Ads tell voters about ID law and lets them know felons can vote when they finish sentences

MADISON - Voting rights groups are launching an information blitz telling voters in poor neighborhoods how to get IDs for voting and alerting felons they can vote if they’ve completed their sentences.

The campaign includes ads on buses in Milwaukee and Madison and billboards in neighborhoods in those cities that have seen some of the steepest drop-offs in voting rates.

“Off paper? Free to vote,” says one billboard. “You have the right to vote in Wisconsin once you are off paper from a felony conviction.”

In Wisconsin, felons automatically get their voting rights back when they are out of prison and finished with their probation or extended supervision. In some other states, felons have far more difficulty in regaining the right to vote. 

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The voting rights groups are spending about $70,000 on the campaign, with Dane County putting another $45,000 in taxpayer money toward it.

The effort also includes mailers, radio ads, a website and a door-to-door canvassing campaign.

"The right to vote belongs to all citizens equally, and by uniting with this community and its leaders, we’re working to make sure all eligible voters know this fundamental right belongs to them and cannot be taken (away)," said Molly McGrath, director of the All Voting is Local campaign.

The campaign is a collaboration of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference of Civil Rights, the Campaign Legal Center, the American Constitution Society and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

The ads and billboard alert voters that they can get free IDs from the state to vote. It tells them to visit togetherwevote.org or call (608) 285-2141, where they can leave a voice message with questions that the groups say they will answer within 48 hours.

The billboards are being targeted in places where voting has dropped off in recent elections. The voting rights groups blame the 2011 voter ID law for those turnout reductions — a claim Republicans who passed the law dispute.

The American Civil Liberties Union with others has sued the state over the voter ID law. Courts have upheld the requirement to show IDs at the polls but have ordered the state to make it easier for people to get free IDs if they don't have birth certificates or other documents proving their identity.

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The ACLU’s lawsuit, along with one challenging other voting laws brought by other groups, remains before the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.

The voting rights groups contend the state hasn’t done enough to tell people about how to get IDs and what the requirements are for voting. Their information campaign is aimed at helping people vote if they don’t have what they need to cast a ballot.

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said his heavily Democratic county is helping to fund the effort because officials there want to make sure everyone knows their rights. He said the billboards will be placed in neighborhoods with high minority populations.

He said he thought the ad campaign was essential because many voters don’t know all the details of the voter ID law, such as that the address on a driver’s license does not have to be current to be valid for voting.

“Voter confusion is a real problem,” he said.

Neil Albrecht, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, said he thought the effort would help boost turnout. In Milwaukee in 2016, turnout dropped by 12% compared with 2012, with much larger dropouts in the most economically distressed neighborhoods, Albrecht said.

“Any and all public information that gets out to residents of the city is good for the city,” he said.