Turnout for the spring primary is expected to be high and county clerks are reminding voters to have an accepted photo ID with them when going to vote.
“It is our first major election with the voter ID law in place so voters need to remember to bring a photo ID to the polls,” Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said.
McDonell said a driver’s license, Wisconsin ID card, a passport or student ID will be accepted, but University of Wisconsin-Madison students will need to get a secondary student ID in order to vote.
Students can get a secondary ID at Union South.
During early absentee voting, problems occurred over students not having the student ID.
“We did see folks come in who did not have the right ID. It was mostly out-of-state students who had a Minnesota or Illinois driver’s license and did not have the secondary student ID. That was pretty common,” McDonell said.
The concern McDonell has is that some people will simply choose not to vote over concern about whether they have the necessary identification.
“Almost everybody does have a correct ID. I’d say the studies have shown that people being worried about not having the right ID causes more of a problem than the ID itself. So just grab what you have and bring it down. If you don’t have the right ID you can vote provisionally, so you can still vote and then figure out what you need to do,” McDonell said.
For more information about voter ID requirements, go online.
