July 18, 2016 — Ads have hit TV and radio airwaves in Wisconsin informing the public about the state’s requirement to show a photo ID to vote.
The administrator of the new state elections commission, Michael Haas, confirmed that the ads went on air starting last week.
Ads in other formats will soon follow, Haas said. In addition to traditional radio and television advertising, a plan approved by the elections commission calls for voter ID ads on websites and smartphone apps, in movie theaters and even on public transit vehicles.
In June, the Legislature’s budget committee approved spending $250,000 for a public education campaign on the controversial voter ID requirement.
The funds were requested by the state’s former elections agency, the Government Accountability Board. The law establishing voter ID in Wisconsin requires a public campaign be conducted to educate voters about it.
The Nov. 8 general election will be the first high-turnout general presidential election in which the requirement will be in effect in Wisconsin. Voter ID was made law in 2011, but it largely was on hold until 2015 due to court challenges.
Lawmakers provided $436,000 for a public education campaign in 2011 when the voter ID law was enacted.
The board spent about $181,000 of that crafting much of the advertising campaign that now is on air. But a 2012 court order halted the implementation of voter ID, and what was left of that money — which was slated to pay for the ads to air — was spent elsewhere or returned to the state treasury.
A state-created website, bring-it.wisconsin.gov, also exists to inform the public about voter ID.
