Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed the voter ID bill Friday, but Republicans in the State Legislature may have the votes to successfully override the veto.
The bill, which would require voters to show photo identification before receiving a ballot, had bipartisan support and passed the Assembly 64-33 and the Senate 21-12.
The Republicans in the Legislature, who control 60 seats in the Assembly and 19 in the Senate, would need to turn just two more Democrats in the Assembly and one more in the Senate to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority for an override.
\It is my intention to override the governor's veto as soon as possible,"" said Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo-the man with the authority to initiate the override process.
Doyle's veto of the legislation was the second time he has rejected a Voter ID bill, having shot down a similar effort in 2003. The governor cited the ""disenfranchising"" effect the bill would have on up to 100,000 elderly who would have difficulty obtaining a state-issued ID.
""AB 63 would make Wisconsin's election laws the strictest in the country and put us on equal footing with South Carolina, a state that had one of the worst voter turnouts in the nation in the 2004 elections-in comparison to Wisconsin's 75 percent turnout, which was one of the best,"" Doyle said. ""Wisconsin has a long, proud tradition of protecting the right to vote, and we shouldn't be looking to South Carolina as a model for voting legislation.""
But U.S. Sen. Joe Liebham, R-Sheboygan, one of the co-authors of the Voter ID legislation, dismissed the notion that his proposal makes it harder to vote in Wisconsin. Liebham pointed out that this bill had fixed many of the issues Doyle raised in his first veto in 2003, including waiving the $9 fee if someone could not afford the ID and allowing nursing-home workers to vouch for residents when they take them to vote so they do not need to obtain an ID.
""We addressed every concern identified by the Governor in the past while working to restore integrity to Wisconsin's election system,"" Liebham said. ""Yet Gov. Doyle has chosen to act based on partisan rhetoric rather than the facts surrounding this legislation.""
The state has had issues with voting integrity, particularly in Milwaukee. In November's presidential election, 7,000 more ballots were cast in the city than people recorded as having voted, and felons illegally casted votes.
