Officials at UW-Madison have taken steps to make it easier for their students to vote on campus.
Students voting on campus are able to go to the polls on Election Day to obtain a voter ID, in accordance with state law.
The Cap Times reports:
University of Wisconsin-Madison students voting on campus who lack proper identification will be able to remedy the problem at their polling place this fall.
UW-Madison will offer voter ID service stations on Election Day at polling places located on campus, said Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell.
“It means you can just tell students, go to the polls and vote. Don’t worry about it,” McDonell said. “That’s really kind of an important shift when we’re talking about voter ID. Voting’s easy. If there are any problems, they can be resolved at the polls.”
While some college campuses in Wisconsin — UW-Green Bay and Edgewood College, for instance — opted to update their student ID cards to make them compliant with the state’s voter ID law, UW-Madison chose to instead issue a separate voting card.
McDonell suggested the university could print paper versions of the card for students on Election Day, much like the Division of Motor Vehicles does when it issues driver’s licenses and ID cards. University officials agreed, and the state’s newly-established elections commission determined it would be OK.
McDonell, along with several student groups,
urged UW officials in October 2015 to follow the lead of colleges that reformatted their student IDs to conform with voter ID requirements. At the time, he warned confusion over the two IDs may cause delays at the polls.
