Yesterday, the Madison City Clerk conducted a mock election with dozens of community members to “work out the kinks” that the state’s new voter ID law may cause in future elections. The results were released today.
“One person told me this takes about 10 times as long as it usually does at his polling place,” said City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl in a Isthmus Daily Page report. “I’ve had some people tell me if I have to wait in line this long at the polls on Election Day, I’m not going to stay in line and consequently I won’t vote.”
The $7.5 million voter ID law takes effect on the Feb. 21 spring primary. While long lines may be an issue, officials are more concerned about the need for provisional ballots.
Officials expect the use of provisional ballots to increase exponentially since the new law forces voters without acceptable photo ID to vote provisionally. Voters would then be required to show up with acceptable ID by 4 p.m. on the Friday after Election Day.
“This presents two logistical problems,” reports the Wisconsin State Journal. “First, filling out the long-form provisional ballot slows down the polls. And second, thousands of provisional ballots could mean that election results will take as long as a week to certify.”
During the mock election, poll workers were able to reduce the time it takes to process a provisional ballot to three minutes. But, compared to the 30 seconds it took them to process a regular ballot, three minutes per ballot “is still long enough to create a logjam at the polls.”
In the meantime, the Madison city clerk plans to conduct dozens of educational presentations on the new law.
“We want to make sure voters aren’t surprised at the polling place next year when they show up to vote, and find out then that they need an ID, and then not have their vote count,” Witzel-Behl said. “In addition to that, we need to make sure we have our election officials trained and that we know what the best procedures are to use at the polling place.”
Read the city of Madison’s “Findings from the Mock Election” here.