New voter ID requirements in Wisconsin create dilemma for transgenders at polls

A possible 35,000 could be affected

There’s a growing concern about how Wisconsin’s voter photo ID rules will impact transgender voters.

They’re dilemma at the polls is they may present as a person with one name and gender with an official ID that tells a much different story.

“You know how the situation,” explained 7 Rivers LGBTQ Connection in La Crosse, Jessica Polacek. “They walk into a voting center and they present their ID with their old name, their old picture, their old gender marker and the person working that polling site is going to say, ‘Wait a minute, this doesn’t match.’ And the’y’re going to refuse that person a ballot.”

Polacek suggests up to 35,000 voters in the state may have issues at the ballot with photo ID requirements.   

“A number that large, can swing an election here in Wisconsin,” Polacek said. “It can change what our electoral votes look like.”

Polacek says there have already been reports this year of transgender voters being harassed at the polls by election workers. There could be a whole lot more with a big turnout expected for the presidential election next week.  

She says it’s clearly a disenfranchisement in the making and one Without many people caring.

“This is a sad fact of humanity, honestly,” Polacek said. “Most people, myself included, we really don’t learn about things until it affects us.”

Polacek says one of her fears is the conflicts that could arise at the polling place should an election clerk question an ID and reveal a transgender voter publicly – possibly to a hostile public.