Three Republican members of the state Legislature are asking the state to consider eliminating election-day registration as a way to decrease voter fraud. Election Day registration was used by more than 390,000 people, or about 20 percent of those who voted, according to an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Current law requires those who register on election days to show proof of residence with a driver’s license, recent utility bill or other document.

Those who register with a municipal clerk’s office more than 13 days before an election do not have to show proof of residence to get on voting rolls. These people are supposed to have registration cards sent to their homes. Auditors found more than 40 percent of communities did not follow up by sending the cards.

While there are obvious flaws with the current registration system, cutting off the option of same-day voting is a step in the wrong direction.

The most likely consequence of removing same-day registration would be the disenfranchisement of thousands of minorities, senior citizens and poor people. If approved, this proposal would take many of these people out of voting booths, dramatically lowering already low voter turnout. An additional deadline to qualify to vote would be easily forgotten by some of these groups, and would be difficult to fit into already packed schedules for others.

It’s worth the mess of confirming citizen’s information on election days to keep voter participation numbers high. As a state, we should be proud that our voter turnout is typically higher than in many other areas of the country.

To help fix the system, it would make more sense to focus attention on educating poll workers and municipal clerks on how to correctly verify information.

However, creating roadblocks for groups of people who typically have a difficult time getting to the polls, and often vote for Democrats when they do, is an insensitive move by these Republican lawmakers.