Mary Spicuzza and Keegan Kyle

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Wisconsin's voter ID law caused problems at the polls in the city and likely contributed to lower voter turnout, Milwaukee's elections chief said Thursday.

The city saw a decline of some 41,000 voters in Tuesday's election compared with 2012, when President Barack Obama won broad support in Milwaukee and coasted to re-election.

"We saw some of the greatest declines were in the districts we projected would have the most trouble with voter ID requirements," said Neil Albrecht, executive director of the city's Election Commission.

A spokesman for Republican Gov. Scott Walker insisted that voter ID had not hurt voter turnout.

"Voter turnout in this year's presidential primary was the highest since 1972 with voter ID in place, so to now suggest turnout was down in the general election because of it is wrong," Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said. "We have made voting easy while ensuring it is hard to cheat. Lower turnout in the general election was true nationwide. It was not unique to Wisconsin or voter ID."

Far more voters typically participate in general elections compared with primaries.

Albrecht acknowledged that some of the drop-off in turnout had to do with the candidates and less enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

But he said that four districts of the city with the most "transient, high poverty" residents experienced trouble with people struggling to meet the photo identification requirement. Previously, those voters were able to have "corroborating witnesses" vouch for them at the polls.

ELECTION RESULTS: President and national | Wisconsin and Milwaukee | Wisconsin exit polls

"We had a lot of calls," Albrecht said. "There were college students with roommate situations or spouses where everything was in one spouse's name."

He said calls reporting problems came from both those trying to vote and officials at polling places.

Albrecht did not have statistics detailing how many voters were turned away at the polls because they didn't have the proper IDs.

He said he was especially concerned about those living in extreme poverty, and "how the law impacted their ability to vote."

Albrecht said some 116 provisional ballots were cast in the city, but added he believes that was only "the tip of the iceberg" in terms of people who faced obstacles at the polls.

The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin had 250 volunteers observing polls Tuesday, mostly in places that have historically had a high number of election day registrations, such as college campuses and urban communities.

Executive director Andrea Kaminski said the organization was continuing to review volunteer reports, but some voters lacking a proper ID were reportedly turned away without being presented provisional ballots.

“We definitely saw real people leaving. They were not offered a provision ballot and they should be,” Kaminski said. “Probably it was happening a lot more than we saw.”

People who don't have IDs with them can cast provisional ballots on election day. Their votes aren't counted unless they show their municipal clerk an ID by 4 p.m. on the Friday after the election.

Kaminski said some voters informed by observers of their right to a provisional ballot went back to polls and voted. As of Thursday, state election officials had tallied more than 680 provisional ballots statewide.

Kaminski said observers overall didn't see huge problems at the polls Tuesday, but she worries many voters never went because of ID requirements.

“How many people are like that?" she said. "Those are the people we can’t count."

Wisconsin’s voter ID law requires the state to give people free IDs for voting.

In ruling on a lawsuit brought by One Wisconsin Institute and Citizen Action of Wisconsin Education Fund, U.S. District Judge James Peterson in July found the state’s process for providing IDs to people who don’t have birth certificates violates voting rights. To fix it, the state has made changes by saying it would promptly provide temporary voting credentials to anyone who seeks them.