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DEMOCRATS MOBILIZE ON VOTER ID
Statewide effort to protect voting rights underway
by John-David Morgan
April 8, 2005
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin this week launched a campaign to defend voting rights in the state, even as a key committee of the Republican-controlled state Senate approved legislation that would require an estimated 85,000 senior citizens in the state to obtain a picture i.d. to vote.
Calling it "a significant effort to inform Wisconsin citizens about the increasing threat to their right to vote from Republicans in the Legislature," Dems introduced radio ads, a new website (http://protectmyvote.org) and a petition to Gov. Jim Doyle and the Legislature that allows citizens to get active in stopping Voter ID.
"The voter ID bill being considered by the state Legislature would severely discriminate against seniors, the poor and young people by creating unnecessary and artificial barriers to exercising their constitutional right," state Democrats announced in a press release. According to the Department of Transportation, 85,000 senior citizens in the state do not have state IDs. (Please see http://watchdogmilwaukee.com/JD/2005-VOTERID-FACTS.htm)
A handful of states have Voter ID laws, but only South Carolina's law is as restrictive as the bill being pushed in Wisconsin. "To put this in perspective," state Dems note, "in the 2004 election, South Carolina had about a 50 percent turnout rate. Wisconsin had about 75 percent turnout, making us one of the top three states for voter turnout in the country."
The Election Protection Coalition, which included the NAACP, Latino voting rights groups and national legal advocacy groups, confirms that homeless people would virtually lose the right to vote under Wisconsin's version of Voter ID. The law would not allow third party witnesses or affidavits of identity at the polls, as is the case in Florida, Louisiana and South Dakota, three other states with picture ID/voting laws.
Voter ID has already passed the state Assembly. In this week's 4-1 vote in the Senate Committee on Labor and Election Process Reform, Sen. Tim Carpenter, a Milwaukee Democrat, joined Republicans in moving the bill forward. The full Senate is expected to vote on the bill in the coming week.
Although Democrats such as Carpenter and Jeff Plale of South Milwaukee are set to join Republicans in supporting the legislation, Republicans are short of the votes needed to override a veto from Gov. Doyle both in the Assembly and in the Senate. The governor vetoed similar legislation in 2003 and has promised to veto the current voter ID bill.
The Democratic Party's campaign is geared toward supporting the Dems who are holding the line, and in backing Doyle on the veto. The Republican Party of Wisconsin in late March blitzed Democratic senate districts with radio ads in hopes of getting Dem senators to back the bill, and attacked Doyle around the state. The GOP message: Stick it to Milwaukee because Milwaukee has "a problem" with voter fraud.
Critics of the GOP legislation point out that the Voter ID law does not address any of the problems in Milwaukee on election day. (The city of Milwaukee this week posted its search for a replacement for Elections Commissioner Lisa Artison who resigned last month.)
But the overriding concern is that Republicans are out to suppress the vote in the state because they have not won a major statewide race since 1998, and have not won the presidential election here since 1984. Ellen Burmaster's victory in the state school superintendent's race Tuesday prolonged the Republican losing streak.
"The GOP sentiment on voting was best summed up most recently by State Senator Tom Reynolds (chairman of the Senate Committee that approved Voter ID) when he advocated that 'voting is a privilege, not a right,' " the Democrats countered this week.
"Why would Republicans want less people to vote?" the state Dems pondered this week. "Is it because Democrats have won the last five Presidential races in the state? Or is it because Democrats hold seven out of eight of the statewide offices? Or is it because Democrats in the State Senate have a real chance at taking back the majority?"
You be the judge:
GET ACTIVE - Go to
http://protectmyvote.org
and join the fight to save Wisconsin's progressive, fair and open voting traditions.
http://protectmyvote.org/
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