Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Voter Disenfranchisement Alert !

A co-worker went to vote on the referendum in Mequon and was asked to, please sit down and brace yourself, photo id ! When he didn't have it, they would not let him vote! He had to go home and get it! When asked why he was "marked" as having to show id, he was told that the State Elections Board required it because he had an "old form" of registration. The city clerk's office was unable to explain what distinguished an old registration from a new one and why the difference it could not explain required photo identification.

Of course,he was voting for the referendum. Welcome to George Bush's America, man!

Update: The city says that the request was required for implementation of the Statewide Voter Registration System mandated by the Helping America Vote Act. Apparently, they need to have your driver's license number or, if you don't have a license, the last four digits of your social security number. They say you'll never be asked again which makes the value of the whole exercise a bit wispy.
I wonder if anyone will think to look at the numbers and try to determine how many people who actually vote lack ID?

5 comments:

steveegg said...

I assume that it was just a short walk for your co-worker because it would be illegal for him to be driving around without a specific type of photo ID on his person.

Rick Esenberg said...

Its Mequon. You can't walk anywhere.

steveegg said...

Then what was he doing without his driver's license? Those suburban police officers just love to pull people over for any little thing, and they don't take American Express :-)

Dad29 said...

Interesting. A friend of mine (and NOT a colleague of yours) had the same problem.

BTW, his wife drove to the polls with him as passenger. My friends never do anything illegal, unlike...

Ahhh, let's not.

Anonymous said...

At 7:25 am I stopped at Lake Shore Middle school to vote and both my name and my wifes name were flagged with the comment, ID Required. They asked for my dl. I asked why? They didn't know. I waited until 8:00 and called the Mequon city clerk, she referred me to Oz County clerk. She said it was state law that I had to show a DL or if I didn't have one, to give the last four digits of my SSN. When pressed, she said it was state law that if I had not updated my registration, ID was required. I knew better, but why argue with her. I went back to the polls at 6:00 to vote and althought the flag was still by my name, they asked for nothing. Sometime during the day, something changed. Justin Strom, Mequon