Local universities have found thrifty ways to make student IDs mesh with looming requirements at the polls, but their plans rest on a state board’s interpretation of the new voter ID law. Student IDs at Viterbo University and the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse will not be accepted as valid forms of photo ID when the law takes effect next year.
All student IDs will need a signature and posted issuance and expiration dates with a two-year life span to be acceptable for voting. UW-L officials plan to keep existing student IDs and issue an extra voting card to students upon request.
“We’re only going to provide these to students that need them and request them,” said Larry Ringgenberg, UW-L director of university centers. “Typically, we’re not seeing this as a huge population of our students.”
The idea is that only students lacking an approved form of photo ID would ask the university for a student ID that works at the polls, Ringgenberg said. Acceptable forms of ID under the new law include in-state driver’s licenses, passports and military IDs.
UW-L’s new student IDs would cost the school roughly $2 each to make, but the total cost depends on student demand, Ringgenberg said. The voting cards would not include a magnetic strip for buying food or checking out library books.
The university won’t move forward until the plan receives approval from the Government Accountability Board, the body charged with interpreting the new law.
A number of schools in the UW system are considering similar steps, said Reid Magney, spokesman for the state board.
Viterbo officials considered board-approved stickers for the university’s student IDs but have pushed the pause button over questions about whether they’d be valid.
Full Article: Universities waiting for answers on ID cards.