Jennifer "Rita" Platt says she's determined to vote next year, but Wisconsin isn't making it easy for her.

She and the rest of Wisconsin's voters will need to comply with a new voter ID law when they go to the polls in February's primaries.

With few exceptions, those without the proper ID can't vote.

But Platt and her boyfriend don't have forms of identification accepted at the polls, so they recently drove about 45 minutes to a Department of Motor Vehicles office in Hudson to each get an ID.

They encountered two problems.

The DMV office's computer system was down, which meant they couldn't get an ID processed. And they were told they didn't have the proper identification to get a state ID card or a Wisconsin driver's license, Platt said.

"They said I didn't have a certified birth certificate or a current passport," said Platt, who said she had asked the DMV what was needed before heading to Hudson.

She had brought an expired Iowa driver's license, her Social Security card and a pay stub from the St. Croix Falls school district, where she works as a librarian, believing those items would satisfy the DMV's requirements, she said.


She'll eventually get an ID despite the financial cost and inconvenience, she said. Other people, however, may not be so determined, she added.

"If it's this much trouble for me, I can't even imagine how other people are going to manage it," said Platt, 42. She noted she's lived in several other states and never needed an ID to vote before.

"I just find it unconscionable that we would put this kind of roadblock in front of people who are trying exercise their right to chose their own leaders," she said. "It's absolutely confounding."

The measure passed the state Assembly in May with largely Republican support. Supporters argue the ID requirement is meant to protect against voter fraud.

State Rep. Erik Severson, R-Star Prairie, said the law will "make sure that all of our elections are honest and we have the true results."

"We don't have any many people are voting illegally," he said Wednesday.

Severson, who represents Platt, said he believes voter fraud has been happening in the state although it's difficult to prove.

For most people, showing an ID at the polls will be a nonissue, he said. People typically already have identification - it's needed for everything from buying cigarettes to getting on an airplane, he argued.

Severson added there is nothing in the law that makes getting a state ID or driver's license more difficult. In fact, the law made getting an ID easier by widening the availability of DMV offices across the state, he said.

As a result of the law, the DMV will open or expand the hours of 32 offices across the state starting the week of Jan. 23, said Jim Miller, chief examiner with the DMV's bureau of field services. Each county in the state will be required to have a DMV office that is open at least 20 hours a week.

In Platt's case, she and her boyfriend drove to Hudson because both DMV offices in her county are each open only one day a month - days she wasn't available, she said.

Severson said Platt and her boyfriend's case is the only complaint he has received of people having trouble getting an ID to vote.

"I don't see how it's going to disenfranchise anybody," Severson said of the law.

Platt has agreed to be a plaintiff in a yet-to-be filed lawsuit challenging the law. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will be the lead plaintiff in the suit, said attorney Richard Saks.

"We're arguing that the photo ID requirement is an unreasonable and onerous burden on the state constitutional right to vote for Wisconsin citizens," said Saks, who is representing the plaintiffs.

Saks said the law is tantamount to a denial of the right to vote for "scores of thousands of voters, if not hundreds of thousands of voters, throughout the state of Wisconsin who don't have the types of ID" required under the law.

"We think that there's thousands of stories like Rita's around the state," Saks said. "We know about a lot of them, but we don't know about all of them."

The lawsuit, which Saks said he hopes to file this week, would follow one filed in October by the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin.

The group is arguing state lawmakers didn't have the authority to pass the law based on the state constitution.

"Our hope is that we can turn back (the voter ID requirement) before anybody is disenfranchised by this law, and that would be in February, when there is a primary election," said Andrea Kaminski, the group's executive director.

Kaminski said that in terms of the number of types of ID that can be used to vote, the law is the most restrictive in the country.

"And unlike some other state laws, there is no provision ... for a voter to sign an affidavit saying, 'I don't have an ID, but I swear I am the person I say I am,' knowing it would be a felony to lie," she said.

Kaminski said knowing exactly what people need when they go to the DMV can be "really confusing," and her group is recommending that people who need an ID get one early in case they run into a glitch.

To get a Wisconsin state ID, people must provide documentation to satisfy four requirements: name and date of birth, Wisconsin residency, identity and legal presence. They should check with the DMV to see exactly what is needed.

Some people without a certified birth certificate may need one to get an ID.

For those born in Wisconsin, a certified birth certificate request is processed within five days from the time it is received by the Wisconsin Vital Records Office, said spokesperson Beth Kaplan.

People don't have to wait until a state ID arrives in the mail to vote. The ID receipt can be used in its place.

The cost of the identification is $28, but a box on the application can be checked saying the ID will be used for voting purposes - making it free.

Also under the new law, the residency requirement has changed from 10 days to 28 consecutive days, and voters no longer can use a corroborating witness to provide proof of residence.

One misconception about the law is that people will need a separate "voter ID" to cast a ballot, said Miller.

A Wisconsin driver's license, passport and other certain forms of identification can be used at the polls.

To see what forms of ID are accepted to vote or for more information on the law, visit the Government Accountability Board's website at or call 1-866-868-3947.

Municipal clerks also should be able to answer questions.

For more information on obtaining an ID to vote, visit the Wisconsin DMV website at or call 608-266-2353.
