Additional comments by Sen Taylor on AB7

Wisconsin State Senator Lena Taylor's speech during debate on Assembly Bill 7 during the May 17, 2011 senate floor session. She is arguing in favor of a substitute amendment to the bill.

Thank you Mr. President.

Mr. President and members, you know one of the things that I will say is that the GOP is good at messaging.  "Voter ID," of course!  On its face people say "well, Voter ID?"  But this bill is so much more than just require an ID.  This bill disenfrachises people.  This bill really is voter suppression.  This bill is really voter confusion.  This bill is really anything other than just requiring an ID.

And I wish that it would be reported as voter suppression or voter confusion or voter restrictions.  And I wish all of the things that will affect individuals in smaller communities that won't have DOTs in order for individuals open at the various hours that need be in order for them to be able to go and get a driver's license as easily accessible as others.  I wish that it would be reported the number of individuals who are homeless.  Who will not be able to use the homeless shelter's address that they live in so that technically they will be denied their ability to vote.  And the thing that gets me with that is the number of veterans, you know soldiers, you know the reason that we are able to pledge allegiance to the flag and that we have our freedoms.  How many are homeless, and the effect that we will have on them and other individuals who are homeless like them.

I think of individuals who are transitioning, and maybe getting alcohol and drug addiction assistance, but maybe in a transitional living facility and how many will be affected by this bill.  This is way beyond ID.  It's suppression, it's disenfranchisement, and it's deliberate.

I think about the cost as we defund education.  As we tell seniors that they have to choose between their rent and their medication because of what has been threatened to happen with SeniorCare.  That we could spend millions of dollars on a voter suppression bill, voter confusion bill, voter restriction bill.  But we've defunded education.

I think of how easy we want to make it to own a gun and to carry.  And how many hoops we want individuals to go through in order to vote.

And I always hear individuals speak about voter fraud.  And I thought "hmm, what kind of voter fraud has happened in Wisconsin?"  And what we know is that none of the voter fraud that happened in Wisconsin is addressed by voter ID.  Because what were the types?  Five people were prosecuted.  Two for registering too many people.  One—no, I'm sorry two—for double voting; a sixty-year-old and a fifty-four-year-old.  And based on their last name it doesn't normally fit the picture that the GOP says.  And one who was a felon on probation and voting.  So would an ID prevent the absentee ballot and voting at the poll, which is how the people double voted?  No, wouldn't stop that.  The multiple registrations; ID at the poll wouldn't stop that.  Probation...

Senator from the fourth, senator from the twenty-seventh.

Erpenbach: Consent to lift the call, is that the...

Yes.

Erpenbach: To lift the call.

Yes, yes.  With no objection, the call will be lifted.  The senator from the fourth may continue.

Taylor: Thank you Mr. President.

And the person who was on probation, does showing an ID at the poll change that?  No.  So I was wondering: if addressing the issue of voter fraud is what you say, then shouldn't you have a bill that addresses probation agents speaking to their clients and reminding them that they're on probation and they can't vote?  Isn't that really what the bill should do?  And would it cost us millions of dollars to do that?  It would not.

This isn't about identification, just be honest with the people.  I continue to rise on bill after bill to say: "don't lie to the Wisconsinites."  Just be honest.  Don't say it's about voter ID, say it's about you're afraid to let us play the game by real rules.  Because you're afraid you will continue to lose in those elections.  That what you really want to do is suppress the vote of individuals who don't think like you or look you.  Just tell the truth that it's not that you want to stop the fraud, because the fraud are the things that I just spoke of.  That's it, in our state.  Your bill doesn't address that; your bill puts restriction after restriction after restriction on Wisconsinites to vote.

I find it disheartening that people have come through so many places in our history in order to be able to have the right to vote.  I'm almost speechless because I can't believe in Wisconsin—where in 1865 a guy who looked like me who was from Milwaukee went to vote and wouldn't leave until he had the right vote.  And they denied him.  His name was Ezekiel Gillespie and in 1865 when they denied Ezekiel the right to vote he sued the city of Milwaukee.  And what I find amazing is in 1866 there was more thought for preserving individuals' ability to vote and have access to the right to vote than the individuals in the outer ring.  Because in 1866 the supreme court of Wisconsin gave that man the right to vote.  Even the individuals who originally did our constitution in Wisconsin included the right for black men to vote.  Had to be redone because, you know, they weren't quite ready yet.  But it wasn't until the seventies that our senate was graced with a person of color.  And seven—mid to late seventies—with a woman.   It wasn't even right away from the 1860s that women got the right to vote.  But that we are going back to frankly putting a poll tax on individuals.

I always heard the phrase that if you didn't remember your history you would repeat it.  But I didn't think that I would live with people, that I would serve with people, who would be so flip about taking the constitutional rights of individuals to exercise their right to vote under the pretense that it's an ID, when it really is restrictions and suppression, and know it.

What I hope is that Wisconsinites will see that you say one thing and that the dishonesty of what you say rises.  What I know is that many people are not watching us on Wisconsin Eye.  And all of the tape that the media does won't show, that when it gets in print it won't speak about, all of the restrictions and make it really clear to individuals that this is much further than just "have and ID."  It won't talk about and help people to understand the depth of the effect on people who won't have the money to not only get the ID but to get the birth certificate in order to get the ID.  The hurdles that have been created.  Hurdle after hurdle after hurdle for a constitutional right that people have.

This substitute amendment is an effort to find a middle ground.  That respects that you have the votes to do something that's not needed, a solution looking for a problem.  But in a way that does not strip Wisconsinites of the constitutional right to vote.  That doesn't put barrier after barrier in place.

It's easy to sit in this chamber and not think about the effect that this may have on someone whose in your district or not in your district.  But I'm sure that you're going to learn of the experiences.  I mean, I even think of the time that I needed to have someone vouch for me.  One of the alderman in my community, because we had session I needed to come to Madison.  Somehow or other I didn't have my ID when I ran in the building and I had to get someone to vouch and say "Hi, I am Lena, tell them Kathleen, I'm Lena Taylor."  And they vouched for me so I could vote.  But now, a couple that's married longer than I've been alive won't be able to say "yeah, that's my wife, that's my husband."  They won't be able to help the nuns who may or may not have identification.  But I'm most offended by the veterans, because if anyone pretends there's not a homeless issue with our veterans, that there are not mental health challenges with our veterans from the experiences that they have had and that those populations will be affected by your bill.

I assume you can sleep at night.  I think that Senator Jauch said it has similarities to apartheid and Jim Crow.  I know I've always heard the phrase "if it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it's a duck."  In the end, people will be disenfranchised.  And our priorities as legislators who take an oath is that we should protect the constitution, we should protect the right to vote.  And if we say it's based on "we want to prevent fraud," then address the issue.  Don't put hurdles in front of Wisconsinites.  You should be ashamed.  You should be ashamed that you choose to disenfranchise Wisconsinites under a false sentence of the message that you give of "Voter ID."  It's shameful.  You are on the wrong side of history.  You do parallel to the examples that have been given and provided.  It would be different if what you stated was true, but it's false.  And it will show itself to be so.  And you, you will have to answer on the outer ring for your record and your choice.  And I hope that people will see beyond just the phrase that you give of "voter ID."  But they will see the individuals that are affected by what you do so they can call it for what it is and you will have to live with your record and your choices and the disenfranchisement that you provided for thousands of Wisconsinites.  Shame on you.

Video posted to vimeo by @nicknicemadison.