. It’s time we turn off the spigot and immediately ban all student visas going to Chinese nationals,” he said.

These are but a handful of examples. More than 60 Chinese Communist Party-related cases of espionage and acts of transnational repression were reported in 20 states under the Biden administration, according to a U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security report, The Center Square reported. That’s in addition to 224 reported incidents of Chinese espionage directed at the U.S. between 2000 and 2023, according to the report. Examples include transmission of sensitive military information to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), theft of U.S. trade secrets to benefit the PRC, transnational repression schemes to target PRC dissidents and obstruction of justice.

Other examples include a Department of Justice case from last December involving a Chinese national and lawful permanent resident of California who was arrested for flying a drone over Vandenberg Space Force Base and taking photographs. He was arrested for violating national defense airspace prior to boarding a flight to China.

Another DOJ case related to a Chinese national illegally living in the U.S. who was arrested for allegedly shipping weapons and ammunition to North Korea, The Center Square reported.

Another involved a PRC spy arrested in California who worked for a state lawmaker and Chinese operatives arrested in Guam near a U.S. military installation on the same day as a live ballistic missile interception test, The Center Square reported.

Outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray’s parting warning to Americans was that China remains one of the greatest threats to U.S. national security, a warning he consistently issued.

“The greatest long-term threat facing our country, in my view, is represented by the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese government, which I consider to be the defining threat of our generation,” he said, The Center Square reported.

The DOJ says it opens new cases to counter PRC intelligence operations roughly every 12 hours. Of the espionage cases it's prosecuted since 2018, it says 80% allege the PRC would benefit; 60% of trade secret theft cases are linked to China.

It also lists examples of indictments of Chinese nationals conspiring to and committing economic espionage and theft of trade secrets going back to 2018 under the Trump administration.

PRC threats increased as the greatest number of Chinese nationals illegally entered the U.S. in recorded history under the Biden administration – more than 176,000 nationwide, The Center Square first reported.