Sep 16, 2014

After Fourteen Days by Mail, Complain When You Cannot Vote in Wisconsin

Update: ACLU-Wisconsin and The Advancement Project announce filing for an en banc (full court) appellate hearing to "protect the voting rights of Wisconsin citizens" amid massive confusion.
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Dial (608) 266-2353 of the Wisconsin DMV, press 3; then long phone-answering tree, then this recording: "If you are waiting for a driver license or identification card to arrive through the mail and it has been at least 14 days since you applied, press one now."

Fourteen days.

That means you have 21 legal days (assuming Jewish Holidays and Halloween are not legal holidays, fair assumption) left before Election Day to get a free a Wisconsin Photo Voter ID mailed to you from California.

Twenty-one days for some 300,000 residents.

Sounds like an undue burden when only one DMV office is open on weekends, and most DMV centers are part-time. According to an amicus brief filed by One Wisconsin Now (in a state case):
41 [DMVs] are open just two days each week, seven are open just a few hours for one day each month, and three are open just one day every quarter.… Only one DMV service center in the entire state of Wisconsin is open on a Saturday. No other DMV in the entire state operates in the evenings or on weekends ...

 If the 330,000 electors [without ID] attempted to obtain their ID during the one-month period preceding the election, the DMV would need to process on average 37 eligible electors each hour, every day of operation for the entire month. (cited by Berman)
Today, Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board (GAB) will meet with reporters discuss how they will implement the state's voter I.D. law.

Don't look for a GAB statement saying this is an undue burden and that eligible voters will be disenfranchised. Attorney Mike Haas may be a nice guy but he suffers from spaghetti spine, not a great condition for the Elections Division Administrator of the GAB.

We need an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court from lawyers with a belly, and a spine.

You see if I were in Mr. Haas' position I would issue a public statement that Scott Walker and the Republican Party are trying to stop eligible Wisconsin citizens from voting aided by an oppressive Republican-appointed federal judges who (still seems incredible) order Voter ID reinstated with just 23 legal days to go, 21 now and counting down.

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