A Republican-supported bill to crack down on voter fraud by requiring photo identification to vote is drawing ire from Democrats and other organizations who claim the bill would do more harm than good.
Before a committee hearing, several critics of the bill spoke at the state capitol, claiming the legislation would disenfranchise students, minorities and the elderly.
State Sen. Spencer Coggs, D-Milwaukee, called the bill a ""solution in search of a problem."" He said voter fraud is nearly non-existent, and that the bill would not help keep any actual voter fraud from happening.
County Board Supervisor and UW-Madison student Analiese Eicher said the bill would be particularly harmful to students, who change addresses frequently and would need to pay up to $28 to buy a new ID every time they change their voting addresses.
That sum, according to Eicher, could be the cost of a textbook or groceries for a group that traditionally does not have a lot of money.
The Wisconsin GOP came out in support of the bill, saying it ""is a common sense reform that's long overdue.""
""This bill keeps it easy to vote in Wisconsin, but makes it harder to cheat,"" Wisconsin GOP Executive director Mark Jefferson said in a statement.
However the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Education Fund also spoke out against the voter identification bill in a statement, claiming proponents of the bill could not document a consistent pattern of voter fraud, and that thousands of voters would be at risk.
Andrea Kaminski, executive director of LWVWEF, called the bill ""expensive, unneeded and unfair.""
