(C) Common Dreams
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Republicans raise concern about noncitizens using ID cards to vote [1]
['Adam Kelnhofer', 'Wisconsin State Journal']
Date: 2024-05
Republican lawmakers are looking to tighten rules around obtaining Wisconsin ID cards to make it harder for noncitizens to vote. But at a hearing Thursday, Democrats argued the GOP concerns are overblown, noting there is little evidence there’s a problem in Wisconsin.
The GOP chairs of the Senate and Assembly elections committees made the comments at an informational hearing on ID cards available to noncitizens, saying some might use the credentials to vote illegally.
Sen. Dan Knodl, who chairs the Senate Shared Revenue, Elections and Consumer Protection Committee, said he’s concerned there isn’t enough clear information on state ID cards and driver’s licenses for clerks to quickly determine whether someone is not a citizen and therefore ineligible to vote. Driver’s licenses in Wisconsin only note whether someone is only a temporary or limited term resident.
“And I’m looking from a clerk’s perspective,” the Germantown Republican said. “A clerk gets this card, an ID card for voting. There’s no indication to that clerk that this could be noncitizen.”
The hearing comes a little more than a week after Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson joined former President Donald Trump in announcing Republicans’ plan to introduce legislation at the federal level to increase proof of citizenship requirements to register to vote.
At Thursday’s hearing, state Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary Christina Boardman said the department can only put on the card what state and federal law allows. Adding a note that the cardholder is ineligible to vote would require a law change, she said.
“We should do a bill,” Assembly Campaigns and Elections Chair Rep. Scott Krug, R-Nekoosa, said.
“We are endeavoring to do just that, and we’re not getting assistance in the East Wing,” Knodl replied, referring to the governor’s office.
Boardman said there have been 23 instances in which people accused of fraudulently requesting voting IDs in the last 10 years were referred to law enforcement for more investigation. But only nine of those people received documents that would have allowed them to register to vote, while the department detected fraud in the 14 other cases before any documents were issued.
While DOT has a database of the nearly 90,000 Wisconsinites who are noncitizen residents with driver’s licenses or other forms of ID, Boardman said the department is barred by federal law from sharing that information with the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
‘Votes still count’
Krug said he was going to “make it my mission this summer” to figure out a way to get state agencies to share information to help ensure noncitizens don’t vote.
Rep. Lee Snodgrass, D-Appleton, questioned the scale of the problem and why noncitizens would even try to vote.
“I’m trying to wrap my brain around what people think the motivation would be for a noncitizen to go through an enormous amount of hassle to actively commit a felony to vote in an election that’s going to end up putting them in prison or be deported,” she said.
Krug said it’s a concern he’s heard from people around the state and noted some local elections are decided by just one vote.
“Because the votes still count,” he said. “You can’t take that vote out. We have a one-seat change in any election somewhere and one person got through the system that shouldn’t have, that’s a big deal in some communities. That’s something we have to deal with.”
More data sought
Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney said his office has only seen a handful of voter fraud cases and speculated the number of noncitizens voting illegally is likely even smaller.
“I’m guessing that it’s very little, and I’m guessing it’s very little just based on some of the numbers that we heard today,” he said.
But Toney also said it’s something he would like to see more data on before passing judgment. The voter fraud cases he has handled have involved things like felons who were ineligible to vote or residents registering a post office box as their address, he said.
“So when we look at the type of election fraud that I see in Fond du Lac County, it’s very minimal,” he said. “It would not have changed the results of any election, but it has a greater possibility of doing that when we’re looking at local elections. And that’s why it’s so important.”
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[1] Url:
https://madison.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/wisconsin-republicans-state-id-cards-noncitizen-voting/article_a97995dc-1393-11ef-9a26-431a18cd7cde.html
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