We have recently been notified by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) about a change in the expiration timeline of temporary receipts issued to Voter ID Petition Process (IDPP) applicants. The IDPP was established to allow voters who had difficulty obtaining all of the supporting documents necessary to be issued a Wisconsin State identification card for voting purposes. This process allows the voter to receive a receipt by mail roughly a week after they enter the process that can be used as photo ID for voting purposes while the DOT investigates and verifies their missing personal information. Once the information has been verified, they will be issued a state identification card that replaces the receipt that was issued when the voter entered the IDPP process.
Effective August 17, 2020, the temporary receipts issued to Voter ID Petition Process applicants are being issued with 60-day expiration dates instead of the 180-day expiration used for the past few years. This change was made based on guidance from the Wisconsin Department of Justice to ensure DOT compliance with Wisconsin Chapter 343.50(1)(c)(1). DOT had previously been operating under a court ruling which allowed for the 180-day period of validity. Beyond the change in the period of validity, the content of the temporary receipts remains unchanged.
All receipts issued prior to August 17, 2020 that were valid for 180 days remain valid through the expiration date on that document. As those 180-day receipts expire, they’ll be renewed with receipts valid for 60 days.
Examples:
- IDPP Temporary Receipt issued 8/15/2020 would expire 2/11/2021
- If they were not to withdraw from IDPP or be issued a card, DOT would issue them a new receipt, valid for 60-days, 10-days prior to the 2/11/21 expiration.
- IDPP Temporary Receipt issued 8/17/2020 would expire 10/14/2020
- If they were not to withdraw from IDPP or be issued a card, DOT would issue them a new receipt, valid for 60-days, 10-days prior to the 10/14/20 expiration.
WEC has voter outreach resources that you can use to provide information about this process or with voters who report difficulty in obtaining the supporting documents, such as a birth certificate, needed to obtain an ID card. A palm card that explains the IDPP process to voters that can be used at the polling place on election day is available here: https://bringit.wi.gov/free-id-and-identification-card-petition-process…. Additional outreach materials for the photo ID law are located here: https://bringit.wi.gov/multimedia.