The lines have been non-stop at the Milwaukee City Clerk’s office – of people applying for the new Municipal ID card. They cannot use it for voting, but can use it for such things as opening a bank account or accessing prescriptions, if they don’t have any other kind of government ID.
The city has processed hundreds of applications since the public kickoff of the program a little over a week ago, including a steady stream of people passing through the City Clerk’s office at Milwaukee City Hall on Friday afternoon alone. Each person we approached declined to talk about why they wanted one of the city’s new identification cards.
Jessica Celella with the licensing division says the office has been churning out the IDs in big numbers.
“We’ve processed a little over 1,000 applications so far. Almost 800 of them have actually been issued and mailed out and the rest we are kind of processing. It usually takes a day or two to get several hundred out in the mail,” Celella says.
Celella says the program started quietly in December, but then the number of people applying for IDs kicked into high gear last week, after a public rollout. She says she expects more staggering numbers this Saturday and next, when the City Clerk’s office will hold walk-in hours. Up until then, you have to make an appointment.
