The Wisconsin legislature is fast tracking Bill AB-7 that will place substantive identification requirements on voting for the state. The gist of the bill is that you would need to present a Wisconsin driver's license, official state identification, military ID, passport, or naturalization papers in order to vote. Student identification would be permitted if the address on the card is current. The bill has some other provisions that are not really at issue for this article nor really controversial.
So what's the problem? What's wrong with asking people to identify themselves before they vote?
There are three.
The Effect v. The Idea
Voting is a right of legal residents of this State. I shouldn't need to tell readers that the ability to vote it the foundation of our state and our nation. This means we should be doing everything possible to make sure everyone who can legally vote has that opportunity; Democracy doesn't work otherwise.
Now consider that students change their housing arrangement almost every year. Less then 40% of Hispanics and roughly 25% of African Americans have an identification of the type listed above. Also realize the elderly, many of which have long since had their drivers license expired and are not easily capable of attaining and maintaining this kind of identification anymore. Finally consider that certain eligible voters are unable to easily access DMV outlets. Unlike many states, DMV authorized providers of state identification can require certain rural areas to travel as much as 60-80 miles one way targeting a provisional office open for 3 hours one day every month. There is no additional funding present in the bill to expand voter access to DMV or to increase DMV staff to assist in the new responsibility. It is an unfunded mandate on the heels of cutbacks to DMV staff.
Regardless of the purpose of the bill, the effect will be that a large number of minorities, the poor, the elderly, and rural, and students will not be allowed to vote. While we might love the idea of a state where everyone has legal and current official identification, that's not reality. They can prove they are residents, they can even prove who they are, but they won't necessarily be able to show the combination of those features in a way acceptable to the new law. This disenfranchises voters.
From a legal perspective, the question of government regulation of a right is based on a compelling interest by the government that is found to substantially outweigh the impact on the execution of that right.
So let's talk about that next.
The Reason for AB-7
According to Scott Walker and the bill sponsors, AB-7 is necessary to “combat voter fraud and preserve the integrity of elections”. The problem with this justification is that there is no evidence of statistically significant voter fraud in Wisconsin. It just doesn't exist. If you want to ignore the 5 year study done by the Bush administration into voter fraud nationally that turned up a whole lotta nothing, you can just look at the convictions in the state of Wisconsin – or lack thereof.
Now understand there is a difference between voter fraud and electoral fraud. Voter fraud is when the same person votes multiple times. It is fraud on the part of, well, the voter. Electoral fraud is fraud on the part of those running the election. The recent Prosser situation was not an accusation of the left of voter fraud, it was an accusation of electoral fraud which is actually a reasonably frequent occurrence and cause for concern. But voter ID doesn't address electoral fraud. It is only useful to control voter fraud.
The reason voter fraud isn’t' happening in Wisconsin isn't because our politics are squeaky clean. The reason voter fraud isn’t' happening is because voter fraud doesn't work. Think about it. Voter fraud is a legacy of times when the total number of votes in an election would be in the hundreds or even thousands. Where a single vote constituted 1% or even a .1% of the total vote. This would allow any additional votes to be politically powerful. But in a world where hundreds of thousands of votes are collected if not millions, voter fraud is totally impractical. It is not uncommon in a typical election for thousands of votes to be thrown out, and short of the exceptional races that do boil down to a handful, the idea that you could predict and justifiably take the risk of jail to make a real impact on an election by using voter fraud to cast 2-3 more than you should is pretty uninspiring to even the most politically minded criminal.
Now if raw data isn't convincing and you're the type who likes to believe it's just that well hidden, consider that generally speaking, voter fraud is something Republicans generally accuse of Democrats. This is the reason the bill is sponsored by Republicans. But normally you would expect this kind of thing if Republicans thought voter fraud had interfered with the desired representation of Wisconsin's citizens – in other words, if they were losing elections they thought they should win. Well, we have a Republican Assembly, Senate, and Governor. We also have a conservative leaning supreme court which appears to have managed to re-elect it's conservative seat during a time of extraordinary outrage among liberals. So where is the concern coming from? What evidence of fraud do we have and despite no real demonstrated reason for it, how do we justify the cost?
The Cost of AB-7
“The Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates the law could cost more than $5.7 million to implement. That includes $2.2 million in costs for the Government Accountability Board (which includes education and outreach), almost $2 million for the Transportation Department (to cover employee expenses and the cost of free IDs) and more than $1.6 million if universities chose to remake student Ids.”
The above quote was taken from a journal press release on the matter. So if we have no significant voter fraud cases on record, no significant evidence of voter fraud in the state, and we are still in a state of fiscal emergency, why is the party that swept the table in the 2010 elections spending millions on the phantom of voter fraud that didn't lift a finger to hurt them?
The answer is as simple as it is unfortunate. Republicans know their iron grip on the state government is in potential trouble with the recalls. This is not about the integrity of elections and it is not about Wisconsin's financial welfare. It is a purely political move to hopefully prevent recalls from turning seats over to Democrats by taking advantage of the fact that a portion of the population will be disenfranchised by this law and will be unable to vote in those elections. It sets up a harder environment for the Democratic base to participate in Wisconsin’s democracy long term and would never pass a mixed legislature or Democratic governor. It is painfully difficult to see the bill any other way without really wanting the skewed outcome.
Republicans need to ask themselves when winning and election is costing them too much of their soul. Too many attacks recently have been launched against the ability for the opposition party to participate in politics. Instead of winning on the issues, the Republicans have been trying to dismantle the competition and leave themselves as the only option. This isn't what Democracy looks like, and we need strong conservatives with real American values to ask their legislatures to just win the damn fights by having the better ideas and standing for the better values, not be sabotaging the ability of the other side to be heard.
