One of President Barack Obama's messages in his State of the Union address was encouraging bipartisan cooperation and unity. ""We will move forward together, or not at all,"" he said. And although Obama visited Wisconsin the next day to emphasize his message in our purple state, Gov. Scott Walker's recent plans for election reform seek only to separate parties and set our voting system back.
According to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Patrick Marley, Republicans' proposal includes two major changes to Wisconsin's election process: Requiring photo ID at the polls and eliminating same-day registration. Immediately after passing this bill, Republicans plan to take advantage of their majority to amend the Wisconsin constitution to reflect these changes.
Permanently rewriting the constitution is the equivalent of giving the finger to Democrats, who are justifiably concerned by the bill. Republican leaders claim this election reform will decrease voter fraud and provide order at poll places on election day, but these seemingly positive effects are only party propaganda.
Of course, voter fraud is a historically touchy subject for Republicans, as many claim they have lost close elections because of voter fraud cases. However Kevin Kennedy, director of the state Government Accountability Board, told the Journal Sentinel, ""Fraud can sway elections only in cases where it is done by a group in a concerted way to affect numerous votes, and prosecutors have never found any evidence of that."" So, just to be clear, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
The part of the bill that would fix this non-issue will instead have disastrous effects on people's ability to vote. Requiring photo ID is an unnecessary obstacle that will most likely discourage legitimate voters. For example, the Journal Sentinel reported that large numbers of African-Americans in Milwaukee, not-so-coincidentally a strong Democratic voting demographic, do not have driver's licenses and would therefore be unable to vote.
Eliminating same-day registration is not a concrete part of the bill yet, but according to Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, Republicans are seriously discussing including this aspect to the current bill. Similar to demanding photo ID on election day, eliminating election-day registration would choke the liberal vote, as well as decrease overall voter turnout. Wisconsin, along with Minnesota, was the leader in adopting election-day registration more than 30 years ago, and since then, anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of Wisconsin voters utilizes election-day registration.
Craig Gilbert, a Journal Sentinel columnist, articulated our state's rich voting history, also citing research from UW-Madison that shows ""EDR boosts turnout"" constantly.
Gilbert cited George Mason University turnout expert Michael McDonald, to illustrate this research clearly: Five of the top six voter turnout states in the 2008 election, including Wisconsin, had election-day registration.
To upend Wisconsin's proud, decades-long tradition of civic engagement is not only a ""disservice"" to all voters, as Kennedy said, but a roadblock for Democrat-leaning groups that are most likely to take advantage of election-day registration. The majority of Wisconsin students have consistently voted Democrat in recent elections. As many students on campus can testify, we benefit from election-day registration because many of us are from out of state, are new voters or change addresses frequently. Eliminating same-day registration silences the student voice and ignores issues important to us.
Earlier this week, The Daily Cardinal's opinion columnist Miles Kellerman wrote that Walker's perception is strictly limited to the present, resulting in illogical and harmful decisions related to high-speed rail, clean energy and job creation. Generally, I agree that Walker is shortsighted. Yet his two-fold election reform bill is motivated by wily long-term motivations to stifle the Democratic vote in future elections, proving that Walker does have a brain that can envision a future. Walker's mind concentrated on dividing Wisconsin, with Republicans solidly in control and Democrats influence permanently stagnant. When Walker gives his State of the State address Feb. 1, I think his tagline should be, ""Republicans will win the future.""
Melissa Grau is a sophomore majoring in journalism. We welcome all feedback. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
