Conservatively Speaking
State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) represents parts of four counties: Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, and Walworth. Her Senate District 28 includes New Berlin, Franklin, Greendale, Hales Corners, Muskego, Waterford, Big Bend and parts of Greenfield, East Troy, and Mukwonago. Senator Lazich has been in the Legislature for more than a decade. She considers herself a tireless crusader for lower taxes, reduced spending and smaller government.
Wisconsin needs photo ID and fast
By Mary Lazich
Friday, Nov 30 2007, 01:23 PM
Wisconsin can and must enact a photo ID requirement for voting.
The wake-up call comes in an audit prepared by the Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) that provides a clear message: approve photo ID now.
Several recommendations were made by the LAB in their audit on compliance with election laws. The very first recommendation is the most significant:
“The Elections Board and, after it is replaced, the Government Accountability Board request that municipal clerks obtain birth dates from voters during future elections and consider ways to more easily facilitate the collection of this information.”
What better way to obtain the birth dates of all voters than from a driver’s license or state-issued photo ID?
The Legislature approved photo ID legislation on three occasions, only to see Governor Doyle veto it all three times. If Governor Doyle had not vetoed photo ID, Wisconsin would be able to avoid many voter irregularities.
The audit found that the statewide voter registration system implemented at a cost of over $22 million failed to properly verify voting eligibility, thus opening the door to fraud. The state Elections Board attempted to match data in the system with data compiled by the departments of Corrections, Health and Family Services, and Transportation in order to pinpoint individuals ineligible to vote.
But as the LAB pointed out, “Electronic matching failed for the November 2006 general election and the spring 2007 election. Elections Board officials now believe that the data matching will not work during Wisconsin’s presidential primary in February 2008.”
This finding by the Audit Bureau places the entire credibility of Wisconsin’s critically important February 2008 Presidential primary in doubt. Our faith in our election system could be restored with a photo ID requirement.
An investigation of the November, 2004 election in the city of Milwaukee by U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic and then-Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann found the following:
- In more than 100 cases, people voted twice, used phony names or addresses, or used the names of dead people.
- More than 200 felons voted illegally.
- The number of votes counted exceeds the number of votes recorded by more than 4,600.
We have clear, hard evidence that illegal votes are being cast, and are canceling the ballots of honest voters. A photo ID tells the poll worker you are the person you say you are. A photo ID will prevent people from giving phony names and addresses to voter registration drives, and then showing up on Election Day to vote illegally.
Once again, I commend the LAB for another outstanding, thorough review of an issue that deserves greater scrutiny and attention.
Now it’s time for the Legislature to move quickly to adopt photo ID before the important February 2008 Wisconsin Presidential primary. Republicans who’ve supported photo ID in the past are ready to work to get this critical measure approved. The question is, what about Governor Doyle and legislative Democrats? If they want to restore Wisconsin’s reputation of clean, honest elections, they’ll work with Republicans to get the job done.
