Curbing Voting Rights in Wisconsin

[marmar]

from the American Prospect:




Curbing Voting Rights in Wisconsin
In Wisconsin, Republicans continue to hobble the state Democratic Party with a new voter-ID law.

Alexander Zaitchik | May 4, 2011


On Tuesday morning, Wisconsin's Republican-controlled Elections Committee approved a controversial bill containing major changes to state voting law. If passed in the full Assembly, where it could see a vote as early as next week, the law would end same-day registration, eliminate the straight-ticket voting option on ballots, and require voters to present a state-issued photo ID at the polls.

This last provision -- which includes strict guidelines as to what constitutes acceptable identification -- puts Wisconsin in league with more than two dozen other states where Republican lawmakers are pushing voter-ID bills that they claim address the phantom menace of "voter fraud." It has also fueled allegations that Gov. Scott Walker is less concerned with sound policy than with weakening the political power of key Democratic constituencies.

The bill's main author and sponsor, Republican Rep. Jeff Stone, claims that the proposed law reflects his party's concern for the "integrity" of the voting process. But critics of the bill in Wisconsin and around the country point to evidence that voter-ID legislation is a solution in search of a problem. Cases of voter fraud of the sort addressed by Stone's bill are roughly on par with instances of people being struck by lightning, according to research conducted by Lorraine Minnite, a political scientist at Barnard College and the author of The Myth of Voter Fraud.

The true purpose of such bills, says a growing chorus of critics, is the stealth disenfranchisement of poor, elderly, student, and minority voters. The fact that these groups include important Democratic constituencies does much to explain the party-line support for voter-ID bills in Wisconsin and around the country. A study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee found that more than half of black male Wisconsinites do not have a state-issued photo ID. (This number rises to nearly 80 percent among those aged 18-24.) The same is true of nearly a fifth of the state's white population and nearly half of its Latino residents, with the numbers rising sharply after age 65. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=curbing_voting_rights_in_wisconsin

[Scuba]

1. Fight Back! Become a voting registration officer....

You can fight back by becoming a Special Registration Deputy with the authority to register new voters on a state-wide basis.

I spoke yesterday with Allison Coakley, Training Coordinator, Elections Division, GAB. She indicated state training for Special Registration Deputies (SRDs) was suspended until after the May Special Elections. The SRD program will be revisited in mid-May and training may be scheduled depending on Board staff work priorities at that time.

Becoming an SRD authorizes you to register any voter in the State.

To sign up for becoming a Special Registration Deputy, call Allison Coakley, Training Coordinator, Elections Division, Wisconsin Government Accountability Board: [e-mail] or [phone].


Allison also told me that you can go to any municipal Court and become authorized to register voters for that municipality.


Bottom Line: First-time voters vote left. Let's get out there and register new voters, in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

Thanks