Two of our team members have recently moved to new states that are battlegrounds for key TBAF issues. When it comes to moving to a new state, registering to vote is important, but different states have different processes to go through the voter registration process.
TBAF President John Pudner moved back to battleground Wisconsin, where the legislature considers measures to count early votes early (rather than drag out way beyond election day), a shot of election integrity measures and Final-Five voting. When Pudner was going through the process of registering to vote, he was happy to verify his residency in the state of Wisconsin by obtaining an ID. Years ago he voted in Wisconsin while a student, and no laws were in place to require him to even show a Photo ID to verify who he was. This time he was happy to take a couple of extra steps like reach out to the town of Potsdam, NY to mail him his certified birth certificate and showing a lease to verify his address and get a driver’s license. After getting through this process and officially registering to vote in the state of Wisconsin, Pudner has officially cast his vote (Pictured below) for a local election in Milwaukee, WI.
TBAF Eastern Field Director Johnny Babilon (Pictured Below) faced a very different situation when he registered to vote in his new state of Maine. When Babilon moved into his new residence in Biddeford, ME he immediately went to the Biddeford City Hall to go through the process of registering to vote in his new home state. To the worry of Babilon, there was no real process to ensure that he was actually a resident of the city or even the state of Maine. Since a Maine driver's license isn’t required to register to vote, Babilon used his Virginia drivers license as well as a utility bill to prove his residency. The problem occurred when he wasn’t even asked to provide the utility bill to prove he actually lived where he said he did. Instead they asked him for an Amazon order to the address. Babilon said, “It is really worrying that anybody can ship something to a Maine address and claim eligibility to vote in the state of Maine.”
With these contrasting experiences of two of our own team members, it shows the glaring differences in Voter ID laws between different states. As a group that works on fair and honest elections throughout the country, the process of registering voters is the key to ensuring voter integrity.
For more on TBORA's efforts on election integrity, please click here.