For Release: Tuesday - April 19, 2016
Walker & WISDOT Never Even Considered Establishing a Mobile Van Program to Bring Required Photo ID to Eligible Voters in Underserved Communities
Some Former Confederate States Make it Easier to Obtain Required
Photo ID to Vote Than Does Wisconsin
Photo ID to Vote Than Does Wisconsin
In June of 2015, CC/WI and 12 other state and national public interest organizations sent this letter to Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WISDOT) Secretary Mark Gottlieb requesting the establishment of a mobile Division of Motor Vehicles program comprised of vehicles that visit under-served communities throughout the state to distribute DOT-issued photo ID – two of the various forms of ID now required in order to cast a ballot that will be counted in Wisconsin elections. The letter was never acknowledged and a follow-up phone inquiry on February 1, 2016 also never received a response, despite assurances that we would receive one.
On March 3, 2016, CC/WI sent this letter to Governor Scott Walker, requesting that he rectify this situation that his own Department of Transportation has completely ignored. We had hoped to receive his affirmative response in short order as there had only been a little more than four weeks until the April 5th Spring election. On March 25th, we received this response from WISDOT Secretary Mark Gottlieb, which had obviously been forwarded to him from the Governor's office. In it, Gottlieb talks a lot about how his agency has responded to increasing demands for DOT-issued ID's, but there is no mention whatsoever about our repeated inquiry into the establishment of mobile vans or some kind of program to bring the required photo ID to underserved rural and urban communities!
In other words, the Walker Administration apparently has not now, nor has it ever – since voter ID was enacted into law five years ago – had any plans to make these required forms of ID needed to vote, easier to procure by setting up a mobile program as other states with a similar photo ID law have done. This, coupled with a lack of any state funding for a public information campaign to inform Wisconsinites of what they need to have in order to cast a vote at the polls (or by absentee ballot) that will be counted, make it difficult to conclude anything other than that Governor Walker, Secretary Gottlieb and the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature are engaged in a widespread, coordinated, systematic campaign to deny thousands of eligible Wisconsinites of voting age, the information or ability to get what they are now required to obtain in order to vote.
Let's not hear any more nonsense from them that this is not voter suppression. Wisconsinites are not fools.
What Walker and the GOP have been doing since 2011 through 2016 is exactly what constitutes voter suppression. They are making it more difficult for the elderly, rural voters, urban voters, college students and people of color to be able to vote. It is degrading, disgusting and disgraceful that states that were once part of the Old Confederacy – and have a long history of voter suppression such as Alabama, Texas and Virginia – have made it easier for their citizens to obtain required forms of ID than has Wisconsin. Every Wisconsinite should be ashamed and outraged by this blatant attempt to decrease voter turnout, which has been amongst the highest in the nation.
The very best way to counter these anti-democratic measures is to make sure that you have what is required in order for you, your family, friends, neighbors and everyone else to have their votes counted in the upcoming August primary and November general elections. Go here to get that vital information and share it widely!
CONTACT:
Jay Heck
608/256-2686 (office)
608/512-9363 (cell)
Common Cause in Wisconsin
152 W. Johnson St., Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
608/256-2686
Want Good Government?
Join Common Cause in Wisconsin!
www.CommonCauseWisconsin.org
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