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3/26/2010
Fast-track bill proposes automatic “Motor-Voter Registration”
With eight session days remaining before the close of the 2009-10 legislative session, Democrats have introduced one bill after another this week (this whole second-to-the-last month of the session has been a frenzy of new bills). Senate Bill 640 was introduced only 3 days ago, is 72 pages long and proposes sweeping changes to Wisconsin’s elections. A hearing in the Labor, Elections and Urban Affairs Committee is scheduled for next Wednesday, March 31 at 10:00 AM, 412 East in the State Capitol.
SB 640:
- Proposes automatic “motor-voter” registration of anyone and everyone who gets a driver’s license – whether or not the person is eligible to vote. Currently, the responsibility to register is on the shoulders of individuals; this bill would make it “the responsibility of the Government Accountability Board (GAB) to use all feasible means to facilitate the registration of all eligible electors of this state…” Wow. ACORN on steroids.
- Permits the GAB to share voter registration information with other state agencies. The bill directs GAB to report, no later than July 1, 2011, about “the feasibility and desirability or integration of registration information with information maintained by the departments of health services, children and families, workforce development, revenue, regulation and licensing, and natural resources and the UW System.” That’s scary.
- Proposes simplifying absentee voting registration and the absentee voting process, with fewer anti-fraud safeguards.
- Proposes using statewide computerized systems for voter registration and absentee voting. Currently most voters register and vote absentee in clerk’s offices.
- Prohibits any person from “intentional deception,” including an incorrect date, time, place of an election, qualifications for voting, or an endorsement of a candidate by specified persons. Ok, all well and good. Violators currently may be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned for more than 6 months or both. This bill changes those penalties to a maximum of $100,000 and/or 5 years in jail! Wow. Candidates might not even want to chance including their mom on their official list of endorsers.
- Requires all mandatory postings, including a to-be-developed Voters Bill of Rights “be… in a language other than English” in those jurisdictions qualifying under federal law requiring voting materials be in a language other than English. Wow. That could get expensive – and where is that English-as-the-national-language business?
- Allows one citizen to accuse another of voter intimidation or deceptive election practices and imposes fines up to $100,000 and/or 10 years in jail. Wow again.
SB 640 does not:
- Provide for voluntary voter ID protection for voters. (An Appleton friend recently shared with me that he made a statement about the importance of voter ID by stopping at City Hall and requesting the designation “ID REQUIRED” be posted after his name on the voter roll. I asked Appleton’s City Clerk about this, and since my friend’s request, the GAB has informed the Clerk’s office that they don’t have the authority to include “ID Required” on the voter roll. SB 640 does not give them this authority.)
- Move the deadline for in-person absentee voting from the day before the election (Monday) to the Friday before election day. Several Election Clerks requested this change to reduce chaos and provide them more time for necessary election day preparations.
Northeast Wisconsin is well represented among the 27 Democrat sponsors of the bill:
If you are unable to attend the hearing March 31, you can submit comments to the committee chairman and committee members (listed below). If you would like a copy of your comments distributed at the hearing, you may send them to committee members Senator Grothman (R-West Bend), Senator Alan Lasee (R-DePere) or Rep. Pridemore (R-Hartford). Of course, submit your comments to your own representative as well.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
Yes we need easier ways to register, and this is (perhaps) one of them. Though I don't know how diligent we are in not issuing driver licenses to the undocumented that are not able to vote.
And poor people sometimes can't afford to drive. Then what? We should extend registration to the banks that are on every corner.
But once registered we should also require a voter ID card with picture, and eliminate same-day registrations which can be validated only after-the-fact.
Jack Lohman (Fri Mar 26 08:28:00 2010)
I suppose if you can't have ACORN registering phantom voters anymore (now that it's been done once in a BIG way, they know it will be watched closely the next time around), then some other means of "getting out the supplemental vote" must be employed.
This appears to be exactly the OPPOSITE of what Wisconsin needs right now. With news reports earlier this week of approximately 70,000 unverifiable voters in the database, we need to manually "clean it up", not open the door to another underground means of possible fraud.
Jack is right, we should eliminate same-day registration. Because of the current situation, perhaps we should also make every voter verify their identity / address at their City or Town Hall no less than 2 weeks prior to the election, then for following elections we should also require Photo ID be presented at the time of voting.
Voting is a right ... a right granted ONLY to legal citizens and only granted ONCE per resident.
Jeff Riedl (Fri Mar 26 08:50:27 2010)
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