The Independent View: Wisconsin State Employees Can't Explain New Voting Restrictions

In early June, Milwaukee state government employees struggled to explain the byzantine voting restrictions to a crowd of poll workers and community activists.

Under new Wisconsin’s voter ID law, which was blocked by courts until March, you can vote:

- With an expired military ID, but naturalization papers and student IDs must be current. Students must bring additional proof of enrollment, such as a class schedule.

- All Wisconsin residents can obtain a free state ID from any DMV, but only if they have no drivers license from any state.

- For 18-year-olds voting for the first time, a public high school ID counts, but a private one doesn’t.

- A bank statement can serve as proof of residence, but not a credit card statement.

“There are so many twists and turns. I hate it,” local organizer Denise Brown said. “The people who passed these laws benefit from sowing confusion. They want people to get discouraged and stay home.”

Brown, who has volunteered for years registering voters in Milwaukee and the surrounding suburbs, said the provisions of the law seem to privilege some sectors of the population over others.

“Many lower-wage workers are not banked, and they’re counting on that,” Brown continued, referring to people who do not have any bank account. “Those people tend to vote more progressive, so they’re trying to eliminate them. It’s just wrong.”

Others at the workshop expressed concern about the state’s oldest voters, who no longer drive and may not have proper identifying documents.

Megan Wolfe, who works for the Government Accountability Board (GAB) in Madison, answered that residents without birth certificates should bring any documents they have to the DMV, which has special investigators on hand. She listed marriage certificates, the death certificate of a relative, baptism papers and the birth certificate of the voter’s child as possible options.

“How does your child’s birth certificate prove when you were born?” asked one participant. “What if someone with those other documents goes to the DMV a few weeks before the election?” asked another. “They’re screwed,” grumbled a third.

As frustration in the room mounted, Wolfe and her colleagues repeatedly reminded residents that they were not responsible for creating the law, only implementing it. And they’ve have had to do so with almost no resources.

Governor Scott Walker’s budget, which must pass in the next few weeks, includes almost no funding for the GAB to educate voters about the new requirements. The agency had estimated it would cost about $500,000 to inform the state’s millions of voters about the new law, but they were given a only tiny fraction of that amount.

“We actually made a great ad campaign. We have catchy videos in English and Spanish. But we weren’t given any money to air them,” Wolfe said. “Our request for additional funding was denied.” Due to the lack of funds, Wolfe said she could only give workshops if communities self-organize and request one, as they did in Milwaukee. She also implored the attendees to widely share the PSAs they can’t afford to get on the radio or TV.

Former poll worker and local activist Solana Patterson-Ramos, who attended the event said she’s worried this approach will leave the vast majority of the state in the dark. “It’s a law that will really disenfranchise if we’re not informed,” she said. “We already have a low voter turnout and this is going to harm it even more.”

While some voting rights advocates are focusing on education, others are turning to litigation. On June 1, Hillary Clinton’s top campaign lawyer joined with local civil rights groups in suing Wisconsin in federal court for the voting restrictions Governor Walker has signed into law over the past five years, including additional voter registration requirements, a rollback of early voting days, the allowance of “intrusive and intimidating” election monitoring, and the voter ID law.

One of the plaintiffs in that lawsuit is Anita Johnson with Citizen Action of Wisconsin, who said the effort was part of her group’s mission to “help people fight for justice.” “This law was meant to disenfranchise people of color, poor people, people with disabilities, people without transportation,” she said. “It appears the people who put this law in place want to stay in power, and the only way they can stay in power is to make sure that only their people get to the polls.”

But for those willing to jump through the hoops, Johnson says Citizen Action will try to answer their questions, spread the word about the rules, and help those struggling to acquire the proper documents to make sure no one is disenfranchised in 2016.

“We are going to do everything in our power to make sure people go to the polls and vote,” she said. “Education is key. That’s why we started this crusade early, when there is no election on the horizon.”

The public information officer, Reid Magney, reached out to say that he had issues with the facts as reported. So I will post them here:

The G.A.B. staff did not struggle to explain the law and what it requires. Participants asked questions about why certain provisions were included in the law, and staff replied those were legislative decisions. But they never answered why they were implemented.

Meagan Wolfe’s main answer to the question of older voters — that this type of voter may not need a photo ID at all if she votes by absentee ballot as an “indefinitely confined voter.” These are voters who are indefinitely confined to their homes due to age, illness, infirmity or disability. This is a significant exception to the photo ID requirement, and one that many older voters who do not have a current photo ID will be able to take advantage of.

Meagan Wolfe never used the term “special investigators.” The DMV has a dedicated team at their central office to review all cases where an individual who needs a free
state ID card and does not have a birth certificate. This team works to gather necessary documentation to verify birth records and issue a state ID card.

At the time the G.A.B. made its budget request to the Governor’s Office, photo ID was not in place and the agency did not know whether it would be for upcoming elections. As a result, the agency did not ask for funding for a public education campaign about photo ID. The Governor bases his budget on agency requests. The proposed budget does include separate funding for training local election officials about voter ID, which will help educate voters.

Meagan Wolfe said that the agency is taking many approaches to educating voters about voter ID. While the agency does not currently have funding for a large scale education campaign, we are focusing on working with community groups that can help us spread the word.