Two reports released this week — one focusing on Wisconsin and one on Latino voters across the nation — show the serious impact voter ID laws and other restrictions could have on voter participation in this November’s general election.
The Latino advocacy group NALEO published a study Wednesday estimating that more than 875,000 Latino voters could face difficulty voting in 2016. The group also noted that the states with the fastest growth in their Latino populations, including Alabama and North Carolina, were also the ones to pass new restrictive laws that could suppress voters of color. Many of these changes were made possible by the Supreme Court decision striking down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, and by Congress’ refusal to hold a vote to restore its federal protections.
Another report unveiled this week by the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin documented hundreds of voters unable to register to vote or cast a ballot in Wisconsin’s April 5 presidential primary because of confusion surrounding the state’s new restrictive election laws. Those hit hardest, said the League of Women Voters’ Andrea Kaminski, were students.
“Wisconsin lawmakers really made it difficult for students to vote, and students really took a hit this year,” she told ThinkProgress. “There were long lines to register, long lines to vote, and long lines for students to get the kind of ID they need.”
Wisconsin Is Making It Harder For Students To Vote. Now They’re Fighting Back.Politics by CREDIT: Alice Ollstein MADISON, WISCONSIN – Tuesday’s presidential primary will the first in Wisconsin’s…thinkprogress.orgUnder the voter ID law Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed in 2011, the vast majority of student IDs from the state’s colleges and universities can’t be used for voting, and students who lacked another form of ID had to obtain an additional card from a campus office. Some campuses offered no compliant IDs at all. The law also required students to bring additional documents to the polls, including proof of enrollment, that were not required of other voters. These provisions, combined with high voter turnout, forced some Wisconsin students to wait more than two hours to cast a ballot.
“Our observers did document students leaving the lines,” Kaminski said. “And they don’t know if they came back.”
Another factor that negatively impacted both students and other voters in Wisconsin is the complete lack of an education campaign for the voter ID law. Other states have spent millions informing residents about new voting requirements, and Wisconsin’s elections agency has already prepared TV, radio, and print ads for that purpose and requested a quarter of a million dollars to distribute them. But the Republican-controlled legislature has so far refused to approve those funds.
The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, in observing more than 200 polling places, witnessed the fallout from this lack of information.
At least 183 people were turned away from registration for lack of proper documents. Over 300 individuals were not able to register or vote for lack of proof of residence. And at 32 polling sites, observers noted confusion among election officials themselves about whether or not a current address was supposed to be on a voter’s ID.
“Our election observers found in locations around the state confusion on the part of both voters and election officials of what constitutes proof of residency and voter ID,” Kaminski said. “A number of the examples we saw of people not having the right ID could have been avoided if more people understood the law. They would have been better prepared and may have been able to vote with a regular ballot.”
In response to lawsuits from voters arguing the state’s laws are unconstitutionally burdensome, Gov. Walker approved an emergency change this week that will allow residents to present receipts from the DMV as voter ID, if they are unable to obtain the ID itself in time for election day. Kaminiski and other voting rights advocates say they’re concerned these changes so close to a major election will only add to the state of confusion. A federal trial challenging the law begins on Monday.
Voting rights groups predict these problems will be much worse this November. An estimated one million more Wisconsin voters are expected to head to the polls, according to the state’s Government Accountability Board. That board, which has managed the state’s elections for more than a decade, will also be abolished in June, thanks to another law signed by Gov. Walker to replace it with two partisan commissions.
“We think this change is unconscionable in the middle of an election,” Kaminski said. “It’s going to cause confusion. Who is going to make sure those officials get trained? We hope that the new elections commission will do it, but since they’re in transition, who knows? I’ve been told the agency will be modeled on the Federal Elections Commission, which is often deadlocked to the point of being completely dysfunctional. It doesn’t bode well.”