Anti-voter bill is huge and it's on the fast track

As the Joint Finance Committee was finishing its work yesterday on the budget, the Assembly elections committee held a 7 hour hearing on a fast-tracked overhaul of the Wisconsin election system. Although the hearing was competing with Joint Finance for the attention of the media, the League's view of the bill was reported by Bruce Murphy in UrbanMilwaukee, by Associated Press and by The Progressive. Read the League's full testimony here.

The Government Accountability Board implored the committee to “please slow down” on the omnibus bill which was introduced late Friday afternoon and rushed to the hearing Tuesday. No one knows how much this overhaul would cost because there has not been time to get a fiscal estimate. Yet the committee chair, Rep. Kathy Bernier, initially said the committee would vote on the legislation Thursday. The good news is that apparently enough concerns were raised to postpone that vote until next week. Assembly Speaker Vos said he intends the bill to go to the Assembly Floor this month.The bill:

• •Reinstates voter ID, with an exemption for people who are indigent, have religious objections to photo ID or lack documentation such as a birth certificate needed to obtain an ID. To claim the exemption, you would have to sign an affirmation and also take an oral oath with the chief inspector, in front of your neighbors at the polling place. Your ballot would be marked (compromising privacy of the vote) and may be challenged in a recount. Local election officials then would be charged with investigating and standing in judgment of whether you are poor enough or truly have a religious conviction.
• •Specifies that if poll workers neglect to have electors sign the poll book before receiving a ballot, then one ballot would be removed randomly at the end of the day for each missing signature. This penalizes voters (and likely not the ones who did not sign) for poll worker error.
• •Prohibits local clerks from offering early voting hours in the evening or on weekends to serve their constituents. Voters may seek to make an off-hours appointment, but it has to be with the clerk her/himself, not a staff member. By treating all municipalities equally, the bill does not treat voters equally. Some clerks serve hundreds of voters and others thousands.
• •Bans the use of proof-of-residence documents displayed electronically on a smart phone or pad.
• •Doubles the number of nominees sent to the Governor for appointment to the GAB, upsetting the checks and balances intended to maintain a nonpartisan board and allowing more leeway for political appointments.
• •Makes it more difficult for individual citizens to vote, while removing restrictions on moneyed interests that wish to influence our Wisconsin elections.

To view the hearing on WisconsinEye, click here. Two LWV Milwaukee County members testified in opposition to the bill: Mary Jo McDonald spoke from her individual perspective as a Chief Inspector at a polling place in Shorewood (scroll to the 5 hour mark in the recording), and Tish Minor spoke on behalf of NAACP-Milwaukee Chapter and Voces de la Frontera (see her passionate explanation of the problem with asking people to publicly swear they are too poor to have an ID at hour 5:11).

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