Senate Bill 6 -- Voter ID bill information

Letter from Mary Lazich

Senate Democrats continued to abandon their legislative responsibilities by not attending the Senate floor sessions. However, the Senate was able to act on Senate Bill Six, the Voter ID bill, today, Thursday February 24, 2011. The Senate advanced the bill to a third reading, taking it beyond the amendment stage. Because there is a fiscal impact to the bill, specifically the cost associated with providing free IDs, the bill required a quorum for a final vote. Like the budget repair bill, all we need is one Democrat to come to the Capitol and we can approve the Voter ID bill.

The longer the Democrats continue to neglect their responsibilities as legislators, the more costly the Voter ID bill will become.

One of the main reasons the Indiana Voter ID law was found constitutional is that the state provided a program to educate citizens about the new requirement. Wisconsin Senate Bill Six saves the expense of a voter education program by providing a grace period during the April 2011 election. Voters will be asked to show identification at the time they vote. If voters do not provide an ID, they will still be allowed to vote. Poll workers will inform voters not providing an ID at the April election about the future requirement to provide photo ID.

If Democrats do not show up to vote on the bill, that means we will not be able to use the April election as the grace period to facilitate the education process. In that case, we would need to fund a multi-million dollar education program.

During 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter ID law. The court found the state’s interest in preventing voter fraud, modernizing elections and promoting public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process outweighed the limited burden upon voters’ rights. We closely studied the Indiana law and worked very hard to make sure these three constitutionally-tested interests are in Senate Bill Six. When this bill is finally signed into law, it will provide Wisconsin voters more confidence in the integrity of their elections and will not disenfranchise legitimate voters.


Mary Lazich
28th Senate District