The City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County are partnering on offering community identification cards to those who cannot obtain a state ID—most likely those who are elderly, transgender, recently incarcerated, homeless, survivors of domestic abuse and undocumented residents—which has drawn fire from the right wing.
The Community ID card work group measures were added to the pending city and county budgets and are expected to be included in the final versions of those budgets.
If implemented, Milwaukee will follow in the footsteps of about a dozen communities nationally that offer local photo IDs, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
In Milwaukee, the budget provisions create a city/county work group, with $300,000 funding split between the two entities, to come up with recommendations for the program.
Milwaukee County Supervisor Peggy Romo West, a co-author of the proposal, said the cards are intended for those who cannot access their birth certificate, which is required for obtaining a state-issued ID. She said the work group would determine which documents would be needed for the Milwaukee card. She said the cards could potentially be used for banking, obtaining a library card, picking up prescriptions and reporting crime.
“This will really help public safety,” Romo West said.
Immigrants and Voting
Although the cards are intended to help marginalized members of our community, the prospect of allowing undocumented residents to participate in the program has attracted the usual jabs from the right wing.
Supervisor Deanna Alexander sponsored an amendment that would require the new IDs to include the statement “not for voting.” The county’s Finance, Personnel and Audit Committee unanimously rejected her amendment.
Alexander emailed the Shepherd that she hasn’t taken a position on the ID cards in general but said, “The public may believe that any government ID card could be used for any government-related purpose.”
Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic, who also co-authored the original proposal, said the county doesn’t determine which IDs can be used for voting—the state does—so including the statement on the cards is unnecessary. Under current law, it couldn’t be used as the state lists specific forms of acceptable photo ID for voting, and community ID cards aren’t included on that list. And if in the future the state does allow the local ID to be used for voting, then the IDs will need to be reprinted without that statement.
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As for Alexander’s comments in committee, Dimitrijevic said, “They were incredibly divisive and reminded me of something that Donald Trump would say.”
Alexander, perhaps the most outspoken conservative on the board and Abele’s closest ally on it, seems to be drawing on the right wing’s fears of non-citizens voting illegally even though there’s no proof that it’s happening. For example, California recently enacted a law that allows undocumented residents to obtain specially marked drivers’ licenses. Fox News’ Steve Doocy falsely claimed that these immigrants “have gotten the right to vote,” and right-wing media outlets have also made that claim. But the Los Angeles Times and Media Matters debunked that assertion, reminding readers that only U.S. citizens have the right to vote and the new California law doesn’t change that.
Alexander and local right-wing outlets are continuing to prey on these fears of non-citizens gaining the right to vote, just as the right wing has hyped the “widespread voter fraud” myth that led to Wisconsin enacting one of the most restrictive voter ID laws in the country. The voter fraud myth has been debunked by numerous investigations, including one by former U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic, a Republican, and former Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann, a Democrat.
