Gov. Jim Doyle on Friday vetoed bills to require voters to show a photo ID and to drop the enrollment limit on Milwaukee's school choice program.

Assembly Republicans promised to try to override his veto of the photo ID bill (AB 63) on Tuesday, although it passed the Assembly on a 64-33 vote - two votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override Doyle.

Doyle quietly vetoed both bills in his Capitol office after 5 p.m. Friday - timing that Republicans said proved that the governor did not want to explain his actions publicly. Republicans said the photo ID requirement has overwhelming public support.

"It looks like he's got something to hide," said Assembly Speaker John Gard (R-Peshtigo).

Doyle aide Dan Leistikow denied that the governor tried to avoid publicity.

"Neither of these vetoes should come as a surprise to Republicans," Leistikow said.

If the override attempt fails, Gard said, "We have another alternative coming." He and other Republicans talked about the possibility of amending the state constitution - which could not happen before 2007 - to require a photo ID for voters. The Legislature also could take up another version of the photo ID requirement, they said.

Doyle vetoed such a requirement in 2003. Explaining his second veto of the photo ID proposal, Doyle said in a statement that it would have "disenfranchised" up to 100,000 senior citizens who don't have driver's licenses.

The bill also would have allowed poll workers to accept a new state-issued ID or a military ID. For those who could not have afforded the state ID, one would have been provided free, under the bill.

But Doyle said requiring a photo ID would do nothing to correct "management and process problems" in Wisconsin's voting systems. He said that changes he recommended, including better training of poll workers, were better solutions.

A photo ID would "make Wisconsin's election laws the strictest in the country, and put us on equal footing with South Carolina - a state that had one of the worst voter turnouts in the nation in the 2004 elections," Doyle said.

But Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale) said it was a "lie" to say his photo ID bill would have been the strictest in the nation.

Stone said legislators fixed many of the problems Doyle cited in his first veto, but the governor still refused to accept the second bill. A photo ID should be required "as we learn more and more about the failures of our current system," Stone said.

In November's presidential election, the Journal Sentinel found in Milwaukee a 7,000-vote gap, with more ballots cast than people recorded as having voted; problems with vote totals at dozens of wards; about 1,200 votes cast from invalid city addresses; and votes illegally cast by felons.

Sen. Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan) said he could add the photo ID requirement to a package of reforms expected to be debated this fall. Requiring a photo ID "is very popular with the majority of citizens in this state," he added.

The state Senate would try to override Doyle's veto only if the Assembly did so first. The Senate passed the bill 21-12 - one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to force a bill to become law over the governor's objection.

Doyle also vetoed a bill (AB 3) that would have raised for the coming school year the enrollment limit on Milwaukee's school choice program, which allows children from low-income families to attend private schools at state expense.

The choice bill would have allowed another 1,500 students to enroll in the program beginning this fall. It was the third time Doyle vetoed legislation that called for raising or eliminating the voucher program cap.

In a statement, Doyle said the bill could have slashed state aid to Milwaukee Public Schools by $15 million or more and forced a property tax increase in excess of $2 million for the city.

Doyle said he was open to allowing more students into the program, but that it must be tied to increases in funding for smaller class sizes.

But Gard said he didn't believe the governor would ever support lifting the cap.

"The governor has been whispering sweet nothings in people's ears for years on this, and the truth is he's not a serious guy on this," Gard said.

Gard said he had not decided whether to try to override the measure, which the Assembly passed 58 to 35.

Stone said he wanted to include a similar provision in the state budget.

He said the governor may be more willing to sign the measure once he knows how much money legislators include for schools in the budget.

More than 100 schools already in the voucher program - and others that intend to start up this fall - have been enrolling students as if the cap would be eliminated.

When the Legislature approved expanding the Milwaukee-only voucher program in 1995, it set a cap for the program of 15% of the total enrollment in MPS. That level had not been approached until this year.

The cap for this year would have equaled about 14,800 full-time students. On the official attendance day in January, choice schools reported only 13,386.

Meanwhile, about 50 schools or potential schools have applied to be added to the voucher program for this fall.

Alan J. Borsuk of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report