MADISON, Wis. — Friday’s computer problems in the Wisconsin Department of Administration not only slowed down some early voting and local clerk duties, it has a Democratic Representative demanding more time to vote.
The Government Accountability Board says the state servers went down at about 8:30 in the morning, and were back up and running by 1:30 p.m. For five hours, municipal and county clerks could not access the state’s WisVote voter registration and election management system. Voters were still able to obtain and cast ballots, despite the server issues. Division of Motor Vehicles officials also had trouble issuing licenses and identification cards.
Assembly Minority Leader Katrina Shankland of Stevens Point issued a statement calling on Governor Scott Walker to expand voting hours and DMV hours before the election because taxpayers were unable to complete their tasks Friday morning. Governor Walker hasn’t commented on Shankland’s demand.
It’s unclear what, if any, additional taxpayer cost would be incurred if Democrats got the expanded hours they desire.
Shankland and her Democratic colleagues have been critical of election law changes made by Republicans earlier this year, which include standardizing early voting at clerks offices to weekdays. The Supreme Court also upheld the voter I-D law, which isn’t popular with Democrats. Republicans say the many acceptable I-D’s, the ten business days of in person voting, plus the absentee balloting by mail do not deny voters their rights or ability to cast a ballot.
by Larry Lee, WSAU
