BartBlog

Author’s note:
The voter ID law in WI is an issue that applies to everyone in the U.S., because this is an assault on your rights. Laws like this have been passed in a number of states across the nation, including Georgia, Tennessee, Kansas, Texas and, most recently, Wisconsin. Not only is it unconstitutional to deprive law-abiding citizens of the right to vote, partisan to target the Democratic demographic, but it also disturbing proof of political corruption and banker control over our country. Be sure to check out the video and always read the BRAD BLOG.

Excerpt:

“This is what voter suppression looks like.”

Those are the words posted in the final title card of a video uploaded on You Tube on July 23rd by a Madison woman identified as Nicole (a.k.a. “madtowngirl2”). Click on it at the lower left and prepare for a good example of the destruction of democracy in Wisconsin.

Nicole captured some of the most blatant and disturbing proof of voter suppression, government control and banker corruption to ever come out of the Badger State.

In the process of attempting to obtain a “voter ID” for her son that will be required for voting in 2012, Nicole discovered that the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has the ability to refuse issuance of the ID if the bank account of the individual does not show enough “activity.”

Nicole’s son’s right under the new statute, ostensibly, is to be able to obtain an ID free of charge after meeting the flowing requirements:

• Proof of name and date of birth, for example, a certified U.S. birth certificate, valid passport or certificate of naturalization.
• Proof of identity (usually a document with a signature or photo).
• Proof of Wisconsin residency, such as through a utility bill.
• Proof of U.S. citizenship, legal permanent resident status, legal conditional resident status or legal temporary visitor status.
• A social security number.

At first Nicole was told the charge for the supposedly-free ID would be $28, and that was only after she convinced a clerk that there had been enough “activity” in her son’s bank account, as used by the clerk to determine whether or not he actually resided in the state.

The $28 fee that citizens are charged to get their ID in the first place is yet another maddening hurdle that Wisconsin voters will face under the new law. That is unless they happen to know the secret password, or check the right box, in order to get one for free, as they are entitled to according to the new law. (See slideshow).

That is for a legal voter who is an affluent resident. As Nicole’s interview with another clerk in the video suggests, homeless people, those residing with others who do not have bills or bank accounts in their name, those who do not already have drivers licenses, or students who are part-time residents should more or less forget about being able to vote at all under the new law.

Making matters even worse, Gov. Scott Walker is now working to make it more difficult for Wisconsinites who do not have a state-issued photo ID to get one at the DMV.

Ian Millhiser writing for Think Progress points out that the Walker administration is now finalizing a plan to limit the operational hours for DMVs in Democratic areas of the state, while (surprise, surprise!) extending hours in some Republican districts.

According to a 2005 study (PDF file) by John Pawasarat of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Employment and Training Institute, described as “a first-time analysis of drivers license issues based on the racial/ethnicity of drivers and unlicensed adults in Wisconsin,” it is not just homeless people who are likely to have trouble voting when the voter ID law takes full effect in 2012.

At the time of the study an estimated 23 per cent of persons aged 65 and over did not have a Wisconsin driver’s license or a photo ID. The population of elderly persons 65 and older without a driver’s license or a state photo ID totaled 177,399, and of these 70 percent are women. An estimated 98,247 Wisconsin residents ages 35 through 64 also did not have either a driver’s license or a photo ID. At UWM, Marquette University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, out of a total of 12,624 students living in residence halls, only 280 (2 per cent) had driver’s licenses with these dorms’ addresses.

The elderly, ethnic minorities, and the state’s sizable college population, therefore, are among those likely to be hardest hit. Not coincidentally, all are demographics who tend to lean Democratic in the state of Wisconsin and other states where such laws are also being implemented.

Partisan politics aside, forcing Americans to do anything except be a law abiding citizen in order to vote is completely unconstitutional and harkens to the backwards days where only white, landowning males could vote in many states.

Thanks to the current administration in the Madison capitol, the state of Wisconsin – formerly considered progressive – can now be called regressive as citizen’s rights in the new state of Fitzwalkerstan continue to be stripped.

Read more, get links, see video and a look at the fascist DMV form in WI here: Madison Independent Examiner – Video reveals hurdles in WI voter ID law