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When the Republicans took over all three branches of state government in 2011, they must have known that their agenda would soon become unpopular. So to stay in power, they enacted a very restrictive voter ID law that allows just a handful of acceptable forms of photo identification to be used at the polls and then made it difficult to obtain these IDs. In that way, voters who don’t have state IDs—typically minorities, the elderly and students—face additional obstacles when trying to cast a ballot.
The law has been blocked since its passage and its first real test is in this spring’s elections on Feb. 16 and April 5.
While no major problems turned up in the Feb. 16 primary, there are warnings that the GOP’s dream of disenfranchising voters is coming true.
Last week, it was reported that state Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote a letter to Gov. Scott Walker claiming that her elderly relative, a veteran of the World War II battle at Iwo Jima, could not vote in February with his veterans ID card. Bradley’s relative doesn’t have a driver’s license and the voter ID law prohibits the use of veterans ID cards at the ballot box. Although the state Senate may vote in March to allow veterans IDs to be used to vote, that bill would also end the use of special registration deputies who help people register to vote, thus creating another obstacle for the occasional voter. The bill, if passed, may not be in effect for the April 5 general election and presidential primaries.
The voter ID law places the responsibility for issuing IDs on the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). But as HBO’s comedic pundit John Oliver and One Wisconsin Now (OWN) argue, the DMV isn’t up to the task. Oliver noted that the DMV in Sauk City is only open for four days in 2016, while OWN discovered that an internal DMV investigation found a 27% error rate when potential voters were trying to obtain an ID under the “extraordinary proof” process, which allows them to be exempt from paying for the cost to obtain their birth certificate or other documents they need to get an ID.
Also on the horizon is the GOP-forced breakup of the state Government Accountability Board in June, which will no doubt sow chaos before the fall presidential election, which is expected to have a very high turnout.
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When you look at the latest poll numbers, it’s no wonder why the GOP wants to suppress the vote. Although Walker himself is not on the ballot this year, the governor is deeply unpopular according to the latest Marquette University Law School Poll, and so is U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, the Republican who’s being challenged by Democrat Russ Feingold in the fall, as well as the Republicans’ agenda in general.
Republicans do their best during low-turnout elections, which is why they’re using every trick in the book to disenfranchise Wisconsin voters and keep them away from the polls. Don’t let them win.
For more information about obtaining an ID to vote, go to bringit.wi.gov or call 1-866-VOTE-WIS or 1-866-868-3947.
