For the second time in three years, the Legislature has sent the voter identification bill to Gov. Jim Doyle's desk after the Senate approved the bill Wednesday.
All 19 Senate Republicans and two Milwaukee-area Democrats voted to force people to present a photo ID prior to receiving a ballot on Election Day. The city of Milwaukee faced issues of voter fraud in the November 2004 election.
The legislation's co-sponsor, Sen. Joe Leibham, R-Sheboygan, called today's vote a step toward restoring integrity to Wisconsin's election system.
\Everyone wanting to vote will have the ability to do so with greater confidence in knowing that their legally-cast vote will not be cancelled by an illegally-cast vote,"" Leibham said.
The bill requires all voters to present either a Wisconsin driver's license, a non-driver ID or a military ID. If a voter does not have one of these three, a voter could cast a provisional ballot and have a day to provide proof of residence.
Doyle, who vetoed a similar bill in 2003, is likely to do the same this time around, citing the disenfranchisement of residents without IDs.
Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, said the bill creates needless ""headaches"" for many of the estimated 120,000 Wisconsin residents who do not have one of the three required ID forms.
""Instead of making it easier to vote, [the bill] makes it harder to vote,"" Risser said.
If Doyle decides to approve the law, Wisconsin would have the nation's strictest requirements in terms of proving identity at the polls, according to the Associated Press.
