Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Senator Lazich Renews Call for Photo ID

MADISON – State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) is calling for Wisconsin to implement a photo ID requirement for voting, following the release of an audit by the Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB).

Lazich says the first of several recommendations by the LAB is that “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 a driver’s license or state-issued photo ID?” said Lazich. “The message from the outstanding analysis of the Audit Bureau couldn’t be clearer: Wisconsin needs to approve a photo ID requirement as soon as possible.”

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,” said Lazich.

The audit found that the statewide voter registration system 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,” said Lazich. “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,” said Lazich. “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.”