One Wisconsin Now Statements on JFC Voter ID Funds

MADISON, Wis. — One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross released the following statements regarding the Joint Finance Committee action on $10 million in funds for additional Department of Motor Vehicle funds related to the voter suppression plan.

“The amount of funding is woefully inadequate to ensure Wisconsin can properly administer the currently-unconstitutional Voter ID plan. I challenge anyone to find an instance where one of these Republicans told Wisconsin that they would be spending nearly $20 million for Voter ID. They promised us jobs, but instead have given us tax breaks for the rich and big business, drastic cuts to public education and technical colleges and hiking taxes by $51 million on the working poor. This latest nearly-$20 million boondoggle is just the latest lie from Republicans to the people of Wisconsin.”

Statistics about Wisconsin lack of accessible DMVs compared to Indiana:

• Twenty-six percent of Wisconsin’s 91 DMVs are open one day a month or less, while none of Indiana’s are open less than 100 days a year and nearly all are open over 250 days a year.
• Wisconsin has only one DMV with weekend hours, while Indiana has 124 offices with weekend hours.
• Three Wisconsin counties have no DMVs, no Indiana county is without a DMV.
• Over half of Wisconsin’s 91 DMVs are open on a part-time basis, while Indiana provides full-time DMVs in every county.

Republican claims of widespread voter irregularity have long been debunked. After a two-year investigation, Republican Attorney General JB Van Hollen has found only 11 potentially-improper votes cast out of nearly 3 million votes in 2008. Former Wisconsin U.S. Attorney under George W. Bush, Steve Biskupic concluded after a similar investigation there was no widespread voter fraud. The majority of charges in all of these cases involved felons who were technically ineligible to vote.