After the ongoing debacle in Milwaukee's past election in November, when for the second straight presidential cycle more than 30% of the voters registered at the polls and instigated a federal investigation into fraud, one would assume that adding a requirement for photo identification would be seen as a reasonable response. The only one who appears to reject that notion in Wisconsin is the Democratic governor, Jim Doyle, who threatened to veto the bill passed by the legislature today:

Wisconsin lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday that would require voters to provide a driver's license or other government-issued photo identification before casting a ballot. Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle said he would veto the measure. ...

Wisconsin Republicans who pushed the measure through both houses of the Legislature say the photo ID requirement would lessen voter fraud and protect legitimate voters.

Democrats said the bill threatened the constitutional right to vote for thousands of poor and elderly who lack photo IDs and broke with the tradition of Wisconsin, long known for its high turnout and Election-Day voter registration.

It's known for its Election Day registrations, all right, but only on presidential elections. Milwaukee especially has a track record of anomalous registration activity. They exceeded thirty percent of all votes coming from same-day registrations in two successive presidential elections, but failed to come close to that in the off-year elections in between. In order to accept that as a normal result, one has to presume that one-third of Milwaukee's adult population moves every four years, and that this mass migration coincides with presidential elections.

At least, that's what Jim Doyle expects Wisconsin voters to believe - not that their open voting system invites fraud and mismanagement, effectively degrading the legitimate vote of honest Wisconsin citizens. Despite including provisions for free ID cards for low-income voters, Doyle wants to pretend that the entire legislature wants to oppress the 2.4% of Wisconsin residents who don't have state photo IDs. Perhaps the other 97.6% of Wisconsinites can tell Governor Doyle where to put that veto pen before he uses it.

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» Is preventing fraud the same thing as oppressing the poor and elderly? from hubs and spokes
Milwaukee had some pretty obvious and egregious fraud problems in last fall's presidential election. The legislature in Wisconsin has responded by passing legislation adding the reasonable (to me anyway) requirement that voters provide a photo identif... [Read More]

Tracked on April 14, 2005 9:41 AM

» Wisconsin Governor To Veto ID Requirement from Pete The Elder
One of the most obvious ways to prevent voter fraud is to require that people who want to vote prove who they are and that they are eligible to vote in the precinct they are trying to vote in. This... [Read More]

Tracked on April 14, 2005 4:20 PM