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On the positive side, the state of Wisconsin now has a voter registration system capable of cross checking the list of voters against lists of felons and dead people to see who is eligible to vote.
This happened only with great difficulty, including two years of delays and problems with the vendor who developed the system. But it’s up and running now and meets federal requirements to combat voter fraud.
Here’s the bad news: At least six people hired by a liberal political action group were caught in Milwaukee trying to pad voter registration rolls with ineligible voters.
To its credit, the political action group caught the problem before any voters were actually registered, and it referred the names of the workers to authorities in Milwaukee County.
Milwaukee police and prosecutors are investigating the case, and the Milwaukee Election Commission also is reviewing the matter.
While some people argue that the case underscores the need for a photo ID requirement before one is allowed to vote, that would be an over-reaction that could end up disenfranchising older and low-income voters who lack such identification.
The argument has been made that we have to present a photo ID to rent a video — and voting is far more important.
However, poor people, minorities and many elderly people don’t drive and don’t have driver’s licenses or other photo IDs. Getting a non-driver’s-license state ID is more difficult for these people because of their lack of mobility.
A 2005 study by the University of Wisconsin showed that 47 percent of African Americans in Milwaukee County and 43 percent of Hispanics had valid driver’s licenses.
It would make more sense
to use the new federally mandated voter registration systems to screen for nonqualified voters — rather than risk disenfranchising large numbers of people with a photo ID program.
