I don't know Ruthelle Frank. But I do know that what is happening to her is enough to make my blood boil. Along with many other seniors, Ruthelle may lose the right to vote because she lacks a government-issued photo ID card.
Over the past year, GOP-controlled state houses have been passing what are known as Voter ID laws. Proponents say it is to cut down on voter fraud. Opponents say fraud of this nature is quite rare and that the true intent is to keep certain voters at home. According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, nationally about 18 percent of seniors and 25 percent of African-Americans do not have photo identification.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Ruthelle, of remote Brokaw WI (pop. 107), does not have a driver's license, and lacks a birth certificate needed to get a state identification card. She has a Social Security card, a Medicare card, and a baptism certificate. Even if she were to pay $20 to get a birth certificate, her maiden name was misspelled by the attending physician at her home birth. To rectify this, she would need to petition the court and pay a $200 fee. Ruthelle, an elected member of her Village Board since 1996, recently became a plaintiff in a law suit to block the new law, which was authored by Governor Scott Walker.
Voting laws vary by state, so please check with your state or local elections office for more details. Election laws and procedures can be very complicated, but as retiree activists I believe we have a moral responsibility to defend and educate our fellow seniors on such an important issue.
Our generation, like those who came before us, fought and died for the right to vote. We must never let politicians take this away.
Barbara J. Easterling is president of the Alliance for Retired Americans. She was previously the secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America. For more information, visit www.retiredamericans.org
Follow Barbara J. Easterling on Twitter: www.twitter.com/activeretirees
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http://elections.state.wi.us/docview.asp?docid=15150&locid=47
They accept the following forms of ID
A current and valid WI Driver License / ID Card
Any other official identification card or license issued by a Wisconsin governmental body or unit
An employee ID card with a photograph, but not a business card
A real property tax bill or receipt for the current year or the year preceding the date of the election
A residential lease (Does not count as proof of residence if elector submits form by mail)
A picture ID or fee card from a university, college or technical college
A utility bill for the period commencing not earlier than 90 days before the day registration is made
A bank statement
A paycheck
Also, the form is dated October 2008. The new law will require a revised form, which apparently hasn't been designed yet, or at least hasn't been posted to the state's web site.
The motive for this article is just as was stated: preventing certain groups of people from registering and voting.
If you don't like having to show an ID to vote, then let's make voter fraud a capital offence, since it strikes at the very heart of our Republic. Corrupting the election process is unacceptable at any level.
I'll give 100 to one odds that the author is a 'progressive' democrat.
Why are they called "the right". When so much of what they do is wrong?
Including, it now seems, taking away "rights" from others.
IMPO...........When only the Right has rights, the rest of us will have to settle....... for what's left.
My husband is in a nursing home. He doesn't drive, of course, and hasn't needed any ID beyond his SS and Medicare cards. He has a Medicare Part D card as well, but has never needed to show it.
I have no idea where his birth certificate is. I will have to send away for a copy of it - it costs somewhere between $25-$40. Unlike some people, I can afford to pay the fee. But the catch is that he then has to take that to the DMV to get the ID.
It now takes 4 hours at the DMV to get to the front of the line, as opposed to the 30 minutes it took before the rightwing governor slashed public service budgets. My husband and, I'm sure, many of the elderly and disabled, isn't physically able to sit for four hours. Does that mean he's not expected to be able to vote?
Others in his nursing home don't have someone to provide transportation for them, and would have to pay the nursing home $25 for the cost of transport, as well as paying for copies of birth certificates and marriage licenses (for women) if they don't have them. Then, there are those who, like my husband, can't sit for that long.
I'll add one thing that puzzles me in this state. We have a 75% Republican state House, 80% Republican state Senate, and zero Democrats in Congress. Is that not enough of a margin of victory for them? Or do they believe the state would be 99% Republican if not for all the illegal voters they're sure are out there?