Over the years the League of Women Voters has steadfastly opposed legislation requiring all voters to show a photo ID before being allowed to cast a ballot. Despite zealous efforts, proponents have not been able to document a pattern of illegal voting in Wisconsin, and certainly not fraud that could be prevented by voter ID. Yet there are good data from researchers at UW-Milwaukee and elsewhere showing that thousands of people would be at risk of disenfranchisement if this legislation is passed, especially students and elderly, low-income or disabled citizens. Nonetheless proponents have waged a successful propaganda campaign to convince people that voter ID would improve our elections.
Rather than rehash the same old arguments, let us focus on government accountability. Last year politicians promised that, if elected, they would go through state agency budget requests line by line, seeking to cut expenses that cannot be shown to be useful or effective. Let’s hold voter ID to the test.
In the nonprofit world, where I operate, funders seek accountability too. With reduced endowments, they want to know the programs they fund will make a difference. Many require nonprofits to identify measurable outcomes in our grant requests, so one can assess later whether the program was successful. Likewise in the for-profit world, no business leader would undertake a program based on unsubstantiated rumors in the hope of achieving results that cannot be measured. They want accountability.
In the case of government programs, the taxpayers are the funders. If voter ID is passed, how will anyone measure its success?
Proponents say voter ID is necessary to fight fraud. Yet the only type of fraud it would prevent is impersonation at the polls and there are no documented cases of that in Wisconsin. How will they measure improvement?
Proponents say voters are losing confidence in our elections because they suspect that illegal votes are diluting their own. If voter ID is passed we can almost guarantee that fewer votes will be cast and counted – which will magnify the impact of those that are counted. Will proponents admit they would consider that a success?
Proponents claim that state-issued IDs are easy to obtain and that eligible citizens will not be disenfranchised by the law. People without an ID may cast a provisional ballot, which will not be counted unless they show their ID by 4:00pm the day after the election. According to the Election Assistance Commission, 38 percent of provisional ballots cast in the November 2006 election in our state were not counted. And we have no idea how many of these were cast by eligible voters.
Finally let’s get back to cost accountability for this government program. The DMV estimated in 2005 it would need $2.3 million annually to meet the demand for IDs and provide them at no cost to those who request that. The Government Accountability Board will need funding for training local officials and educating citizens about the new law and procedures. In Georgia the public education campaign ran millions of dollars. Local governments also will need to educate voters in their communities and train poll workers on how to process provisional ballots. Also, many municipal clerks do their public service at night and on weekends, while holding another job during the weekday. How will voters be able to show their ID to the clerk by 4:00PM the day after the election? To process provisional ballots clerks may need to add supplementary hours and, in some cases, take additional time off their day jobs.
Given that a voter ID program is expensive, unneeded and unfair, how will policymakers measure success? How will they be accountable to the taxpayers, to the voters?
The best thing for our state is to have a robust civic participation for a strong, representative government. We urge policymakers to reject voter ID and turn their attention to positive measures to ensure that every eligible citizen has the opportunity to vote.
Andrea Kaminski is the executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Education Fund.
