http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/dave_zweifel/article_b8cc7502-a031-5240-b250-eea65750747a.html
Plain Talk: Participating in democracy just got tougher for elderly
DAVE ZWEIFEL | Cap Times editor emeritus |
Posted: Monday, October 31, 2011 4:30 am
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SCHREINER – State Journal
Adeline Marty, 97, of DeForest, waits to have a photo ID card made at a
Madison DMV Center so that she can vote.
Back in July, I wrote about a 101-year-old woman named Gladys
Butterfield of Rhinelander who, after faithfully voting for the past 80
years, was faced with having to visit a Division of Motor Vehicles
office to get — thanks to Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans in the
Legislature — an ID card so she can continue taking part in American
democracy.
Her daughter, Gail Bloom, had written me about the inconvenience it was
causing her mom, who is in a wheelchair.
“Because she no longer has a driver’s license and her baptismal record
isn’t acceptable as proof of her identity, she has had to apply for and
pay $20 for a state-certified birth certificate,” Gail wrote. “She is
not exempt from needing an ID as those in nursing homes are because my
sister and I have been able to care for her in her home.
“The next step is to take her in her wheelchair to the Department of
Transportation to wait in line to have her picture taken. If she doesn’t
request a free voter ID, she will have to pay an additional $28,” Gail
noted.
Thankfully, Gladys now has her ID, but it wasn’t a pleasant task, Gail
reports in a follow-up note.
“I thought you might be interested in what transpired when I took her to
the Department of Transportation,” she wrote. “Although she had a note
from the local senior center asking the DOT to allow her to go to the
front of the line in her wheelchair, a DOT worker with an attitude made
us feel as though it was an awful imposition for this to happen.
“When the DOT worker finally allowed her to move ahead, it still took 45
minutes to complete the procedure during which time she was asked to get
out of her wheelchair twice, once to have her picture taken and once to
sign the application,” she added. “Because we knew to ask for a free ID,
we were not charged $28 for it.”
“Anyone who thinks this is an easy procedure has never taken a person in
need of a wheelchair on a round trip anywhere,” Gail concluded.
Coincidentally, my wife Sandy is faced with a similar challenge with her
96-year-old father. He, too, no longer has a driver’s license, doesn’t
live in a nursing home and now has to get to DOT so he can vote next
spring as he’s done since he turned 21. He’s not in a wheelchair, but
walking long distances can be a challenge.
Is there any question that thousands of seniors are essentially being
shut out of their democratic right to vote by this completely unneeded
legislation?
As I’ve said before, these legislators and this governor ought to be
hanging their heads in shame.
/Dave Zweifel is editor emeritus of The Capital Times.
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>/
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