Public hearing today on controversial voting measures

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Elections

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MADISON - A public hearing will be held today on the Republicans’ latest effort to make voters show photo ID’s at the polls. And that’s not the only controversial change in a package offered by Assembly Republican Jeff Stone of Greendale. It would also put an end to the recent trend of early voting, by forcing people to give reasons for wanting absentee ballots.

It used to be that way until 2000. And once that ended, the parties accelerated the early voting trend by rallying absentee voters, and getting whatever advantage they could at the ballot box before Election Day. Stone’s bill would also end the practice of choosing straight-party tickets. Voters would have to sign poll books, which could help prosecutors when somebody uses another person’s name to vote. Advocacy groups could no longer register voters, and only local clerks would do that.

The bill would also move the September partisan primaries up to the second Tuesday in August, to comply with federal deadlines for sending absentee ballots to overseas voters. But it would not end the 30-year-old practice of letting voters register at the polls. Some conservatives demanded that same-day registration be stopped in the name of fighting voter fraud. But Stone said it’s not necessary, and the other steps would go a long way toward restoring confidence in Wisconsin’s elections. Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon) says most of his majority supports the package, but it might make minor changes. But Milwaukee Democrat Tamara Grigsby says the changes would only make it harder for people to vote, without eliminating voter fraud.

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