State officials told a judge they had trained workers to make sure people could easily get IDs for voting, but an audio recording was released Thursday of Division of Motor Vehicles employees telling a man he couldn’t get one quickly because he didn’t have a birth certificate with him. “You don’t get anything right away,” one DMV employee said on the recording. How IDs are handled is “up in the air right now,” said another. The recordings were made Sept. 22, the same day Attorney General Brad Schimel filed court documents claiming DMV “field staff are now trained to ensure that anyone who fills out these forms will receive a photo ID, mailed to them within six days of their application,” even if they don’t have a birth certificate. The Nation first reported on the recording, which was made by Molly McGrath, the national campaign coordinator with VoteRiders, a group opposed to voter ID laws that also helps people get IDs.
McGrath, who also provided a copy of the recording to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, said her group visited 10 DMV stations around Wisconsin. DMV employees gave the visitors answers “all over the board” regarding how long it would take to get an ID, she said.
Wisconsin’s voter ID law requires the state to give people free IDs for voting. U.S. District Judge James Peterson in July found the state’s process for providing IDs to people who don’t have birth certificates violates voting rights. To fix it, the state has made changes by saying it would promptly provide temporary voting credentials to anyone who seeks them.
Full Article: DMV gives wrong information on voter ID.