With the November election just over a month away, Madison’s Equal Opportunities Commission met Thursday to address gender gaps in candidacies as well as voter ID implementation concerns.
Dane County Board Supervisor Carousel Bayrd, District 8, and City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl attended the meeting as speakers, delivering reports on the promotion of more women candidates and the city’s response to the recently upheld voter ID law respectively.
According to Bayrd, many women do not run for office because they feel underqualified and worry about family responsibility. She also said sexism is a contributing factor.
“Sixty percent of female voters overall that voted in the election felt that Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton were subject to sexist treatment,” Bayrd said. “And that crossed both [party] lines.”
However, Bayrd says a group called Emerge Wisconsin is trying to change these realities by working to train and promote Democratic women candidates. It is also open to joining forces with a like-minded Republican organization because the group sees this as a bipartisan problem.
“You could even create something where I come in and then a Republican comes in together [for training],” Bayrd said.
While EOC members said they felt good about the potential suggestions Bayrd raised, they were much more concerned with voter ID law implementation.
“We have this cycle of disenfranchisement,” Witzel-Behl said, without adding the requirements of the voter ID law. As an explanation, she cited that a lack of diversity in election officials is already hurting voter turnout.
According to the City Clerk, Madison residents calling the City Clerk’s Office don’t know what constitutes proper identification to vote. She said the mere volume of phone calls at the end of the day easily matched the typical rush of calls during normal business hours.
“It’s incredible the number of phone calls,” Witzel-Behl said. “There is a lot of confusion, particularly with elderly voters.”
As for homeless voters, the law requires them to obtain a signed affidavit from city human service agencies and then submit the form to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get a voting ID, Witzel-Behl explained.
Following Witzel-Behl’s report, EOC members stressed their commitment to ensuring the public knows what they need to know in order to vote while also affirming a plan to distribute 10,000 leaflets with translations clearly defining what residents need. The members did not hide their disapproval for the ID law itself though.
“It’s a huge burden on a community 49 days before the election,” said Department of Civil Rights Director Lucía Nuñez.
