We have a pivotal election this spring, and on the ballot, you will be asked one binding referendum question about voting rights in Wisconsin. This ballot question would change the Wisconsin Constitution if it passes. The ACLU of Wisconsin opposes this referendum, and we’ll tell you why.

Here’s the question: 

Question 1: “Photographic identification for voting. Shall section 1m of article III of the constitution be created to require that voters present valid photographic identification verifying their identity in order to vote in any election, subject to exceptions which may be established by law?"

Wisconsin’s voter ID law is one of the strictest in the country.

Requiring photo identification that many voters do not have and that many voters cannot easily obtain – particularly voters with disabilities, elderly Wisconsinites, students and first-time voters, low-income and unhoused voters, and Native, Black and Latino voters – disenfranchises eligible voters.

A recent study found that nearly 3 million voting-age U.S. citizens in Wisconsin, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee – states with strict photo ID laws – lacked a driver’s license, and of those, over 1.3 million did not have the identification needed to vote.

Strict photo ID requirements are a solution in search of a problem.

In-person voter fraud is vanishingly rare. A study found that, from 2000 to 2012, there were only 31 credible allegations of voter impersonation – the only type of fraud that photo IDs could prevent – during a period of time in which over 1 billion ballots were cast. That’s 0.0000031%.

Our elections are secure. We should be expanding access to the ballot box, not further limiting it.

ACLU-WI joined over 20 other organizations in opposing this referendum and calling on lawmakers to stop legislating by constitutional amendment as an end-run around the governor’s veto pen.

Vote to preserve our constitution. Vote to protect our right to vote. Vote No.