From Myra Enloe

Dodgeville

To the Editor:

The April 2025 ballot question reads: “Photographic identification for voting. Shall section 1m of article III of the constitution be created to require that voters present valid photographic identification verifying their identity in order to vote in any election, subject to exceptions which may be established by law?”

Why Vote NO:

●  It disenfranchises eligible voters who may not have nor can easily obtain a photo ID — voters with disabilities, elderly Wisconsinites, students and first-time voters, low-income and unhoused voters, and Native, Black and Latino voters.  

●  It’s a solution in search of a problem. Voter impersonation (the only type of voter fraud photo ID can prevent) is exceedingly rare — 0.0000031%.  (31 cases out of over 1 billion votes over a 12-year period) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/

●  The legislature is using this process to bypass the authority of the executive and judicial branches, while denying voters the ability to propose our own citizen-led ballot initiatives to change the constitution.

●  Voter photo ID has been the law in Wisconsin since 2016. Enshrining this in the state constitution makes protecting disenfranchised voters much more difficult, and repealing the requirement would require another constitutional amendment.

●  This is a voter suppression tactic! Voting is fundamental to our democracy.  Limiting who can vote is a way of controlling who has power in our country.