i should be a fan

Published on: 11/24/2012

I should be in support of Governor Walker's plan to eliminate same day voter registration. Ward 18 at St. Mary's had over 400 registrants, 40% of in-person voters, on Nov. 6th which produced a constant long line throughout the day.

I found new registration difficult for some students living off campus who didn't have any bills in their name with their address or didn't have it with them, and for those students who had a WI drivers license but didn't know the number and expiration date. Allowing the viewing of electronic instead of paper copies helped a little, but was used in just a very few cases.

One thing that we could've utilized a lot better is the phone number for the WI DMV. There were more students not knowing their WI driver licence number and expiration date than those using electronic proof of residence. You'd think we wouldn't have had to rely on an observer for that piece of information. We could've done a ton of paperwork and the student would have had to make a special trip to City Hall within three days after voting provisionally, or they could've just called the number to get what they needed the first time. You'd think we, the poll workers, would've been provided that phone number?

As difficult as same day registration is during presidential elections I will continue to support it. I agree with today's Journal Sentinel editorial that Wisconsin should continue to make it easy for people to vote. In a related article, Milwaukee records 19% of voters were same day registrants with highest ward, Ward 130 in the Marquette neighborhood, recording over 700 new registrants!

Seeing the hours or days-long lines, out in the cold, these last several days leading up to Black Friday I no longer feel as bad about our Ward 18 voters in their hour and a half line... indoors!