Voluntary Voter ID

Oops!

Cory Liebmann decided that he wanted to rant about voter ID, so decided to rant about AB 549.  Cory says:

Conservatives in Wisconsin have also introduced another old standby, requiring a voter ID (AB 549).  Every election year they jump up and down and manufacture fake numbers in trying to convince the media and the public that there is a voter fraud problem in Wisconsin.

Apparently, he didn’t actually take the time to read the bill.  That’s OK, Cory.  Everyone makes mistakes.  Here’s what the bill actually does.:

With certain limited exceptions, this bill permits any elector, at the time of registration, to elect to be required to provide identification in order to vote in an election. The bill also permits a registered elector to elect to be required to provide identification in order to vote by appearing in person at the office of the municipal clerk or board of election commissioners of the municipality where the elector resides. The elector must sign a statement making the election and present identification.

This is voluntary voter ID.  For example, it would allow me to check a box to have the election folks check an ID before someone casts a ballot under my name.  It’s a way for me to protect my vote from being used by someone else.  Let’s face it, if I walk into my polling place and find that my vote has already been cast, there’s not much I can do about it.  They won’t let me vote and I would be disenfranchised.  And the likelihood of the D.A. every finding out who actually did it is almost nil. 

What will be interesting about this bill is to see what the opposition, like Cory, does.  Their argument against mandatory voter ID is that it would allegedly disenfranchise people who do not possess an ID.  That argument doesn’t apply in this case.  It’s voluntary.  If Cory does not have an ID, then he can choose to not require that his ID be checked before voting.  If I have an ID and want a little extra security on MY vote, then I can choose to require an ID to be checked before my vote is cast.  Without the concern of disenfranchising people without IDs, one would think that the champions of choice would support this bill. 

Unless, of course, they oppose voter ID for some other reason…