Last month, Iwo Jima veteran Leo Bradley went to his local Wisconsin polling place to cast his vote in a statewide election. He took the trip with wife and his veterans affairs card in hand, but was told that the card was not an “acceptable proof of his identity.”
He was told, “Only an active duty military card would be good enough.”

Here’s the truth: as a number states change their laws to make it harder for everyone to vote, veterans, especially retired veterans who no long carry active drivers licenses, are often left out in the cold.

That has to change:

Sign the petition calling on Governor Scott Walker and the Wisconsin State Legislature to change the “Wisconsin Voter ID Law” to specifically include a Dept. of Veterans Affairs card as an accepted form of identification at polling places across the state.

Leo Bradley’s niece, Justice Anne Walsh Bradley, happens to sit on the state’s Supreme Court, which is how this issue got our attention. But how many veterans — Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike — without powerful relatives have had their right to vote taken away from them, and how many more will be turned away at the polls this November?

Justice Bradley wrote in her letter to Governor Walker, “My Uncle Leo served during Iwo Jima, which has been described as one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. … Now my Uncle Leo fights another battle — the battle to be able to vote in his hometown of almost 60 years.”

I’m happy to join Uncle Leo in his fight against discriminatory voter ID laws. And if you add your name, VoteVets will make sure Scott Walker knows where veterans, military family members, and VoteVets supporters stand on this issue.