© 2024 Milwaukee Public Media is a service of UW-Milwaukee's College of Letters & Science
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Judge OKs New State Explainers for Voters Who Need IDs

Oct. 17 update: U.S. District Judge James Peterson has signed off on the new one-page handout the state has created, to easily explain to would-be voters the process for obtaining photo identification for voting. The DOT will distribute the handout to ID applicants who visit DMV offices and also to voter advocacy groups. Peterson is also satisfied with how the DOT now clearly describes the application processon its website.    

Oct. 13 update:

Judge James Peterson has ordered the state to provide more information to people about how to easily get voting credentials, even without a birth certificate or other documents. Peterson says the fix is imperfect, and that the state will have to make other changes to the law after the November election. But in the near term, the state must produce a one-page document, by Monday, for ID applicants, easily explaining the process and timeline.

Oct. 12 original story:

A federal judge in Wisconsin on Wednesday heard testimony both from people urging him to toss-out the state’s Photo I.D. law, and others who want him to keep it in play. The hearing came on the heels of secret recordings of DMV employees giving inaccurate information to would-be voters. The agency says it has since retrained workers, including about the amount of time it takes for people to get state identification.

Neil Albrecht is executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission. He says his office has gotten about 150 requests for absentee ballots from people who did not know there was a photo ID requirement. He says those 150 people make up about 2 percent of voters requesting absentee ballots. He says that while it may not sound like a lot, that group is important.

“That minority represents a lot of people that have been historically disenfranchised by voting. And so, I’m concerned that we are repeating history,” Albrecht says.

Albrecht says Milwaukee is home to Wisconsin’s largest urban population. And he says that means more people here live in poverty and may have literacy challenges. He says he’s concerned they’re not getting the information they need to be able to vote.

“At this point, I believe that we need to do everything we can to ensure those individuals get to vote, but I’m concerned that anything we do is not enough given how close we are to the election date,” Albrecht says. 

The judge in the case, James Peterson, has said he’s not sure he has the authority to throw out Photo ID given it’s been upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

LaToya was a reporter with WUWM from 2006 to 2021.
Related Content