{"id":397,"date":"2017-02-12T22:11:25","date_gmt":"2017-02-12T22:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/?p=397"},"modified":"2025-05-08T16:43:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T16:43:13","slug":"debras-voter-id-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Debra’s Voter ID Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Debra is a lifelong resident of Madison, WI and a lung cancer survivor. She lives in an apartment complex for low-income people with disabilities.<\/p>\n

She no longer drives, and had let her WI driver\u2019s license expire.<\/p>\n

Debra didn\u2019t realize that she would not be able to use her expired license to vote until she talked to a VoteRiders organizer at a local church. But she was nervous about taking the bus to the DMV alone and navigating the bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m going to be 60 this year, and my mind\u2019s not working so well. I\u2019m kind of afraid to get on the bus and go someplace I\u2019ve never been. I don\u2019t want to feel lost.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

VoteRiders’ Molly McGrath drove Debra to the DMV to help her apply for a free non-driver\u2019s ID to vote.<\/p>\n

Read about Debra and other voters VoteRiders has helped here:\u00a0“New ID laws, long lines raise allegations of U.S. voting discrimination”<\/a>\u00a0by Daniel Dale in the Toronto Star.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debra is a lifelong resident of Madison, WI and a lung cancer survivor. She lives in an apartment complex for low-income people with disabilities. She no longer drives, and had let her WI driver\u2019s license expire. Debra didn\u2019t realize that she would not be able to use her expired license to vote until she talked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-voter-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDebra's Voter ID Story • VoteRiders<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Debra's Voter ID Story\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Debra is a lifelong resident of Madison, WI and a lung cancer survivor. She lives in an apartment complex for low-income people with disabilities. She no longer drives, and had let her WI driver\u2019s license expire. Debra didn\u2019t realize that she would not be able to use her expired license to vote until she talked […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"VoteRiders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VoteRiders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-12T22:11:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-08T16:43:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Debra-3024x2353-745x450-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"745\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Erin Carden\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@voteriders\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@voteriders\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erin Carden\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Erin Carden\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#\/schema\/person\/97d24340d9ed4c871282d30b807c9490\"},\"headline\":\"Debra’s Voter ID Story\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-12T22:11:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-08T16:43:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/\"},\"wordCount\":174,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Debra-3024x2353-745x450-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Voter Stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/\",\"name\":\"Debra's Voter ID Story • VoteRiders\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Debra-3024x2353-745x450-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-12T22:11:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-08T16:43:13+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Debra-3024x2353-745x450-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Debra-3024x2353-745x450-1.jpg\",\"width\":745,\"height\":450,\"caption\":\"Voter Debra in Wisconsin\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Debra’s Voter ID Story\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/\",\"name\":\"VoteRiders\",\"description\":\"Voter ID Info and Help\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"VoteRiders\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Vote-Riders-61.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Vote-Riders-61.png\",\"width\":1251,\"height\":1251,\"caption\":\"VoteRiders\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VoteRiders\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/voteriders\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thevoteriders\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/voteriders\",\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/user\/VoteRiders\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/VoteRiders\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#\/schema\/person\/97d24340d9ed4c871282d30b807c9490\",\"name\":\"Erin Carden\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9093e4afab723d8b7cc7d8c2b877033b8f8269f39052b1aadb7a8e8381b9f91?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9093e4afab723d8b7cc7d8c2b877033b8f8269f39052b1aadb7a8e8381b9f91?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Erin Carden\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/author\/erin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Debra's Voter ID Story • VoteRiders","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Debra's Voter ID Story","og_description":"Debra is a lifelong resident of Madison, WI and a lung cancer survivor. She lives in an apartment complex for low-income people with disabilities. She no longer drives, and had let her WI driver\u2019s license expire. Debra didn\u2019t realize that she would not be able to use her expired license to vote until she talked […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/","og_site_name":"VoteRiders","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VoteRiders","article_published_time":"2017-02-12T22:11:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-08T16:43:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":745,"height":450,"url":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Debra-3024x2353-745x450-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Erin Carden","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@voteriders","twitter_site":"@voteriders","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Erin Carden","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/"},"author":{"name":"Erin Carden","@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#\/schema\/person\/97d24340d9ed4c871282d30b807c9490"},"headline":"Debra’s Voter ID Story","datePublished":"2017-02-12T22:11:25+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-08T16:43:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/"},"wordCount":174,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Debra-3024x2353-745x450-1.jpg","articleSection":["Voter Stories"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/","url":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/","name":"Debra's Voter ID Story • VoteRiders","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Debra-3024x2353-745x450-1.jpg","datePublished":"2017-02-12T22:11:25+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-08T16:43:13+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Debra-3024x2353-745x450-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Debra-3024x2353-745x450-1.jpg","width":745,"height":450,"caption":"Voter Debra in Wisconsin"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/debras-voter-id-story\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Debra’s Voter ID Story"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/","name":"VoteRiders","description":"Voter ID Info and Help","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#organization","name":"VoteRiders","url":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Vote-Riders-61.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Vote-Riders-61.png","width":1251,"height":1251,"caption":"VoteRiders"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VoteRiders","https:\/\/x.com\/voteriders","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thevoteriders\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/voteriders","https:\/\/youtube.com\/user\/VoteRiders","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/VoteRiders"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#\/schema\/person\/97d24340d9ed4c871282d30b807c9490","name":"Erin Carden","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9093e4afab723d8b7cc7d8c2b877033b8f8269f39052b1aadb7a8e8381b9f91?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9093e4afab723d8b7cc7d8c2b877033b8f8269f39052b1aadb7a8e8381b9f91?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Erin Carden"},"url":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/author\/erin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5682,"href":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions\/5682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voteriders.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}