And how much did WI SoS spend on voter education last year, and training for registrars?
I would fault the poll workers. Any investigation should probe why they failed their gate-keeping task.
Agreed. The poll workers are to blame for this. Those kids were just anxious to exercise their constitutional right to vote. They didnât intend to break the law, but the GOP apparently has a problem with that concept.
Maybe the people in the voter registration offices, but not the actual poll workers. Iâm not sure about the specifics of Wisconsin voting laws, but if theyâre like NC, the poll workers just ask for name and address and verify against the voter registration. I donât support poll workers asking for voter age or any other thing that requires voter ID or would slow down the voting process. All gatekeeping checks should be done during registration.
Most important thing here is that a mistaken belief about eligibility does not equal voter fraud. Iâm pretty sure this will become another bogus talking point in the Trumposphere. And 60 votes, if thatâs the actual number, would have no effect in Wisconsin.
I was somewhat heartened to see that no charges were brought because they appeared to be misinformed. Whichever campaigns sent out the incorrect information through social media last year, I hope they put a big âCheck your state regulationsâ disclaimer in the future.
I guess that is what we call âminorâ offenses.
if theyâre found to be in Wisconsin illegally and voted do them send them back to Fresno?
When someone registers to vote in WI, they sign the form underneath an âavowalâ that they are a US citizen and are 18 years old.
More specifically the current revision (dated 8/2016) says âat least 18 years old or will be at least 18 years old at the time of the first election at which I will offer to voteâ.
But note the date on that revision; that is NOT the form in use at the time these 17 year-olds would have been registering. As recently as the 5/2014 revision of the form, it read âat least 18 years old or will be at least 18 years old at the time of the next electionâ. It would be entirely reasonable for a new voter to think that âthe next electionâ meant the Nov general election and not the April primary. (And it is quite common practice for municipalities to use up their old rev copies of the registration form before switching to a new rev; that is, you might very well be handed a 2014 revision - or even older - if you went somewhere to register today.)
I am both a WI poll worker and what used to be known as a âSpecial Registration Deputyâ in WI. I have been to high schools here in Madison to help register HS kids, including during 2016. What we were instructed was that 17 year-olds who would turn 18 could fill out registration forms, that those forms would be submitted to the (Madison) city clerks office, and we were asked that if we realized it was a person who was not yet 18 to note/flag that for the people at the clerks office doing the data entry into the voter data base.
So it is possible that 1) a form went in not âflaggedâ, the clerks office employee didnât notice the age/birthdate, and that person was entered into the data base ânormallyâ, or 2) the voter data base doesnât always properly differentiate between those not yet 18 and those who are.
As for an election day poll worker: if a 17 year oldâs name was incorrectly listed on the voter roster along with all the other names, thereâs nothing in the printed-out roster that would indicate the voterâs age. âVoter IDâ was in effect for the April 2016 election (the first (?) "bigâ election where it was in effect), so I guess a pollworker might have noticed a too-early birthdate when looking at the personâs ID. But thatâs expecting an AWFUL lot of the pollworker. The problem would be that the name got on the printed list for the April election in the first place.
What I would want to know is if the 17 year old voters voted early/absentee (which, again, for the April 2016 primary was controlled at the local clerks office), or if they âsame-dayâ registered at the polls. âSame-day registrationâ is the only case where the poll worker would be to blame; the poll worker should have realized that they had a 17 year old wanting to register and vote on the day of the April promary.
Why! Deport them to Minnesota, I say!
Of course, the other reaction might be:
14 or fight!
Pun-groaning hereâŚ
ID required. How does a 17 yr old even get registered, let alone vote? WTFânF?
Point to consider most were rural counties. Jusâ sayân.
Some states not only allow 17 year olds to register in anticipation of an upcoming election by which they will have turned 18 (as Wisconsin does) but also allow 17 year olds to vote in the primaries leading up to general elections for which they will have turned 18 (though Wisconsin does not).
60 down, 2,999,940 bad hombres to go. At this rate we should have them all caught in just under 7000 years. Oh wait - I left off Steve Bannon. 61 down.
The rules differ from state to state, but it sounds like in WI, if you will be 18 by the general election, you can âpre-register,â with the expectation that you will only be officially registered when you turn 18. It seems these registrations werenât flagged as ânot-yet-eligibleâ for the April primary.
I can understand the votersâ confusion. If they will be eligible by the time of the general election, how is it fair that they donât get a say in the primary election that selects the candidates for the the general? If there were consistent rules across all the states, then there wouldnât be issues like this, but, no, we must maintain our federation of uniquely âindependentâ states, come hell or high water. Even when a consistent standard would make it easier for all voters to exercise their right to vote.
Sounds like an honest misunderstanding that should have been caught at the local polling place.
So now we know that there was truth to all of those allegations of voter fraud. Shocking!!!
good to know that people are actually going to the schools to register the young people
You have to get permission from the schools of course, but at least here in Madison, the schools allow groups like the League of Women Voters, etc to come in over lunch, etc.