Barring some act of god, Wisconsin’s voter ID law will be in place for the November elections. There is no longer a question of what we can do about the law — the only hope for repealing it before November is an emergency plea before the U.S. Supreme Court. Instead, we must ask what we can do despite it.

There is one simple answer: Vote.

Wisconsin’s voter ID law is bad legislation ostensibly addressing a problem that does not actually exist. In the words of U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, “[Voter ID] is like the worst thing we should have a debate about. It should be we want the turnout. We’re in the top three. … It’s Maine, Minnesota and Wisconsin for voter turnout, and why you wouldn’t want that, I don’t know. And we don’t have voter fraud.”

This law places an undue burden on both voters and the local authorities that must enforce it. According to Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, the City of Madison has hired more than 100 new employees for the upcoming election in order to deal with the law. This takes money that could be used to actually help people and instead ties it up mitigating the harmful effects of an unnecessary law.

Voter ID is not an issue that will go away if we simply ignore it — quite the opposite, in fact. If, through apathy and laziness, we allow the politicians who passed this voter suppression law to stay in power then the issue will only get worse. If politicians see that they can guarantee themselves electoral victories through voter suppression, they will have no reason to stop.

For the vast majority of University of Wisconsin students, voting in November will not threaten their livelihood. For Wisconsin residents with valid state ID, voting is the same as always. Things are a bit trickier for non-residents. Since Wiscards are not considered valid ID, non-residents will have to trek to Union South to get a special voter ID. The out-of-state members of this board can attest to the relative painlessness of this process — it consists of scanning your WisCard, signing an electronic pad and waiting a minute or so for the card to print.

This process is purely an inconvenience; it is difficult to imagine a scenario where it could thwart attempted voter fraud.

The state of Wisconsin — and students in particular — must show the politicians who pushed this law through the Legislature that voter suppression is not this easy. We will not allow the people who attempted to cement their power through gerrymandering and voter suppression to remain in office. The only way to get rid of this atrocious law is to get rid of the people who passed it. And the only way to do that is to vote.

How to Vote:

For more information, see http://vote.wisc.edu.