An Assembly committee held a day long public hearing at the state Capitol Wednesday, on Republican legislation which would require Wisconsin residents to show photo identification in order to vote. It’s legislation which opponents claim will disenfranchise voters, and make Wisconsin the most restrictive state in terms of what ID would be allowed. The hearing quickly became contentious.

Sun Prairie City Clerk Diane Herman-Brown testified that a woman in her city was “disenfranchised” – because her married name on her driver’s license didn’t match her name on the utility bill she brought in to establish residency. The bill’s author, Representative Jeff Stone, asked why the woman hadn’t changed her license, since she’d been married nine months. “Because that would be her responsibility to do that,” said Stone. “Her comment was that she works an odd shift and it was very difficult, even in Dane County, for her to get to a DMV” said Herman Brown. Stone said his experience is that it’s not that difficult to get a license – and he took issue with Herman-Brown’s word choice. “The bill does not disenfranchise people,” he said. “If they can’t comply with the requirements in the timeframe they would be disenfranchised,” said Herman-Brown. “I’m very concerned about the use of ‘disenfranchisement’, when the bill cannot disenfranchise people, because that would be unconstitutional, and it does not do that,” said Stone, prompting some in the Capitol’s North Hearing Room to applaud. They were quickly gaveled to silence by the committee chairman, Representative Gary Tauchen.  [Read more...]