Everywhere+Nowhere - Jiddle Rants a Liddle: Why do people have an issue with Voter ID laws?

December 27, 2011

Jiddle Rants a Liddle: Why do people have an issue with Voter ID laws?

juslar:

More often, you keep hearing about states like Wisconsin and South Carolina passing laws in which voters are required to show their ID at the booth, and civil rights groups objecting to those laws being passed because they supposedly disenfranchise undocumented aliens, people of color, senior…

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. I’ll tackle Wisconsin since that’s the law I’m familiar with.

First off, Wisconsin has a voter fraud rate of .0002 percent. In the 2004 elections, there were a total of seven knowingly fraudulent votes cast. In the entire state. None of them could have been prevented with requiring a photo ID.

Second, the following photo IDs are acceptable for voting purposes, and can be unexpired or expired after the date of the most recent general election:
- A Wisconsin DOT-issued driver license
- A Wisconsin DOT-issued identification card
- Military ID card issued by a U.S. uniformed service
- A U.S. passport
The following photo IDs are also acceptable for voting purposes, but
must be unexpired:
- A certificate of naturalization that was issued not earlier than two years
before the date of an election at which it is presented
- A driving receipt issued by Wisconsin DOT
- An identification card receipt issued by Wisconsin DOT
- An identification card issued by a federally recognized Indian tribe in
Wisconsin
- A photo identification card issued by a Wisconsin accredited university
or college (we’ll get into this one later)

NO OTHER FORMS OF PHOTO ID ARE ACCEPTED.

A lot of people are looking at a trip to the DMV. Let’s take a look at DMV locations in Wisconsin, shall we?

This map only includes DMVs that are open at least two days a week. Imagine you live in Florence County, way up in the northeastern part of the state. They DO have a DMV there. It’s open from 9:15 to 3:15 on the fourth Thursday of any month. Can’t make it the FOUR DAYS A YEAR the one in the county is open? You get to drive two hours to Antigo’s DMV (open 7-5 every Friday) or to Peshtigo’s (7-5 Tuesday, Thursday, Friday). Now, that’s all well and good if your employer will let you take some or all of the day off and you can afford losing a day’s pay AND you have a way to get to the DMV (hint: most people who need a voter ID don’t have a way to get to the DMV). If you don’t, well… sucks for you, don’t it?

Let’s say you make it to the DMV. Do you know that you can get the ID for free? If you don’t, you’re going to end up paying the standard $28 photo ID fee. There are no signs in the DMV informing you of your right to obtain an ID for free. There is no voter ID box to check on the form for a photo ID. Do you have a certified copy of your birth certificate? If not, you can’t get a voter ID. You’ll have to visit or write the Vital Records Office in Madison, pay $20 to get a new copy ($40 if you want it expedited), wait to get it in the mail or make a return trip to the VRO to get the certificate, and then get back to the DMV somehow. Having to pay any fee to be eligible to vote is called a poll tax and is unconstitutional.

Let’s examine the case of 84 year old Ruthelle Frank of Brokaw. “Ruthelle Frank doesn’t have a driver’s license, doesn’t have a birth certificate and hasn’t been able to get a state identification card, which means that she could be out of luck the next time she tries to vote.”

“Frank said she tried to get a state identification card last month at a Division of Motor Vehicles office but was rebuffed when she couldn’t produce a birth certificate. She did have a notarized baptism certificate, as well as a Social Security card, Medicare statement and a checkbook.”

“According to the newspaper, a record of Frank’s birth does exist with the state register of deeds in Madison. She could get a birth certificate for a fee, $20. But Frank said that fee amounted to a poll tax.

There’s another problem. Frank’s maiden name of Wedepohl was misspelled by the physician who attended her home birth. To get the birth certificate amended, she could petition the court, a process that could take several weeks and cost at least $200, the newspaper said.”

That brings Mrs. Frank’s total cost to vote to at least $220. And this is just one case. A mother brought her newly 18 year old son to the DMV to get a voter ID and he was turned away because his bank account “didn’t show enough activity.”

Now, let’s take a look at that college ID thing again. In order for a student ID to be used for voting purposes, it has to include:
— Date of Issuance
— Signature of Student
— Expiration date no later than two years after date of issuance

Funny thing, though, is that none of the student IDs issued by any of the state universities meets these requirements. The schools are in the process of spending a couple million dollars on changing their IDs and implementing secondary IDs for students to vote. When the Government Accountability Board ruled that this change was enough to allow student IDs to be used, Republican members of the state Legislature, of course, objected. As for technical school student IDs, “the legislature decided not to include technical schools under the original bill because students don’t live on campus, so most of them drive to get to class”. Because apparently buses don’t exist.

And I haven’t even touched on the racial elements of this whole thing, or how Scott Walker tried to shut down DMVs in Democratic-leaning areas, or how this is going to potentially cost the state upwards of $6 million in the midst of a “budget crisis”. I think I’ve gone on long enough, so I’ll leave you with some numbers that will clue you in on just how many people are affected by this.

Those without state-issued photo identification and who would need to obtain one under the Wisconsin Voter ID bill include:

23 percent of all elderly Wisconsinites over the age of 65

17 percent of white men and women

55 percent of all African American males and 49 percent of African American women

46 percent of Hispanic men and 59% of Hispanic women

78 percent of African American males age 18-24 and 66 percent of African American women age 18-24

Twenty-six percent of Wisconsin’s 91 DMVs are open one day a month or less

Wisconsin has only one DMV with weekend hours

Three Wisconsin counties have no DMVs

Over half of Wisconsin’s 91 DMVs are open on a part-time basis