Madison -- Lawmakers plan to vote in May on a bill requiring photo ID at the polls, but before then Republicans have to work out differences on changes to absentee voting.

The Assembly version of the bill would allow people to get absentee ballots only for specific reasons, such as being out of town or disability. It would also limit in-person absentee voting in municipal clerks’ offices to the week before the election, down from the current 30 days before the election.

The Senate did not include those provisions on absentee voting in its version of the photo ID bill. Its author, Sen. Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan), said he did not know if he could support them.

“I’m not in full agreement with their proposal there,” Leibham said.

Republicans who run the Legislature have put the photo ID requirement as a top priority, and the two houses are largely in agreement on how to put that in place. Where they differ is on other changes to election laws included in the Assembly version of the bill.

Also being debated is when to implement the ID requirement. Both versions of the bill would go into effect in 2012, but lawmakers are discussing whether to move up the start date in anticipation of likely recall elections of senators of both parties.

“I want to get it into effect as soon as possible,” Leibham said.

But Leibham and the lead Assembly sponsor, Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale), said they understood they needed to allow time to educate the public about any changes and for people who don’t have IDs to get them.

“We know we have to have a reasonable educational effort that is made to make sure we don’t disenfranchise anyone,” Stone said.

Clerks testifying Wednesday before the Assembly Committee on Elections and Campaign Reform cautioned that lawmakers needed to give people time before imposing the requirement.

“If you implement this in a month or two, a lot of people are going to say, ‘I didn’t hear about it,’” said Diane Herman-Brown, the Sun Prairie city clerk and president of the Wisconsin Municipal Clerks Association.

Republicans on the committee said the bill would reduce voter fraud and restore confidence in elections. Democrats decried the measure, saying it would do nothing to stop fraud but would disenfranchise poor, minority and elderly people.

The measure could prevent people from voting in another’s name, but not the most common form of voter fraud – felons voting while on state supervision.

The state Department of Justice and Milwaukee County district attorney’s office have prosecuted 20 cases of voter fraud from the November 2008 election. None involve people voting in someone else’s name at the polls.

The bills also leave in place the state law that allows people to register at the polls. Some Republicans have said they want to eliminate or modify that law.

If enacted, legal challenges are likely. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s photo ID law in 2008, but the measure in Wisconsin differs from Indiana’s law in some ways.

Under the bills being considered, voters would have to show a Wisconsin driver’s license, a state-issued ID card, a military ID, passport or naturalization certificate.

IDs from University of Wisconsin schools and other colleges could not be used to vote. If the state doesn’t allow student IDs, Wisconsin’s photo ID requirement would be the strictest in the country, said Andrea Kaminski, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin.

Eight states ask voters for photo ID, and Kansas has a new photo ID law that will go into effect in January, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=16602

Another 18 require voters to show an ID, but not necessarily one with a photo. That number will rise to 19 in July, when Oklahoma’s law takes effect.

And like Wisconsin, other states are now debating adopting photo ID laws.

The Assembly bill would cost $2.7 million a year because the state would provide free IDs – but not driver’s licenses – to those who requested them, to ensure the ID requirement is not a poll tax.

Another $2.1 million would be needed for the Government Accountability Board, which runs state elections.

Those living in nursing homes, retirement homes and the like would be exempt from the law if special registration deputies are sent to their facilities. Voters would also be exempt if they were victims of stalking or opposed having their photos taken on religious grounds.



A voter who did not show a photo ID would be allowed to cast a provisional ballot that would be counted if the voter showed photo ID to an election clerk by the Friday after the election.

Voters would have to sign poll books when they voted. That measure is meant to deter fraud and help prosecutors identify instances in which someone voted in another’s name.

The bill would end the state's practice of allowing a voter to vouch for someone who did not have appropriate documents when registering at the polls.

That provision drew protests from Sara Ludtke, a deputy clerk in Middleton. She said many women cannot prove their residence on their own because utility bills are in their husband’s names.

The Assembly bill would also:

-- Move the partisan primary from the second Tuesday in September to the second Tuesday in August. That change is being made to ensure Wisconsin complies with a federal law meant to ensure military and overseas voters have enough time to receive and return their ballots.

Leibham said he supported including that change in the bill.

-- End straight party ticket voting for all voters except military and overseas voters. Leibham said he could support that.

-- Require voters to live in their residence for 28 days before election day – up from 10 – to vote from their polling place. A similar provision is in the Senate bill.

The Senate took up its version of the bill in February, but did not give it final approval. Republicans plan to take it up again in May, according to a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau). The Assembly also plans to take up its bill in May.