Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker seems intent on winning the Wisconsin-weasel-of-the-year award by now claiming that a major reason he wants to eliminate same day voter registration is out of concern for overworked election workers and volunteers. Wisconsin poll workers wasted no time whapping back at that heap of malarky, as reported in Scott Walker's Plan To Eliminate Same-Day Voter Registration Opposed By Wisconsin Poll Workers.
Governor Walker called for elimination of same-day registration on November 16 out of purported concern for poll workers.
"States across the country that have same-day registration have real problems because the vast majority of their states have poll workers who are wonderful volunteers, who work 13-hour days and who in most cases are retirees," he said. "It's difficult for them to handle the volume of people who come at the last minute. It'd be much better if registration was done in advance of election day. It'd be easier for our clerks to handle that. All that needs to be done."
But Huffington Post has interviewed over a dozen poll workers who repudiate this notion.
"This whole idea that this is somehow a burden on poll workers is just not true, and I can guarantee you it's not the perception of the vast majority of the people who work at the polls," said Ruth Irvings, 61, who served as a poll worker in Milwaukee this year with her 24-year-old son.
"I've been a poll worker, and I've worked the registration table [in the last three elections]," added Lanore Rusch, 75, a Wausau resident. "We have no problem whatsoever. We aren't overworked. ... For Walker to say that the people who are doing the registration can't keep up is just foolish. He should come down and watch once in awhile."
Kevin Rusch, Lanore's 53-year-old son who has worked at the polls in Wausau for the last year and a half, was more blunt in his assessment of Walker's claim: "That's utter bullshit. I don't know who he's talking to."
Poll workers note that lots of reasons come up that require people to reregister at polls at election day such as address changes, or women getting married and changing their names.
Wisconsin voter advocacy groups delivered a petition with 15,000 signatures to Governor Walker's office opposing the elimination of same-day registration.
What a pleasure it is to see wise Wisconsin voters once again lead the way in holding wascally Republicans responsible for their cheesy voter suppression tactics.