League Speaks on State Budget, Impact of Voter ID Print
News - Articles for State & Local
Written by League Women Voters WI, Andrea Kaminski   
Friday, 12 May 2017 08:53

trump-clintonJoint Finance to vote on effort to misuse a “999 motion” in the state budget process. What difference did Wisconsin's voter photo ID really make in the November 2016 election?


MADISON - Over the next few weeks the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee will be voting on various sections of the proposed state biennial budget. The League will be following the committee’s progress and we will let you know when you can make a difference with a timely call to your own legislators or members of Joint Finance. Here is a summary of the League's statement to lawmakers about the state budget.

In particular, we’ll be watching for any effort to misuse a “999 motion” in the state budget process, such as the sneaky attempt in 2015 to gut Wisconsin’s open records law on the evening before the July 4 holiday. This column from the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council explains the 999 motion and notes it was “never meant to be a weaselly way for anonymous legislators to circumvent what is supposed to be an open process.”

The Impact of Voter ID

What difference did voter photo ID make in the November 2016 election in Wisconsin? One new report claims it suppressed as many as 200,000 votes, although experts have offered some words of caution about that figure. Another new article tells the stories of four individuals for whom the ID requirement was “insurmountable.”

The reason the League challenged the Wisconsin voter photo ID law in court was because it would not have prevented any case of illegal voting that has been documented in our state, and yet it does prevent eligible citizens from voting. That is a net loss for democracy!

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