Senate committee advances amendment to enshrine photo voter ID in Wisconsin constitution after heated hearing

The Wisconsin Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety advanced Senate Joint Resolution 2, a proposed constitutional amendment that would require presentation of a photographic identification to vote, following a public hearing and an executive-session vote in which the measure’s supporters and opponents sharply disagreed over whether the change would protect election integrity or disenfranchise eligible voters.

The resolution’s author told the committee the measure is intended to ‘‘ensure that people of Wisconsin have full confidence in the security and the integrity of Wisconsin elections’’ and to prevent future courts from overturning voter‑ID statutes. ‘‘The only way to ensure that this or future supreme courts will not overturn voter ID is to enshrine this basic election integrity law in Wisconsin’s constitution,’’ the author said in testimony.

Supporters — including the bill’s author and backers who spoke to the committee — argued the proposal would lock an existing statutory requirement into the constitution so it could not be set aside by a future court majority. Legislative counsel told the committee the proposed amendment would require provisional ballots be available at polling places, but those provisional ballots would only be counted if the voter later presents a valid ID. ‘‘An individual who appears at the polls and doesn’t have a voter ID can vote a provisional ballot,’’ counsel…