Paul Swansen (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Series: Voter ID In Wisconsin

With the passage of Act 23 in 2011, Wisconsin joined a nationwide push by Republican-controlled state governments to require voters show photo ID at the polls in order to cast a ballot. Supporters of the law say it serves a protection against voter impersonation at any frequency, but have offered little specific evidence of this type of fraud being a problem. Multiple lawsuits at the state and federal level have challenged the law on constitutional grounds, with opponents saying it is an attempt to discourage voting among African Americans, college students and the elderly. The status of these court challenges has led to years of uncertainty over when the law would actually be in effect, how it would be enforced, and how the state would help voters who didn't already have photo ID comply.
 
The 2016 presidential election marked the first for which Wisconsin's voter ID rule in place, and turnout hit record lows. UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs professor Ken Mayer will study turnout in Milwaukee and Madison to learn more about the requirement's role in elections.
Wisconsin's April 5 presidential primary and supreme court election will be one of the state's first requiring all voters to present a photo I.D. Dodge County Clerk Karen Gibson identified what forms of I.D. are acceptable.
State law requiring voters to provide identification will be in effect for the spring 2016 primary election in Wisconsin. What types of ID are accepted by poll workers?
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A survey of voters in Madison and Milwaukee found thousands of people were deterred from the polls by Wisconsin's voter ID law. UW-Madison political science professor Ken Mayer describes who these voters are.
Voter ID tarot
Wisconsinites are hearing some familiar arguments lately about a pending change in the state's election law, with proponents saying it will streamline the democratic process in Wisconsin and others saying it will undermine low-income and minority voters. No, this change is not about Wisconsin's voter ID law.
Todd Allbaugh
Wisconsin's April 5 election instigated two notable media blowups over the state's voter ID law.
Wisconsin's voter-ID requirements, signed into law in 2011 as Act 23, is a signature agenda item for Gov. Scott Walker and the state legislature's Republican majority. But its passage set off more than five years of wrangling in the courts — a struggle that has yet to be settled.
The evolution of Wisconsin's voter ID law from 2011 until today is vastly complicated: a series of court challenges, appeals, decisions implemented and decisions halted or postponed.
In a study commissioned by the Dane County Clerk that was released Sept. 25, 2017, University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Kenneth Mayer found that the state's voter ID law did keep significant numbers of people from voting in Dane and Milwaukee counties in the November 2016 election.
To understand why moving a couple of DMV locations in Madison would cause outcry, it helps to understand some of the finer points of getting around in Wisconsin's capital and second-most populous city.