I can’t imagine the Founding Fathers intended for disenfranchisement to be this damned difficult. They managed to establish a system that excluded Blacks and women for nearly a century or more, why all the fuss now?
Just it blacks and women… what must a poor white male victim do…
What information is needed for someone to register to vote in Wisconsin?
So if the following list is acceptable forms of proof to register, then, that’s all you should need to actually vote!
VOTER REGISTRATION QUALIFICATIONS
Age: Must be 18 years or older on Election Day
Citizenship: Must be a United States citizen
Residency: Must be a resident of Wisconsin
Felony Convictions: Rights restored upon completion of sentence, including prison, parole, and probation. If you are in jail serving a misdemeanor sentence or awaiting tria, you are eligible to vote.
ID Requirements:Registration requires proof of residence. The following constitute acceptable proof-of-residence if the document contains your current name and address
-A current and valid Wisconsin driver license.
-A current and valid Wisconsin identification card.
-Any other official identification card or license issued by a Wisconsin governmental body or unit.
-Any identification card issued by an employer in the normal course of business and bearing a photo of the card holder, but not including a business card.
-A real estate tax bill or receipt for the current year or the year preceding the date of the election.
-A residential lease that is effective on date of registration (NOT for first-time voters registering by mail).
-A university, college or technical institute identification card (must include photo), ONLY if the voter provides a fee receipt dated within the last nine months or the institution provides a certified housing list to the municipal clerk.
-A gas, electric or telephone service statement (utility bill) for the period commencing no earlier than 90 days before election day.
-Bank statement
-Paycheck
-A check or other document issued by a unit of government
-A letter on public or private social service agency letterhead identifying a homeless voter and describing the individual’s residence for voting purposes
This is a step, but only a small one, in the right direction. The essential problem–outside of partisanship on the bench–is that legal reasoning permits judges to divorce themselves almost entirely from what is really going on.
The proof of residence is a huge kicker. If you’re currently jobless and homeless (often happens with joblessness) you’ll have none of these “acceptable IDs”. Even if you have a driver’s license or the like, the address would not be correct so it would be invalidated. If you could afford to get a WI ID card it wouldn’t have a valid address either. So… just how are the poorest and most disadvantaged of us to vote? Oh the last item? Sure, this poor guy/gal knows just where and how to get this, and can get the necessary appointment and provide whatever information they require to write that letter. This would include transportation etc., not to mention physical ability to travel to get it.
On the face of it it sounds so easy… and it is, for those of us who don’t have a problem. Us privileged folks.
You have a good point regarding the homeless. However, my point was, no where on the list is there photo id requirement!
So, if you don’t need one to register to vote, why would you need it to actually vote?
Voter suppression of course!
I would love to see SCOTUS take it up again, with a ninth and hopefully progressive Justice.
All we need is a different opinion in another District.
" They say those voters include people who can’t obtain IDs because of name mismatches or other errors in birth certificates or other necessary documents"
I’d like to see how much more often this happens in the very busy urban hospitals than suburban and rural. Moreover, I’d like to know if the incidence rates of things like misspelling a name on a birth certificate suddenly start climbing in “certain” areas compared to others after enactment of this kind of law.
I suppose this provides some incentive not to name your kids shit like “Plaxico” or stick things like apostrophes in the name and what not…namer beware…
Actually there are several on the list that require photo ID’s explicitly, such as driver’s licenses, employer ID card, ID from an educational institution, and likely the WI state ID card has a photo. The others don’t, so I don’t get why they specify that those certain ones must have photos, yet permit the others.
And if you look at the requirements for getting a “free” photo ID for voting, they’re not just hard for people who are homeless, but for anyone who has moved around a lot and doesn’t have safe storage for official documents. If you don’t have a social security number (yep, some people never got one) then you can’t even apply.
Oh, and the DMV can decline to issue a card to anyone who presents documents they think might not be authentic or nonstandard, with no apparent avenue (as if someone in that position could spend the time and the money anyway) for redress.
Sounds to me like the GOP is making a huge problem out of nothing. Let anyone who wants to vote and has no ID vote provisionally and vote officials do like any reputable business, e.g. Costco or Sams in this era of cheap HD still phone cams: Take a face photo and index finger print with stern warning signs about the felony penalty for voting under an assumed identity. Run the info through quick and efficient software that alerts on whatever few fraudulent voters with aka names that may pop up.
One can preserve voting rights while insuring against voter fraud or the fear of vote fraud easily and with little expense if this was truly what the GOP wants to do, other that its apparently true goal of voter suppression of minorities.
Of course they are. That’s a feature, not a bug. They’re good at those features.
Here’s what happens when one receives a "Provisional Ballot! You may get to use a “Provisional Ballot” to vote but more than likely your vote won’t count or won’t even be counted!
“In the 2004 US Presidential Election, controversy arose out of arguments regarding the interpretation of the criteria for determining the eligibility of voters using provisional ballots. Many allege that these discrepancies of interpretations, particularly in Ohio, may have been a deciding factor in the outcome of the election. In the 2004 election, at least 1.9 million provisional ballots were cast, and 676,000 were never counted due to various states’ rules on counting provisional ballots.”
See if your state counts your Provisional Ballot!
https://ballotpedia.org/State_by_State_Provisional_Ballot_Laws
The guy in the picture (desecrating the flag by wearing it as a shirt - another sign he’s a republican) is holding up his hand to say it all - “Loser!”
Good lord! They are applying Indiana law as the standard of fairness?
Voting in Israel!
http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/State/Democracy/Pages/FAQ_Elections_Israel.aspx
Read Number 5, especially the 3rd sentence! That’s is what is needed in this country!
However you could count on the Republicans blowing every fuse they have left in stopping it! You think republicans whine today, just think what would happen if everyone is automatically registered to vote on their 18th birthday!
And number 9, which covers identification required to actually vote.
Good lord! They are applying Northern Kentucky law as the standard of fairness?
FIFY
This stuff will continue until someone puts together a good argument against it. Calling it voter suppression or disenfranchisement gives it a political ring…it sounds like the usual hyperbole. Suppressing votes is what its about but I don’t think saying without an easy to understand proof is going to get folks all that worked up. The GOP’s good a manipulating complex issues by providing simple explanations. They’re bogus but easy to understand ( voter fraud ) and so they are accepted. Government takeover of healthcare, defend the borders, religious freedom and defending the Constitution are nothing of the kind but those bogus explanations are easy to assimilate so they prevail with most folks. And the GOP’s winning on all those fronts.
This one’s very complicated. A lot of analysis went into it. If you require a photo ID you are going to shut out folks that want to vote GOP too. So opposing these laws on grounds that they discriminate against folks likely to vote for Democrats isn’t going to fly with a lot of people. But the GOP’s analysis showed the preponderance would hamper Democratic voters. Perhaps by a 5 to 10 % margin. GOP statisticians know most elections are won by margins smaller than that so they went with the suppression even though it’s going to get GOP’er voters too. Same for limiting early voting. GOP’ers do it but Dems do it more. GOP’ers same day register too…but not as much as Dems do. The GOP has got the numbers.
So until a simple easy to grasp explanation of that is put together the GOP’s going to win this issue since they’ve provided one. It’s bullshit but it’s a bunch better than pointing fingers at “disenfranchisement” or “voter suppression” which hasn’t worked very well.