Committee approves $250,000 on Wisconsin voter ID education

Now, a matter of creating an informative campaign

MADISON, Wis. — Monday, the Legislature’s budget committee unanimously approved $250,000 to educate the public about Wisconsin’s voter photo identification requirement. 

The state Government Accountability Board asked the Joint Finance Committee in April to release the money.

The new law had been suspended by the GAB from 2012 until being reinstated last February, right before Wisconsin’s April 6 primary and general election, of course.

Once that happened, finance committee member Rep. Chris Taylor and the League of Women Voters asked the GAB to re-launch the education campaign, saying turnout could have been higher if more people understood the ID requirements.

It’s now up to the state’s new elections commission to implement a campaign, and a matter of making that campaign clear to those who need to get proper ID.

“There’s your state driver’s license or your state ID or various other things like passports,” said Leage of Women Voter director Andrea Kaminski.

Kaminski thinks the new law might bring more problems than it solves. Kaminski said on WIZM Monday morning that “logic doesn’t apply” to certain changes in the ID law.

“I can use my Minnesota driver’s license to get on an airplane,” Kaminski said. “Why is it not good enough to show that I am the person that I say I am, as I’m already registered and proven my Wisconsin residency?”

Oddly enough, the example Kaminski uses was nearly incorrect.

Up until Friday, using a Minnesota driver’s license to board an airplane, was not going to be allowed at some point this year, as the state is lagging on updating to Real ID changes.

Friday, however, the federal government extended the deadline to update Minnesota IDs until 2018.

So, Kaminski is correct for two more years, you can use your Minnesota driver’s license to board a plane, and still can’t use it to vote in Wisconsin.

A special ID card does not exist for voting in Wisconsin, but there are restrictions on what kinds of identification are valid at the polls and, if the campaign doesn’t make that clear, it should, “at the very least, let them know where to go to get good information,” Kaminski said. “It’ll save time on election day and help more people participate as full citizens.”