The University of Wisconsin could take two distinct routes in how it issues voter IDs to students in the coming weeks, a student government leader said during a meeting Tuesday night.
Legislative Affairs Chair Hannah Somers updated the committee on voter IDs to be issued by the university. Last week, legislation was proposed which asked the university to produce a solid plan for the issuance of the IDs.
Somers said she met with Vice Chancellor Darrell Bazzel last week and explained that his message the university is committed to the issue.
UW is considering two options: one of which will mean a new student ID would be used in addition to students’ current ID to vote, and the other would mean making all new WisCards which could be used alone, Somers said.
The first option would cost the university $100,000 over five years, and the second $500,000 over the next five years, she said. The university cannot make a decision until the Government Accountability Board, which interprets voter ID law, addresses the issue in a meeting Nov. 9.
“Essentially the university is going to do it, but we just have to wait until November,” Somers said.
To gain student perspective about the ID options, the committee discussed options including online polls and emails to see what students would prefer.
“I would really like to see us reach out to students and get an answer to this question so that we can give it to the administration,” Somers said. “We really want to help in this decision-making process.”
Mike Quieto of the City Clerk’s Office spoke to the voter ID issue and said the city will do what will get the most voters out.
“The city’s decision will be whatever will get students to be able to vote,” he said.
On a related topic, Quieto also spoke about planning an upcoming campus mock election, which would allow for data collection for the purposes of staffing polling locations on election day.
The mock election is set tentatively to take place sometime next month.
Also a main point of discussion in the meeting was the upcoming Madison Housing Fair. Somers said student government likely will not be attempting any tenant rights campaigning at the event, and the body’s role in the event will mostly be within the area of marketing and getting the word out to students.
Somers said although past discussion looked at more aggressive campaigning at the event, she thought attempting anything too controversial would take away from the main purpose of the Housing Fair.
She said the fair mainly aims to educate possible future tenants about their housing options, and resources for housing in the city and campaigning would jeopardize this goal.
Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, attended the meeting and said he felt tenant rights in Madison are important and should be addressed.
Somers responded her main point was not that tenant rights are not an issue, but campaigning too aggressively at the Madison Housing Fair would be the wrong place.
“By no means do I think we should stop working on tenant rights because I think this is going to be an ongoing battle for the rest of the year,” she said.
At the meeting, Somers also announced that two student seats for the Legislative Task Force and the student seat on the Board of Regents passed unanimously in committee and both will likely pass on the floor today.
