SHARE Poll Should voters be required to show photo ID at the polls? Yes No vote View Results Yes: 72% No: 28% Total Responses: 7013

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Madison — Republicans plan a two-pronged approach to require voters to show photo identification at the polls, with the quick passage of a bill followed by an attempt to amend the Wisconsin Constitution that would make it difficult to undo the ID requirement.

"Photo ID is really going to be the foundation of ensuring fair and accurate elections," said Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale).

Stone and Sen. Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan) introduced their bill Wednesday. They said they will also take steps to amend the state constitution, a years-long process that would require the measure to be approved in this legislative session, again in the session that starts in January 2013, and then by voters in a statewide referendum.

By changing the constitution, they could lock in the photo ID requirement and make it difficult for Democrats to eliminate.

Republicans who control the Legislature argue that requiring photo ID at the polls is a common-sense way to stop voter fraud. Democrats say there is no evidence of widespread fraud and such a measure will make it harder for some people to vote.

"What this bill is going to do is make it harder for legitimate voters to vote," said Rep. Joe Parisi (D-Madison).

Parisi, who ran elections when he was Dane County clerk, said the changes would make the jobs of poll workers more difficult. He argued that a photo ID requirement would encounter constitutional challenges because large numbers of African-Americans in Milwaukee do not have driver's licenses.

Kevin Kennedy, director of the state Government Accountability Board, said about 20 people were charged with voter fraud after the 2008 election. Most of them were instances of felons voting while still on state supervision.

The state's voter database in recent years has provided the tools to identify and prosecute those who commit fraud, said Kennedy, whose board is in charge of elections. Fraud can sway elections only in cases where it is done by a group in a concerted way to affect numerous votes, and prosecutors have never found any evidence of that, Kennedy said.

But a photo ID requirement would boost public confidence in state elections, he said.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who wrote a photo ID bill when he was in the Assembly, said this week that there is a push to act quickly on the bill so it can be in place for the April 5 election, which includes state Supreme Court and local races.

"I'd sign that, presuming it gets to my desk, and my guess would be it will come up relatively soon through the Legislature, just because I think there's a fair number of people that would like to have that in place by the spring election," Walker said Tuesday at an event sponsored by the Wisconsin Bankers Association.

Time constraints

Leibham said he did not know whether the new requirement could be in place that quickly because of changes that local clerks would need to make to their practices.

"I respect the fact it may be logistically infeasible" for the April 5 election, he said.

Oklahoma will become the ninth state to require photo ID of voters when its law takes effect later this year. An additional 18 states require voters to show some form of ID, but it does not have to include a photo, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Wisconsin's photo ID requirements would be among the strictest in the country. All but two states with photo ID requirements - Indiana and Georgia - allow voters to cast ballots without showing IDs if they sign affidavits, according to the Pew Center on the States. The bill here is modeled on Indiana's law, Leibham said.

The bill would allow most voters to get ballots only after presenting a Wisconsin driver's license, Wisconsin ID card or military ID card. The IDs would need to be valid, but they would not need to have a current address.

Voters would be able to get free identification cards from the state, but they would still have to pay for driver's licenses. Free IDs are included in the bill to avoid court challenges that would call the ID requirement a poll tax.

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.

Those who do not show a photo ID would be allowed to cast provisional ballots. If the voter showed identification by 4 p.m. the following day, the provisional ballot would be counted.

Voter registration

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), an avid supporter of the photo ID requirement, said lawmakers are debating whether to move rapidly on photo ID or wait to develop a larger elections package that could include eliminating election-day registration.

Wisconsin is one of nine states that allow voters to register at the polls, which observers credit with boosting voter turnout.

Momentum is building among Republicans to eliminate the practice. Leibham said he supports getting rid of it, and Stone said he is open to the idea.

"Voting's a right, but there's also a responsibility to voting," Leibham said.

Kennedy, the director of the state's elections board, said eliminating election-day registration would be a mistake. Because Wisconsin allows such registration, the state is exempt from a federal law requiring states to allow people to register to vote at motor vehicle centers and welfare offices.

That federal law would kick into effect if election-day registration is repealed, driving up state costs, Kennedy said.

Leibham and Stone said they understood the photo ID requirement could be included in a broader package of election reforms, but said they would prefer to deal with it in stand-alone legislation.

With large GOP majorities in both houses, the bill on photo ID is expected to pass easily. But Scot Ross, executive director of the group One Wisconsin Now, said he would consider filing a lawsuit once the Legislature acts, over concerns that the requirement would infringe on the right to vote.

The U.S. Supreme Court found Indiana's law was constitutional, but a judge would have to weigh the specifics of Wisconsin's law if a lawsuit were filed here.