Senators hear public on voter ID bill

By Anna Krejci
Green Bay News-Chronicle    08 March 2005

A fairly evenly divided group of constituents spoke in support of and in opposition to the proposed voter ID bill during a public hearing to the Senate Committee on Labor and Election Reform at the Brown County Public Library on Monday.

At issue is a bill, already passed by the Wisconsin Assembly, that would require Wisconsin voters to show a driver's license, identification issued by a U.S. uniformed service or a Wisconsin Department of Transportation identification card to vote or register to vote.

The Senate committee is holding four public hearings across the state before the bill is expected to be voted on in the Senate in April.

Among speakers entering opposing viewpoints were the Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicle chief of technical and training, the deputy clerk at the village of Howard, a number of college students and other community members.

Terry Ewing, chief of technical and training at the DMV, spoke against the voter ID bill because of its financial impact on the Transportation Department. The bill is estimated to cost $1 million upfront and an additional $26,000 per year for an increase in ID products the department would purchase.

The bill entitles eligible citizens to a free ID card if they ask for it.

Of the estimated 122,700 Wisconsin residents 18 years old or older without driver's licenses or ID cards, the Transportation Department estimated that 24,500 of them would require an ID card to vote.

Ewing testified that $875,398 in revenue would be lost each year for providing free IDs to customers who otherwise would pay for them.

Although an amendment to Senate Bill 42, also known as Assembly Bill 63, would allow $250,000 in federal Help America Vote Act funds to be allocated annually to the DMV for providing free ID cards, Ewing said the figure does not cover all of the projected revenue loss.

On the other hand, Michelle Olman, Howard deputy clerk, said she believes federal money to Wisconsin provided by the Help America Vote Act could cover the DMV's needs.

The office of Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, a committee member, reported Wisconsin is guaranteed $7 million of HAVA funds upfront to improve the state's voting process and an additional $42 million if the state matches 5 percent.

Lazich said the HAVA funds will be divided among a number of federal requirements such as disabled voting machines, training and the statewide voter list, but still believes the HAVA funds will cover the voter ID bill.

Olman also said she did not believe getting an ID card would be a great inconvenience. "To me, it's something that you would need anyway," she said.

While the voter ID bill would not end fraudulent voting, it provides accountability to voters, poll workers and Wisconsin, she said.

Among the bill's opponents was action chair of the League of Women Voters of Greater Green Bay and the vice president of the Wisconsin Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, Patricia Finder-Stone.

"There have been reported voting irregularities in Wisconsin, but they overwhelmingly point to process errors, (such as) improper recording of names or addresses (and) absentee ballots not being assigned voting numbers," she said.

"In other words, incorrect election procedures are not the fault of the voters," she said. She advocated for more poll worker training.

Some opponents claimed the voter ID bill was a solution without a problem, but Lazich upheld Milwaukee as an example of a city being investigated for having 8,000 more votes than registered voters in the presidential election.

While debate addressed what is the greatest problem in elections, it also touched on the bill's affect on stifling votes.

Finder-Stone also said she views the bill as a barrier to voting for the elderly, homebound, homeless or ill.

Even though the bill provides free ID cards, it doesn't pay for a taxi ride to the DMV, she said.

The panel noted the bill does allow clerks to send deputies to homebound voters who can attest to a resident's identification.

Tyler Vorpagel, a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay student, defended the proposed requirement to show ID before voting.

Obtaining an ID might be inconvenient, "but even voting itself takes a little time and effort," he said.

Overall, he said the bill makes voter fraud more difficult to achieve and does not disenfranchise voters.

About every opinion presented was contradictory to someone else's.

Nathan Sooy, Northeast Wisconsin director of Wisconsin Citizen Action, appealed to the committee, saying, "Do not trade the basic democratic elements of our process for overly cumbersome requirements that do nothing but discourage lower income and elderly voting."

Sooy attacked the effectiveness of using a photo ID to verify one's identity. The Sept. 11 terrorists carried valid photo IDs, he said.

"Here in Wisconsin, felons and non-naturalized immigrants are not eligible to vote, but are eligible for driver's licenses and photo identification cards," he said.

Lazich agreed that IDs are not foolproof and highlighted the proposed Wisconsin ID Security Act that she said would complement the voter ID bill.

Finder-Stone asked the committee to postpone a vote on the bill until an audit concerning the voting in Milwaukee is completed in June. That audit could reveal a more clear picture of how the election process is failing.

Lazich was opposed to waiting. She said she wanted a vote on the bill taken before the state's January deadline to conform to a statewide registration list, another HAVA requirement. "We're not going fast at all," she said in response to comments that the issue needed more study.

Two more committee members, Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay, and Sen. Tom Reynolds, R-West Allis, were present. Hansen held a position that action on the voter ID bill should not be hasty.

Reynolds, the committee chairman, said requiring ID at the polls has at least been introduced in the Legislature the last three sessions.

After the scheduled three-hour hearing that ended after two hours, Reynolds noted voters described vastly different experiences based on which polls they visit.

"You can have one polling center run beautiful, no problems. You have another one where everything's chaotic and things are going on there that are absolute violations of the law, and it just might be a half of mile up the road," he said.

"It's interesting how isolated things can be in a way," he said.