(File photo: WRN)
State election officials are asking the Legislature for funding, to help inform the public about the reinstatement of Wisconsin’s Voter ID requirement.
The Government Accountability Board is asking lawmakers to release $460,800 in already-appropriated state funds. The money was earmarked for five new employees to help implement voter ID, but with the election just five weeks away, GAB spokesman Reid Magney says it makes more sense to use the funds for TV, radio, and online campaigns about the requirement that voters show a government-issued photo ID at the polls.
A federal appeals court lifted an injunction blocking the voter ID requirement in early September, more than two years after a judge issued the first of multiple orders blocking the law from being enforced.
Magney says the GAB will rely mainly on the same ad campaign that was used before the law was put on hold. He says two ads have already been updated to include information about a new system that’s in place to help verify the identity of voters who lack a birth certificate and need an ID for voting.