Wisconsin adjusts voter ID law to be more student-friendly
13 September, 2011
category: Education, Government
Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board has decided to deem student ID cards fit and accepted as a valid form of identification when the new Wisconsin voter ID law takes effect next year.
According to a local news report, the state board will now permit colleges and universities to install a sticker indicating when the student ID was issued and when it expires. The law requires the expiration date to be no later than two years after the card was issued, and excludes student ID cards from the state’s technical colleges.
Initially, the law required voters to present a valid driver’s license, state ID, passport, military ID, naturalization papers or tribal ID in order to vote. And student ID cards can pass so long as they contain the student’s signature and have an expiration date that falls within two years of the card’s issuance.
Schools are not required to make any changes, but if they don’t then students may be unable to use their school IDs to vote. There are approximately 14 types of student IDs used across the 26 campuses in the UW System, said UW spokesman David Giroux, with roughly 182,000 students are enrolled.
Under the new law, students could always vote absentee from their home residence instead of using their student ID as proof of residence in the city where they attend school.
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