Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker pushed back Friday against critics of the state's voter ID law, which opponents say helped account for a 41,000 voter decline in Milwaukee compared to the 2012 election.
"It's just a load of crap. I can't say it more clearly," Walker told Wisconsin radio host Charlie Sykes in an interview.
"These are the same people who were all excited when there was a big turnout for Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton back in the spring," Walker added. "People didn't turn out in Milwaukee because Hillary Clinton was not an aspirational candidate for them. It's that simple. They've got no evidence of that."
Walker's response was partly at odds with Neil Albrecht, Milwaukee's elections board chief. "We saw some of the greatest declines were in the districts we projected would have the most trouble with voter ID requirements," Albrecht told The Millwauke Journal Sentinel Thursday.
Walker signed one of the country's strictest voter ID bills into law in 2011. In July, a federal judge ruled portions of the law unconstitutional, noting that parts of it were designed "to suppress the reliably Democratic vote of Milwaukee’s African-Americans."
The judge later allowed the voter ID law to remain in effect for the election, but ordered "targeted remedies" to help people obtain proper voting credentials.