More than 2 million Wisconsinites voted in the presidential primary election last month, but officials with the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin said the turnout could have been even greater if it weren't for a lack of knowledge on the state's voter ID law.
Therefore, the nonpartisan organization is advising the Government Accountability Board to request for funding to educate people on Wisconsin’s new voter ID requirements.
While Assembly Speaker Robin Vos recently said he wants to review the Government Accountability Board’s request for funding, another Republican state lawmaker has defended the measure and said the high turnout in the April presidential primary is verification that the law works and a voter ID education campaign is a waste of taxpayer dollars.
Andrea Kaminski, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, said although they aren't in favor of the law, Wisconsinites deserve to be educated on it since it's too confusing and complicated.
"We felt that (the voter ID law) was unneeded, we felt that it did not address a real problem because there have been no cases of voter impersonation in Wisconsin, but it makes it impossible for some people to vote," she said. "The League is doing all we can to help citizens comply with this law because we don’t want anyone to lose this vote."
Nevertheless, state Rep. Bob Gannon, R-Slinger, said the only problem with voter ID is organizations asking for money to fix a problem that doesn't exist. He said the voter ID law is "a simple change guaranteeing the integrity of the vote" as the 50-percent outcome for the presidential primary election proves so.
"I think we’ve proven through the last election and actually the last two elections (the local elections and the state election) that our voters are not confused," he said. "Their asking for this money to keep fighting a battle that is over."
Kaminski begged to differ. She said people have busy lives and even those who are generally well-informed and work with voters on a daily basis are frequently confused by the the law's requirements.
"We know voters who are tripped by the details of this law," she said. "They’re busy people and for one reason or another, they did not get to vote in this election."
Gannon said people should stop living with the past and move forward.
"Get over it," he said. "We don’t create laws and we don’t spend government money because you’re too busy to figure out how to vote."
Kaminski said the number of provisional ballots given for voters to cast in -- more than 400 -- is uncommon for the state of Wisconsin, especially when there are usually only about 10. A provisional ballot is offered if one is registered to vote, but don't have the required forms of documentation. Those who cast a provisional ballot have until the end of the week of the election date to submit all proper documents in order for their vote to count.
Gannon disagreed with Kaminski and said only 375 provisional were issued statewide out of the 2.5 million voters who voted in the primary election. He said out of the 375 provisional ballots given, 108 were counted. He said the small amount of those who were unable to figure out how to vote aren't worth making taxpayers pay $250,000.
"In a perfect world, we would spend tax payer dollars on the lowest common denominator for every excuse," he said. "You don’t have that opportunity with anything else that we pass laws on legislatively where we give you three days to cure their problem.”
While Gannon said he believes those who didn't vote was their own decision, Kaminski said that regardless of whether it was a choice or not, the framers of this law claimed they didn't want to prevent anyone from voting. Therefore, now is the time for them fund more education efforts, she said.
"Now is the time for those who supported this law to step up and show that they really don’t want to keep people from voting," she said. "This is their chance. Otherwise, it's rhetoric."
Gannon said the bottom line of this issue is that "Uncle Bucky is broke." He said he remains firm in his stance as he will only change his mind if it's proven to him that it's a serious issue for people to figure out how to vote in Wisconsin. He said there's currently no evidence to prove Wisconsin voters are confused.