As expected, last week Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed an election bill into law. Significantly, the bill provides for online voter registration. But it comes at a high cost.
That cost is not the money required to modernize the state’s voter registration system. In fact, by reducing the costs associated with producing and processing paper registration applications, online registration is proven to result in significant cost-savings. Instead, it is traditionally underrepresented voters who will pay the price for this bill. The most harmful provision buried in the bill effectively stops groups from organizing community voter registration drives.