Ballot to include referendum on same-day voter registration

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Milwaukee officials say an advisory referendum will speak volumes about the future of same-day voter registration. Milwaukee voters will have a chance next Tuesday, April 2nd to voice their opinion on whether people should be able to register to vote before casting their ballot.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett cast an in-person absentee ballot for next week's Spring election on Tuesday, March 26th, while at the same time, encouraging voters to support same-day voter registration.

"We think first of all, it would be much more expensive for the state to take away and abolish same-day voting, same-day registration," Barrett said.

Barrett's concerns have been backed by a report put forth by the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, which concluded it would cost the state $13 million to $14.5 million to get rid of same-day voter registration. The GAB says those costs would be driven by Wisconsin needed to comply with federal laws, such as registering voters at the DMV.

Wisconsin is currently exempt from those laws because it is one of 10 states that allows same-day registration.

"Just in November of last year, we had one in five voters in the city of Milwaukee. That was 54,000 people registered to vote and vote on Election Day," Milwaukee Election Commission Director Neil Albrecht said.

Same-day voter registration is popular in the city of Milwaukee, but do Milwaukee officials really need to defend same-sex voter registration?

Gov. Scott Walker said in December he was no longer interested in changing the policy because of the costs associated with doing so.

"There are still some legislators I believe are interested in abolishing it and we've seen with Assembly Bill 54, legislators who want to restrict the hours for early voting. I consider this all part of the war on voters," Gov. Walker said.

Assembly Bill 54 would set standard hours of 7:30 a.m. through 6:00 p.m. for early voting. The bill's sponsor, Duey Stroebel of Saukville says it's a matter of setting consistent early voting times across the state, and mentions nothing about same-day registration.

This referendum would have no direct impact on state law. Its supporters say it's simply about sending a message to Madison for lawmakers to keep same-day registration as it is.