UW-Madison opted against using stickers on identification cards, which means students will likely receive updated forms of identification to accommodate stipulations in the law that require voters to show valid forms of IDs at polling places.
After months of going back and forth on whether to allow stickers on student IDs, the Government Accountability Board concluded Wednesday that stickers would be allowed. As a result on the decision, individual schools can decide what to do.
The stickers would have the student’s signature, the issuance date and an expiration date that is within two years of the issuance date. Student IDs that include these stickers would be an acceptable form of identification under the new law.
UW-Madison’s state relations director Don Nelson said UW-Madison does not view stickers as a practical solution because metallic stickers present problems with swiping the IDs.
Currently, Nelson said the university is deciding whether to reissue all student IDs to comply with the new requirements or to issue a supplemental voting ID to students who want one.
“We believe time is of the essence here,” Nelson said. “We need to be ready for all of the election activity that will be coming up in 2012.”
Wiscards expire every five years, but in order to comply with the new law UW-Madison would have to renew IDs every two years. Nelson said the change “would drive up costs.”
GAB members debated whether the stickers could be easily forged.
“I think we should leave the stickers as is, and do the best we can to make certain they are secure and not easily duplicated,” GAB member Judge Gerald C. Nichol said.
The board also ruled that technical schools should also be able to use student ID cards as an acceptable form of identification.
Currently, technical schools are excluded from the stipulation in the law validating student IDs as a way to vote.
But the judges on the board agreed technical schools should be included because they fall under the same definition of “college” as defined in the law.
“There is no question in my mind that a technical college meets the definition of a college,” GAB member Judge Thomas Cane said.
