Stone Hails the Passing of the Voter ID Bill

Gov. Scott Walker signed the voter ID bill today that requires everyone to show an ID at the polls.

But there are opposed groups that are suing to block it from taking into effect.

For decades republicans and democrats have argued about the voter ID bill. Republicans believe that the bill will prevent voter fraud, while democrats believe that it will discourage people from voting, especially college students, seniors, minorities and people with disabilities.

Greendale State Rep. Jeff Stone and Sen. Joe Leibham were the leaders behind the bill.

“Today I was thrilled to sign legislation into law that I worked on 10 years ago, which will go a long way to protecting the integrity of elections in Wisconsin,” said Walker.  “According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation in our state there are just under 4.5 million drivers licenses and state issued ID cards, and according to the Government Accountability Board there are just under 3.5 million registered voters. Senator Leibham and Representative Stone have provided leadership on this issue for years, and because of their efforts I was able to sign this common sense reform.”

Stone says many people were looking forward to the passing of the bill.

“It is hard to believe it took this long for such a common sense bill to become law. I would like to thank the Governor for signing the bill and in particular would like to thank Senator Leibham for all the time and effort he and his staff have put into making the photo ID law a reality,” Stone said in a release. “In all my time as a
legislator, there really has been no other item that so many people wanted to see passed into law. Today marks a milestone in our effort to protect the integrity of our election process. We now will have the confidence that everyone that wants to cast a vote can and that no one’s vote will be taken from them.”

Leibham also demonstrated his gratitude to his collegues, including Greendale State Sen. Mary Lazich.

“The goal of the legislation is to add an additional and reasonable safeguard to our election process while ensuring that no legal and responsible voter will be denied the right to cast a ballot and have it counted,” Senator Leibham said.  “The vast majority of the residents of the State of Wisconsin support this common sense reform and I appreciate the work of Representative Stone, Senator Mary
Lazich, Representative Gary Tauchen and Governor Walker to move this initiative forward on behalf of our citizens.”