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Seven states - Florida, Georgia,
Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan and South Dakota - have
enacted voter identification laws requiring or requesting
certain forms of photo identification from voters. Oklahoma will
join this group effective July 1, 2011, while Wisconsin and
Kansas will both become photo ID states on January 1, 2012.
Photo ID laws are enacted to prevent voter fraud and maintain
election integrity. At a news conference regarding the recount
for the Wisconsin Supreme Court Election, candidate Joanne
Kloppenburg stated, "With a margin this small - less than
one-half of 1% - the importance of every vote is magnified and
doubts about each vote are magnified as well.”
Consider a 2004 audit which uncovered over 7,000 more votes cast
than voters registered in Milwaukee. The audit also exposed
1,800 non-existent voters in addition to votes from 6 dead
people and over 300 illegally cast votes by felons.
According to the United States Supreme Court in its 2000 ruling,
Alexander v Mineta: “… affirmed the district court's
interpretation that our Constitution 'does not protect the right
of all citizens to vote, but rather the right of all qualified
citizens to vote.' And it is state legislatures that wield the
power to decide who is 'qualified.”
Within context of Alexander v Mineta, Assembly Bill 7 – the
Photo ID bill, will work toward ensuring only qualified voters
per Wisconsin law will vote. Photo ID naysayers claim that
widespread voter fraud is nonexistent in Wisconsin alleging
instead that the law will disenfranchise groups such as senior
citizens, college students and the poor.
Bear in mind other instances requiring ID. Cashing a check,
boarding an airplane, purchasing an antihistamine, etc. all
require a photo ID. Ensuring the integrity of our elections
should not be treated with lesser standards.
Even checking a book out of the Milwaukee County Library System
requires photo ID. As written on the Milwaukee County Library
System website: “For your protection and to safeguard the
library collection, the library requires a photo on record at
the checkout desk. If you choose not to have a photo taken, you
will be asked to show a photo ID.” No outcry was sounded when
the library system imposed a photo ID requirement.
Upon request a free identification card for voting will be
issued from the DOT. Thus, our state’s poor (whom critics claim
will be disenfranchised) will not only be able to vote, but will
finally have the identification needed to avail themselves of
all the products and services requiring ID previously denied
them.
Keeping Wisconsin’s requirements in line with other state, the
new Photo ID law increases our residency rules from 10 days to
28 days. Absentee voting in person will be limited to two weeks
before the election. And, identification exclusions are provided
for nursing, retirement, qualified adult family homes, and
electors protected for domestic abuse.
Additionally, vouching will no longer be an acceptable form of
identity for individuals registering to vote same day. Instead,
each person will have to prove residency to register and have a
photo ID to vote.
Anyone failing to provide photo Id at the poll will have the
ability to vote using a provisional ballot. The burden of proof
will then be on the voter to provide identification by 4pm on
the Friday after the election.
Ensuring due diligence is met at the polls is imperative to
maintain citizens’ confidence in their vote. Wisconsin’s photo
ID law will act as a strong deterrent against voter fraud which
disenfranchises voters and hurts the overall integrity of our
elections and democracy.
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