Unanimous decision to fund voter ID education doesn’t end feud between parties

State agrees to spend $250,000 to
get people up to speed on rule changes

While a vote to fund a statewide education effort for voter ID was unanimous in Madison on Monday, there’s still plenty of disagreement over the state photo identification voting requirement.  

“The fact of the matter, people have been disenfranchised,” Senator Jon Erpenbach said shortly before the legislature’s budget committee voted to commit $250,000 on education for the ID rule. “Fact of the matter is, some people, who could vote a couple years ago, can’t vote now.

“In the end, if we come up with a piece of legislation, and the result of that legislation is somebody who fought in World War II can’t vote now, we did wrong.”

Despite that unanimous vote to spend that money, Democrats and Republicans continue to argue over the rule’s necessity. 

“Voter ID is not a partisan issue,” Senator Alberta Darling said. “Seventy-six percent, approximately, according to the last poll a couple years ago, of people in Wisconsin think we should have a voter ID program. Most states do.”

Some Democrats on the committee had hoped for as much as $500,000 to help people learn about the rule changes, what they have to do and where they have to go, so they’ll be able to vote.

Democratic senator Lena Taylor says the requirement only keeps voters from the polls.  

“We created a law, but it didn’t address the issues we have,” Taylor said. “So, now we’re talking whether or not it’s important to educate people on what that is and whether or not it’s important.”

The funding idea is to get voters up to speed before the August primary and the presidential election in November.