Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
The city of Shawano went on record this week opposing efforts by a Washington, D.C.-based organization that has been trying to increase voter registration across the country.
The Shawano Common Council unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday requesting that the Voter Participation Center discontinue the practice of sending out unsolicited voter registration mailings and absentee ballot applications in the state of Wisconsin.
The resolution will be sent to the VPC and congressional representatives.
According to the resolution, which was drafted by the Wisconsin Municipal Clerks Association, the VPC “has mailed pre-filled voter registrations to voters who are already registered in Wisconsin, voters who are deceased, family pets, voters who have moved to a new addresses and voters in the wrong municipalities.”
Despite the resolution’s wording, the city has not had any problems with registrations being sent to deceased people or pets, according to City Clerk-Treasurer Karla Duchac.
However, Duchac said, there were about a dozen registration applications that were turned in to the city that did not include a photo ID.
That required city staff to contact those applicants and inform them the ID and proof of residency were required.
Duchac said some have responded by providing the necessary documentation and some have not.
She also said some registration forms from the VPC were turned in from people who were already registered.
Duchac conceded the VPC mailings have resulted in some people registering to vote who might otherwise not have done so.
While some of the more egregious errors of registration forms allegedly being sent to dead people and pets has not happened in Shawano, she said, “that doesn’t mean it won’t.”
Ultimately, Duchac said, the VPC mailings are creating additional work for municipal staff, particularly in cases where photo ID and proof of residency aren’t provided.
Duchac said an expected increase in the VPC’s efforts as election day nears could mean even more work for municipal staff.
“If we have to contact people, that takes time away from other things we could be doing,” she said.
Shawano County Clerk Pam Schmidt said she had not seen the city’s resolution and has not gotten reports from other municipal clerks in the county about problems as a result of the VPC registration effort.
“I haven’t heard a lot,” she said.
There has been, on the other hand, at least one glitch reported with another registration effort being conducted by the Electronic Registration Information Center, a nonprofit organization formed to assist states in improving the accuracy of America’s voter rolls and increasing access to voter registration.
Wisconsin is one of 21 states participating in the program, which sent 1.2 million registration forms to potential new voters in the state.
Schmidt said ERIC sent a registration form to one person in the county who was already registered to vote.
Other than that, she said, “I haven’t had any feedback from municipal clerks.”
Schmidt said such outside registration efforts can lead to a little more work for municipal clerks and their staff in cases where new registrants haven’t been informed they will need photo ID and proof of residency.
However, she said, it’s better to be doing that extra work now than on election day.
“Anything to alleviate the long lines,” she said.