Voting, an essential and fundamental part of our country’s past and present, became more difficult Friday after a panel of three federal appeals court judges brought a controversial state law out of legal limbo.
The 2011 voter ID law requires all Wisconsin voters to show government issued photo identification before casting their ballots, a seemingly innocuous measure to help curb statewide voter fraud. It deems nine different IDs acceptable, including a state driver’s license, U.S. passport and a signed, state university or college-issued photo ID.
After passage, the law was quickly relegated to federal court debates over its constitutionality. Republicans stood behind their anti-voter fraud platform and Democrats called it a thinly-veiled attempt to disenfranchise the lower income and minority voters who do not always have access to state identification and also vote Democratic during elections.
While we do not see the issue in such stark terms, we do feel the law’s proponents have little factual backing for their crusade against voter fraud and that the voter ID requirement will keep people away from booths this November. During discussion over the realities of this law, we also find it relevant to comment on the stagnant statewide voter turnout that has surpassed 70 percent only twice since 1984, according to Government Accountability Board statistics.
In litigation over the law, the best evidence the state could provide about voter fraud’s existence was approximately two counts of possible voter fraud per major election in Milwaukee County. Numerically, that is one possible case per 330,000 voters. A Rutgers University professor who specializes in studying voter fraud testified against the state in the same trial, saying she had found only one confirmed instance of voter fraud in state elections from 2004, 2008, 2010 and 2012. That one case was not in-person impersonation, which the law aims to stop, but a faked absentee ballot.
Weighing that information against the knowledge that low-income and minority citizens who do not currently have IDs will now have to go to get them leaves us concerned for the direction of voting in the state. The law assumes all these people will have the time to visit the local Department of Motor Vehicles branch and pick up a free ID. That assumption ignores those without access to transportation or people who work full time.
Students also had the potential to be disenfranchised by this law. But thankfully, now UW-Madison students who are from out of state or lack proper identification will have access to a free Wiscard-like ID through the university. We would like to commend the UW-Madison administrators who agreed to provide this access and the students who fought for it.
Instead of spending tax dollars fighting a cause without a sound factual basis and adding extra hoops for people to jump through; the time, effort and money would be better spent on avenues that increase voter awareness and participation.
Look to the West Coast for examples of states doing just that. Oregon and Washington mail ballots to every registered voter ahead of elections and include paid return postage.
Methods like this do more in moving our country forward and getting more voices heard. The voter ID law has too much potential to unnecessarily silence possible voters.
As Election Day approaches and organizations look to continue fighting the voter ID law, it is important to keep in perspective the cost of who is being excluded.
What is your take on the return of the voter ID law? Is it justified or misguided? We would like to hear from you. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com