So what's the problem? What's wrong with asking people to identify themselves before they vote?
There are three.
The Effect v. The Idea
Voting is a right of legal residents of this State. I shouldn't need to tell readers that the ability to vote it the foundation of our state and our nation. This means we should be doing everything possible to make sure everyone who can legally vote has that opportunity; Democracy doesn't work otherwise.
Now consider that students change their housing arrangement almost every year. Less then 40% of Hispanics and roughly 25% of African Americans have an identification of the type listed above. Also realize the elderly, many of which have long since had their drivers license expired and are not easily capable of attaining and maintaining this kind of identification anymore. Finally consider that certain eligible voters are unable to easily access DMV outlets. Unlike many states, DMV authorized providers of state identification can require certain rural areas to travel as much as 60-80 miles one way targeting a provisional office open for 3 hours one day every month. There is no additional funding present in the bill to expand voter access to DMV or to increase DMV staff to assist in the new responsibility. It is an unfunded mandate on the heels of cutbacks to DMV staff.
Regardless of the purpose of the bill, the effect will be that a large number of minorities, the poor, the elderly, and rural, and students will not be allowed to vote. While we might love the idea of a state where everyone has legal and current official identification, that's not reality. They can prove they are residents, they can even prove who they are, but they won't necessarily be able to show the combination of those features in a way acceptable to the new law. This disenfranchises voters.
From a legal perspective, the question of government regulation of a right is based on a compelling interest by the government that is found to substantially outweigh the impact on the execution of that right.
So let's talk about that next.
The Reason for AB-7
According to Scott Walker and the bill sponsors, AB-7 is necessary to “combat voter fraud and preserve the integrity of elections”. The problem with this justification is that there is no evidence of statistically significant voter fraud in Wisconsin. It just doesn't exist. If you want to ignore the 5 year study done by the Bush administration into voter fraud nationally that turned up a whole lotta nothing, you can just look at the convictions in the state of Wisconsin – or lack thereof.
Now understand there is a difference between voter fraud and electoral fraud. Voter fraud is when the same person votes multiple times. It is fraud on the part of, well, the voter. Electoral fraud is fraud on the part of those running the election. The recent Prosser situation was not an accusation of the left of voter fraud, it was an accusation of electoral fraud which is actually a reasonably frequent occurrence and cause for concern. But voter ID doesn't address electoral fraud. It is only useful to control voter fraud.
The reason voter fraud isn’t' happening in Wisconsin isn't because our politics are squeaky clean. The reason voter fraud isn’t' happening is because voter fraud doesn't work. Think about it. Voter fraud is a legacy of times when the total number of votes in an election would be in the hundreds or even thousands. Where a single vote constituted 1% or even a .1% of the total vote. This would allow any additional votes to be politically powerful. But in a world where hundreds of thousands of votes are collected if not millions, voter fraud is totally impractical. It is not uncommon in a typical election for thousands of votes to be thrown out, and short of the exceptional races that do boil down to a handful, the idea that you could predict and justifiably take the risk of jail to make a real impact on an election by using voter fraud to cast 2-3 more than you should is pretty uninspiring to even the most politically minded criminal.
Now if raw data isn't convincing and you're the type who likes to believe it's just that well hidden, consider that generally speaking, voter fraud is something Republicans generally accuse of Democrats. This is the reason the bill is sponsored by Republicans. But normally you would expect this kind of thing if Republicans thought voter fraud had interfered with the desired representation of Wisconsin's citizens – in other words, if they were losing elections they thought they should win. Well, we have a Republican Assembly, Senate, and Governor. We also have a conservative leaning supreme court which appears to have managed to re-elect it's conservative seat during a time of extraordinary outrage among liberals. So where is the concern coming from? What evidence of fraud do we have and despite no real demonstrated reason for it, how do we justify the cost?
The Cost of AB-7
“The Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates the law could cost more than $5.7 million to implement. That includes $2.2 million in costs for the Government Accountability Board (which includes education and outreach), almost $2 million for the Transportation Department (to cover employee expenses and the cost of free IDs) and more than $1.6 million if universities chose to remake student Ids.”
The above quote was taken from a journal press release on the matter. So if we have no significant voter fraud cases on record, no significant evidence of voter fraud in the state, and we are still in a state of fiscal emergency, why is the party that swept the table in the 2010 elections spending millions on the phantom of voter fraud that didn't lift a finger to hurt them?
The answer is as simple as it is unfortunate. Republicans know their iron grip on the state government is in potential trouble with the recalls. This is not about the integrity of elections and it is not about Wisconsin's financial welfare. It is a purely political move to hopefully prevent recalls from turning seats over to Democrats by taking advantage of the fact that a portion of the population will be disenfranchised by this law and will be unable to vote in those elections. It sets up a harder environment for the Democratic base to participate in Wisconsin’s democracy long term and would never pass a mixed legislature or Democratic governor. It is painfully difficult to see the bill any other way without really wanting the skewed outcome.
Republicans need to ask themselves when winning and election is costing them too much of their soul. Too many attacks recently have been launched against the ability for the opposition party to participate in politics. Instead of winning on the issues, the Republicans have been trying to dismantle the competition and leave themselves as the only option. This isn't what Democracy looks like, and we need strong conservatives with real American values to ask their legislatures to just win the damn fights by having the better ideas and standing for the better values, not be sabotaging the ability of the other side to be heard.
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