GOP considers voter ID amendment push
Lengthy process would avoid near-certain veto
MADISON – Assembly Republicans are considering tightening Wisconsin’s voter ID law by amending the state constitution — an approach that would take years but allow them to avoid a veto from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
The proposal is one of several Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is thinking about as he considers changes to voting laws. No final decisions have been made on what to do, the Rochester Republican said in an interview.
Republicans who control the Legislature for months have been looking into ways to restrict a law that allows people who say they are confined to their homes to vote absentee without first placing a copy of their ID on file with their municipal clerk.
Advocates for the elderly and disabled have said the policy is essential to ensuring the most vulnerable voters in the state can cast ballots. Republicans have said they believe the indefinitely confined law is being abused because so many more people took advantage of it during the coronavirus pandemic last year.
Republicans have compiled other ideas for changing election laws, such as requiring felons to pay all fines before they can have their voting rights restored. They’ve also discussed requiring the bipartisan state Elections Commission — instead of just the chairperson — sign off on the certification of presidential votes, according to a list of initial proposals put together by Vos’s staff.
“I’m not going to say they’re all great ideas. I’m not going to say they’re bad. I just I don’t know,” Vos said in the interview.
State’s voter ID law
Under the voter ID law Republicans adopted a decade ago, most voters must show a photo ID every time they vote at the polls and the first time they request an absentee ballot. They included an exception for absentee voters who are indefinitely confined to protect the law from legal challenges.
The approach worked and courts repeatedly upheld the heart of the state’s voter ID law through multiple challenges. (Courts ordered some changes to the law, such as by changing the process for getting free IDs to those who have the most difficulty obtaining them.)
Last year, about 215,000 voters called themselves indefinitely confined. That’s a nearly four-fold increase over 2016 when about 57,000 identified themselves that way.
Republicans passed legislation this summer that would have required confined voters to produce IDs to get absentee ballots in most cases. Evers quickly vetoed it.
Vos said one way to address the issue would be to adopt an amendment to the state constitution — a move governors can’t block.
“The only other way that we can guarantee that the people have a right to have a say, and they’re kind of the final arbitrator, is to put a constitution together that clarifies exactly what voter ID would be, how it would work,” he said.
Amendments must be approved by the Legislature in two consecutive legislative sessions and then by voters in a referendum. If lawmakers acted this session, the soonest the issue could go to voters is 2023.
Random audits of confined voters considered
Vos also raised the idea of performing random audits after elections to determine whether a sampling of indefinitely confined voters were actually confined.
Vos said the concept hasn’t been fleshed out enough to determine how it
would work but could include mailing postcards to voters to have them confirm their status. The audits could also consist of having people check on voters, Vos said. He said he did not want to make the process onerous.
Barbara Beckert, director of the Milwaukee office of Disability Rights Wisconsin, said she feared a constitutional amendment could be written in a way that would make it difficult or impossible for some disabled voters to cast ballots.
The indefinitely confined law is “a key safeguard to ensure that a lot of voters with disabilities, older adults and chronically ill voters can cast a ballot,” she said. “And that provision is critically important to these individuals to give them the ability to participate in the electoral system.”
She said she was open to audits of indefinitely confined voting, depending on how they were structured. Sending postcards might not work because they sometimes get overlooked or don’t make it to their intended recipients at group homes, she said. Any audit should protect people’s private medical information, she said.
Beckert would like to change the phrasing in state law so that the elderly and disabled are designated as permanent absentee voters rather than as indefinitely confined.
The current term can cause confusion for voters who wrongly believe they qualify only if they can never leave their homes, Beckert said. The law allows people to call themselves indefinitely confined if they have difficulty getting to the polls because of age, disability or illness.
Concerns for voters with disabilities
Beckert said lawmakers need to make sure they accommodate all types of disabilities. She noted that some people with multiple sclerosis can get out of their homes easily on some days but not on others — and it’s impossible for them to know in advance what their capabilities will be on Election Day.
Rep. Mark Spreitzer, a Beloit Democrat who sits on the Assembly Elections Committee, said he feared audits would prompt opponents of the indefinitely confined law to scrutinize the social media feeds of indefinitely confined voters to try to determine if their movements are actually limited.
Spreitzer said he hoped voters would reject a constitutional amendment on voter ID if it is too strict.
“If they want to pass a no-exceptions voter ID law, I think that will be challenged in the courts as something that creates a burden on the right to vote for certain populations,” Spreitzer said.
Vos said he is making no decisions on what legislation to advance until he sees what comes out of two reviews of the 2020 election. One is being conducted by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau and the other is being done for Assembly Republicans by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman.
“I don’t want to prejudge and say, ‘OK, here are my 10 ideas to fix the problem’ until I actually understand the breadth the depth and have an understanding of what the actual investigations by both entities discovered,” Vos said.
Election experts have said the presidential election ran smoothly despite the challenges of the pandemic. Democrats have contended Republicans are conducting their reviews to justify voting restrictions.
Wisconsin allows felons to vote as soon as they complete their sentences, including probation and parole. One idea Republicans are considering would bar them from voting until they pay all fines.
Republicans are also considering requiring a two-thirds vote by the Elections Commission to approve presidential results. Now, only the chairperson of the commission confirms the results.
The commission consists of three Republicans and three Democrats.
Last year’s results were confirmed by Chairwoman Ann Jacobs, a Democrat. Courts upheld results showing Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in Wisconsin.
Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.