Voter ID would have made June 5 election a disaster

I worked the polls on June 5.

And I can state as an empirical fact [from conversations alone with numerous voters asking questions] that had the Republicans' unconstitutional voter ID law been in effect on June 5, the resulting confusion, frustration and obstruction would have resulted in many voters not casting their votes in high turn-out wards, or being turned away.

This is precisely part of what Republicans wish for, especially among those pesky Milwaukee blacks and other minorities showing up at the polls trying to pass themselves off as good Americans. What nerve.

The 7:00 A.M. - in-line-by-8:00 P.M. polling place hours experienced presidential-level turn-out that kept staff very busy over 14-hour shifts.

Had each voter been asked for a voter ID—Republicans ludicrously claim that 10,000s of voter impersonations occur each election in Wisconsin—the checking of only GOP-approved IDs [no VA cards] for date, name, and picture verification would have added some 45 seconds for each voter.

Multiply that by some 2,100 voters and then compound the time and a hectic, under-staffed polling place becomes ultra-hectic and dysfunctional.

Joe-down-the-street, registered and voting for decades showing up at the polls ... sorry, Joe: You cannot voter without GOP-approved ID, the GOP's new constitutional qualification for your fundamental right.

Republicans kept up their voter fraud nonsense—repeated without facts by the dumb-downed Wisconsin press—up to the weekend before June 5 and of course after the election.

"State Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, who represents the Waterford area ... said if voter ID had been in place she thinks voters would have been able to have more confidence in their votes [in a major race changing party control of the state senate], without disenfranchising anyone." (Jones. Racine Journal-Times, June 12)

Watch for the word "confidence" to be repeated many times between now and November.

"Chaos," "obstruction" and "voter impersonation" not so much.

Reporter Stephanie Jones repeats the Lazich lie without insertion of facts knocking down the fabrication; and another GOP lie gets free coverage from writers apparently as dumb as Jones who leaves the "without disenfranchising anyone" nonsense to stand alone.

The GOP lies continue, as the story of a major political party trying to halt legal voters from voting in Wisconsin goes uncovered as a scandal.

GOP misleading voters on voter impersonation and voter ID should be an ongoing story in a healthy democracy.