Another election day in America, another senior citizen denied her vote.
Waukesha — It took persistence—and a second trip to her Waukesha polling place—by a 63-year-old Waukesha woman to vote Tuesday. But she said her 87-year-old mother who couldn't make the trip back was disenfranchised by a poll worker who asked to see a photo ID.
Wisconsin's new voter ID law was in place for the February primary but not for Tuesday's general election after a judge ruled it was unconstitutional. The photo ID requirement is on hold while the matter is appealed. [...]
The woman said she and her mother had moved to Waukesha last May and registered to vote at Waukesha City Hall in January. They went to their Waukesha West High School poll Tuesday but were asked to show identification—which her mother hadn't brought with her. Her own driver's license had an out-of-date address on it, she said.
"We were listed on their friggin' poll list," she said, "and yet we had our names highlighted." The poll worker said maybe they didn't register in time, though they clearly had.
The older woman ended up not voting. By the time they had figured out how to proceed, (since the voter ID law has been blocked by a judge, she shouldn't have been required to show ID), she had gone home and gone to bed. Her daughter did, however, get to vote. Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the elections board for the county, said, "I can't think of any reason ID would have been required."
This woman has good company around the nation. In Ohio, 86-year-old veteran Paul Carroll couldn't vote in the primary because election officials wouldn't accept his Veteran's Administration ID, despite the fact that it included a photo. The list also includes Tennessee voters Dorothy Cooper, 96, and Virginia Lasater, 91.
So here's a question: How many others haven't been able to vote, but haven't made a public stink about it? Good for these seniors for raising hell so that we know about the problem. But you know that these few are just a drop in the bucket.
