Wisconsin Democrat JoCasta Zamarripa, the party’s nominee for secretary of state, says her number one priority if elected will be pushing the governor to sign a bill granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants living in the state.
“My number one priority is to see the governor sign driver’s licenses for undocumented Wisconsinites into law,” Zamarripa told Wisconsin television station WMTV in an October 14 interview. She said she hopes the state’s next governor will be fellow Democrat David Crowley.
The secretary of state’s office has no direct authority to pass legislation, but Zamarripa said she intends to use the position to push for the policy anyway. “I’ll no longer be that legislator with the vote in that way, but I believe I can use the office as a platform. I’ll be able to use my soapbox,” she said.
Asked whether Crowley had agreed to back the proposal, Zamarripa admitted the two had not yet discussed it. “We’re going to talk soon,” she said, adding that she expects Crowley to support legislation she previously championed as a state Assembly member.
Zamarripa argued the change would improve road safety by bringing more drivers into licensing and insurance systems. “Driver’s licenses for undocumented Wisconsinites is going to improve the public safety of all Wisconsinites,” she said.
Election system concerns
Federal law bars noncitizens from voting in federal elections, with narrow exceptions, and the National Voter Registration Act requires states to offer voter registration through driver’s license applications — a link that has caused problems elsewhere.
Minnesota’s 2023 Driver’s Licenses for All law allowed residents to get standard licenses regardless of immigration status while also setting up automatic voter registration through license and ID transactions, with citizenship checks meant to keep the two processes separate. In September 2024, Minnesota’s secretary of state acknowledged officials had flagged a small number of registration files for extra review over citizenship documentation. Officials said some discrepancies traced back to misclassified or improperly saved documents and said affected applicants could still be eligible voters. A July 2026 legislative audit found Minnesota’s registration procedures were largely adequate, though some counties had failed to update records accurately.
The issue isn’t confined to one state or one party. A September 2026 Reuters investigation found more than 30,000 instances since 2000 in which people who identified themselves as noncitizens were mistakenly added to voter rolls through administrative errors across at least 12 states — in some cases despite explicitly stating they were not citizens.
The other race on the ballot
Zamarripa’s Republican opponent, Jay Schroeder, has proposed moving election administration into the secretary of state’s office and eliminating the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission. Zamarripa opposes that plan, warning it could undermine the state’s election system. Neither candidate’s proposal could take effect without action by the state legislature.
