A number of significant changes will take effect with the commencement of the Wisconsin primary elections Sept. 12. Most notably, the changes feature a consolidated list of accepted documents in proving residency to vote.

The new list replaces the previous system of using pieces of mail and now includes Wisconsin-issued driver's licenses, paychecks and university-issued photo IDs.

"We need an ID number, either a Wisconsin driver's license or the last four digits of your social security number, to register," Kyle Richmond, public information officer for the State Elections Board, said. "But after you register, we need a document from the new list to make sure you live where you say you live."

For the first time, voters are being asked for identification. And though the driver's license need not be presented, only the license number recorded, an ID from a university, college or technical college requires a photograph as well as verification of a local address.

"We can verify residency only if the university provides us with a certified list of students in [university] housing," said Maribeth Witzel-Behl, interim city clerk in the city of Madison. "This particularly concerns freshman students living on campus and students in the dorms."

Though the city of Madison is familiar with registering voters, as it is a larger municipality, the updated registering system particularly affects more rural areas in Wisconsin. With a total population of about one million possible voters, 1,539 of Wisconsin's smallest municipalities have never been required to register voters.

"We had to bring people up to speed mostly in the northern and western parts of Wisconsin, which are mostly rural," Richmond said.

But Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said many citizens are still confused, as the new rules are not clear and have undergone many changes.

"I am very concerned that we are going to have a lot of confusion and longer lines than usual," he said. "I hope some of this can get sorted out before election time."

McCabe added that some voters have told him they are uneasy about the new rules and will be voting by absentee ballot to avoid the confusion on election day.

Richmond agreed a number of complaints have come in, but said the problems are being addressed.

"Local clerks are having more responsibilities than they had before," he said. "However, some small municipalities didn't want to hire extra people or deal with the complicated job, so they paid a fee to contract county clerks."

And part of the complication is due to the implementation of a new computerized registration system, the Statewide Voter Registration System, in July. The new system was started in compliance with the federal Help America Vote Act, which was implemented in the wake of the highly controversial 2000 presidential election.

"SVRS is very time-consuming," Witzel-Behl said. "We are hiring more election aids … but there are [no election aids] in place at this time."

Despite correcting the technical problems, Richmond explained there is always the possibility for human error.

"The system was postponed in January because of bugs in the software," Richmond said. "But even when the system is perfected, it is only as good as the data clerks put in it."

Other changes include the use of provisional ballots for those that do not present a driver's license at time of registration, a computerized AutoMARK machine at every polling place for disabled accessibility, and registration documents being uniform statewide and published for the first time in Spanish and Hmong.

The following constitute acceptable proof of residence to vote if the document contains an address or a certified list of addresses is provided:
1. A current and valid Wisconsin driver's license
2. A current and valid Wisconsin identification card
3. Any other official identification card or license issued by a Wisconsin governmental body or unit
4. Any identification card issued by an employer in the normal course of business with a photo of the card holder, but not including a business card
5. A real estate tax bill or receipt for the current year or the year preceding the date of the election.
6. A residential lease that has been effective for at least 10 days, including election day (except for first-time voters registering by mail)
7. A university, college or technical institute photograph fee card
8. A university, college or technical institute photograph identification card
9. A gas, electric or telephone service statement for the period commencing not earlier than 90 days before election day
10. Bank statement
11. Paycheck
12. A check or other document issued by a unit of government