Voter ID - AB7 Amendments - Unfinished advances

When this blog entry was posted yesterday it generated a lot of interest Voter ID Amendments Put Students At Risk (AB 7) so today I went to the Executive Session of the Assembly Committee On Election and Campaign Reform - it started ~10am and concluded sometime between 1 - 2pm.  By 1:49pm JSOnline had an article up: GOP advances photo ID bill, as Dems blast provisions for students - By Patrick Marley - Journal Sentinel .  Today as yesterday the JSOnline provides great coverage and clearly contains material that had been researched / backgrounded in anticipation of the Executive Session.  So did I say that I went fully expecting the outcome - well I did now!  So what else is there to say!  I think they call it "color".

The surprises -

1. The meeting was being "fastracked" and the Democrats objected.
2. The Republicans must have known that this bill would have fiscal implications but part of the "fastracking" was justified by "it still had to go to Joint Finance"!
3. It (AB 7) and here LRBs0093/2 had been substantially modified - 18 pages of LRB notes to explain what was being modified from current law and the original AB 7.
4. It seemed that the Republicans did at times not know what they had drafted - Democrats were able to identify some difficulties (see JSOnline) - Clerk's office process and student (college and high school ID problems - security / safety / access).

Non-surprises -

1. Democrats - This bill is going to make it much more difficult for many groups of people to vote (it discriminates, it is in effect a poll tax, it is administratively complex).
2. Republicans - No it will not - we can solve every problem with mobile DOT office bus!

The Committee Members contact information -

Representative Tauchen (Chair)

Representative Bernier (Vice-Chair)

Representative Stone

Representative Pridemore

Representative Weininger

Representative Roys

Representative Kessler

Representative Zamarripa

Reps. Stone, Pridemore and Weininger

First page of LRB notes

Outcome - Party line vote (with the bill being improved by Democrat's criticism - we can hope)  - passed!

#GOP #Immoral WI 1848 Forward: #VoterID - AB7 Amendments - Unfinished advances