The Young Progressives submitted a petition with more than 6,000 signatures Friday to Chancellor David Ward requesting the UW-Madison administration amend student IDs to comply with a new law requiring a photo ID to vote.
The group circulated two petitions, gaining roughly 1,000 UW student signatures in 10 days and 5,700 state-wide signatures in around 60 hours.
Young Progressives Vice President Sam Gehler said he supports whatever method would be the most efficient and expedient way to modernize student IDs.
""It's important that the majority of progressives in the state and here on campus [is] behind spending the money on updating IDs because it's important that students have the right to vote,"" Gehler said.
The voter ID law that goes into effect Jan. 1 allows for the use of student IDs to vote provided they have a signature, issuance date and expiration date.
But since no Wisconsin university or college currently uses an ID with those features, the Government Accountability Board recently decided to allow universities to put stickers with the three qualifications on IDs to be used for voting. Those stickers would be a much cheaper alternative to replacing IDs, altogether.
Republican lawmakers then requested the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules review the GAB decision, which is under review by the Joint Committee. If the decision is overturned, universities would have to update their IDs for students to use them in voting.
UW Dean of Students Lori Berquam said in an interview with the Daily Cardinal that the administration has considered updating IDs, but is concerned with the ""price tag"".
""I can think of nothing more disdaining to me than putting in place a roadblock to turn students away from voting,"" Berquam said.
