Tony Evers signs bill to remove voting requirement that has turned away people with disabilities

MADISON - Voters with disabilities will no longer be required to state their name and address — a requirement advocates for people with disabilities said was humiliating and even preventing some from casting ballots.   

Gov. Tony Evers signed into law a bill Friday that removes the requirement for people who are unable to say their name and address because of a disability. Instead, poll workers will rely on the voter's identification card and allow another person accompanying the voter to say the voter's name and address.

“We have to make sure voting is fair and accessible, and that everyone has the opportunity to cast their vote at the ballot box,” Evers said in a statement. 

During the 2018 general election, more than six people contacted Disability Rights Wisconsin — an advocacy group for people with disabilities — about incidents during which voters who were deaf or had a developmental disability could not vote or were shamed by poll workers.

"In these cases, poll workers were initially insistent that voters say their name and address," Barbara Beckert of DRW wrote in testimony provided to lawmakers. "In one case, the poll worker told a deaf voter that they would not receive a ballot unless the voter stated both name and address. In another case, a family member reported that a young man with a developmental disability had difficulty receiving a ballot because he could not speak his address."

She told lawmakers the group heard such voters were "humiliated and shamed by the treatment experienced at their polling place." 

Meagan Wolfe, Wisconsin Elections Commission director, told lawmakers earlier this year that the commission had previously directed poll workers to provide ballots to anyone who is unable to say their name and address because of disability.

But she also said poll workers may be strictly applying the requirement to state names and addresses and deny ballots to anyone who is unable to do so, and acknowledged the potential that the requirement could discourage voting in the first place. 

Bill author Rep. Shannon Zimmerman, R-River Falls, said the new law "balances accommodation and election integrity."

Evers vetoes bill changing residence limitations for sex offenders

Evers also on Friday vetoed a bill that would, among other measures, require sex offenders to live in their home counties and provide county officials with more oversight on where such offenders live.

Current law requires sex offenders on supervised release to not be placed within 1,500 feet of a school, child care facility, church, park or youth center. The bill Evers vetoed would have required county officials to consider distance to such places but would remove the state distance requirement.

Evers said in a veto message he opposed weakening protections for children's safety in state law.

"Providing as safe of a place as we can for our kids to grow, learn, or play is one the most vital responsibilities of our society," Evers wrote.

Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker vetoed similar proposals in 2017 and in 2018.

Lawmakers have repeatedly sought to change state law governing where sex offenders may be placed because some sex offenders have wound up homeless due to distance restrictions. 

The bill also would have prevented sex offenders from being placed outside of their home counties, a change county governments supported.

However, Outagamie County supervisors also passed a resolution earlier this year to oppose changing state law to give counties more say in sex offenders' placement. 

Bill authors Rep. Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh, and Sen. Dan Feyen, R-Fond du Lac, said Evers was ignoring their constituents who don't want sex offenders from Dane and Milwaukee counties to be moved to their area.

“This is yet another instance of the governor placing the needs of those two counties above the needs of the rest of the state," Feyen said in a statement. 

Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.