For most Election Days, I looked forward to seeing my friend's mother working at my polling place.

For at least 10 years, her mom – in her 70s at the time – was a familiar  face at the front table for voters like me who came to expect her smiling greeting as she checked off our names and handed us the appropriate ballot sheet.

In recent years, her mother took ill and stopped working at the polls. When she was there, things always ran smoothly and there was seldom any type of delays or misunderstanding, even during heavy voting days.

Most of the workers at my polling place were paid volunteers like my friend's mother, some retirees who were getting up in age but certainly capable of handling the specific duties.

That's why one major part of Gov. Scott Walker's stated reasons to do away with same-day voter registration in Wisconsin seems questionable at best and a case of unwarranted ageism at worse.

City leaders who don't want to change Wisconsin's long held tradition of same-day registration are urging residents to affirm a referendum question about same-day registration when they vote April 2. Mayor Tom Barrett and Election Commission Executive Director Neil Albrecht encouraged voters at a rally last Saturday to reject any proposals to  change a voting tradition that regularly gives the state one of the highest voter turnout in the nation.

Given how so many negative statistics are connected with Wisconsin and Milwaukee – including child mortality rates, black male incarceration, families in poverty, etc. – you would hope that leaders would want to protect  something that puts the community in a positive light.

Having a high voter turn-out would seem to be a good thing in any working democracy.

Not these days, when political animosity carries over to all areas of government. The latest move to eliminate same day registration is viewed with a partisan eye by groups that determine what's best for their particular candidate during a tight election and act accordingly.

Walker won two recent big elections for governor and turning back a recall but he seems convinced that changing the rules would be a good thing for voters and candidates.

Walker says he's concerned about all the elderly retirees like my friend's mother who work long hours and need things made easier for them on Election Day. Some skeptics are convinced Walker's main concern is more about helping his party win elections than reducing stress on poll workers who haven't complained about needing a break in recent years.

His political opponents tie Walker and other Republican efforts in Wisconsin to end same-day voting to a a series of election "reforms" being offered by various Republican state officials nationwide in the wake of the election – and subsequent reelection – of President Barack Obama.

The inference is that ending same-day registration and limiting the hours for in-person absentee voting could combat voter fraud. Since same-day voting registration and absentee ballots are all popular voting methods in big cities with large minority populations, many see any changes with same day registration as a form of voter suppression.

Milwaukee Ald. Milele Coggs wants the issue settled by the people, so she sponsored the ballot question that will appear on the ballot next week that asks: "Should the state of Wisconsin continue to permit citizens to register to vote at the polls on Election Day?"

The ballot will be printed in both English and Spanish on Election Day.

The final vote on the referendum question won't be binding, just advisory. But Coggs and others want the public to send a message to Walker and others that ending same day registration won't be popular with voters.

During the last election, 87 percent of registered voters in Milwaukee showed up at the polls, according to the city. But according to Albrecht, that number still represented just 60 percent of all eligible voters.

The specter of voter fraud that many Republicans in this city and nationwide use to justify drastic changes in voting procedure will likely be raised again after a spate of charges filed recently in Milwaukee against a handful of people accused of voting illegally. In most of those cases, changing same day registration wouldn't have made a difference.

If Walker just came out and said he wanted to end same-day registration due to widespread voter fraud, he wouldn't have much evidence to support that claim. Instead, he couched his opposition to same-day registration as a service to overwhelmed elderly poll workers but failed to get any input from that group to validate his opinion.

Some of us remember that Walker's own son took advantage of same-day registration last November to cast a vote for president.  It's a pretty bold move to tell voters "do as I say but not as I do."

My friend's mom, who always took her poll duties very seriously,  would probably not approve.