Wisconsin--Taking away voting rights

Posted: Sep 8, 2011

Madison -- A low-level state employee was fired Thursday after he sent an email to his fellow employees telling them about the state Department of Transportation’s policy on giving out free photo identification cards for voting. Chris Larsen, who had worked in the mail room at the state Department of Safety and Professional Services, sent an email Thursday morning to all employees at the agency’s headquarters explaining that the DOT would provide photo IDs to people only if they specifically asked to have the fee waived. A couple of hours later, Larsen was fired. Larsen, however, said he had not previously been disciplined. In May, Republicans approved a requirement that voters show photo ID at the polls starting next year. They also told the DOT to give out free IDs for voting purposes to ensure the ID requirement was not an illegal poll tax. The department began giving out the free IDs in July but told employees in a memo to provide them for free only if people asked not to be charged. If they don’t ask, they are charged $28. ;