There should be no “workarounds” to existing election integrity measures, said Mr. Stroebel, who added: “Any current practise for an individual who is not engaging in orchestrated mass ballot harvesting should be allowed by our bill…. In addition, a voter can mail in their ballot. ”
In Wisconsin, anyone applying for indefinitely confined status under the age of 65 would have to provide a doctor’s note as well. They point to the Milwaukee and Dane County clerks’ statements early last year that any voter could claim it because of a state-wide stay-at-home order, saying that requiring a photo ID would stop people from claiming the status fraudulently. Immediately after the Supreme Court of Wisconsin issued a rebuke, the clerks reversed their advice. Later, the Supreme Court affirmed that individual voters had the right to determine whether they were eligible for the status.
80 percent of those who applied for the status in Wisconsin last year had a photo ID on file, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
There was concern among the disabled population that the bill would require doctors to certify on matters outside of their scope of practise, and that insurance companies might refuse to cover office visits to obtain such notes, deeming them medically unnecessary..
In a statement, Denise Jess, the executive director of the Wisconsin Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired, said she was concerned that her doctor would not even be willing to make an assessment about her ability to travel to a polling location.
Voting in person is more convenient for Ms. Jess, who is blind, because polling places are equipped to allow those with visual impairments to cast their ballots on their own. In the future, she said, she may have to use an absentee ballot because she can’t travel to the polls, and she’ll have to find someone she can trust to mark it and return it.
A doctor’s note requirement was removed from Texas legislation, for example, as a result of disability rights groups’ lobbying. Some voters with disabilities, on the other hand, have found it difficult to voice their displeasure.
