WRN file photo
Advocates for older Wisconsinites fear voter registration woes for some. Jay Heck with Common Cause in Wisconsin said the advent of on-line voter registration is great — for most state residents.
But Heck is critical of a provision in GOP legislation to eliminate special registration deputies.
Common Cause and other groups are concerned about SB-295 and its impact on voter registration, by ending the practice of allowing clerks to deputize people to run registration drives.
“One of the things they’ve (the legislation’s authors) said is ‘oh, anyone with an I-pad can help register people to vote.’ That’s fine for people who have the ID with them,” Heck said. “In terms of serving those populations that don’t have I-pads or I-phones, it’s going to be much more difficult.”
Andrea Kaminski with the League of Women Voters estimates that up to 300,000 voters do not have state issued I-D — and will need to seek out assistance to register.
“They’re not in the DMV database,” Kaminski said. “We’re talking about seniors, in some cases in their nineties. What have they done to have to register this way?”
Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, and the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups have launched an effort to assist older voters in obtaining the required photo ID that will be needed to cast a ballot at the polls.