Thanks for the reply Lisa! You're awesome.
When I use the url provided in the email it won't display but if I modify ID to literally anything like TESTID it comes up. I don't know where to change it so it doesn't pass "ID" in the url but something else like dispform.aspx?TESTID=112.
I should mention that I have the setting for "Read items that were created by the user" so that only the person who completed my online form can see their own items saved to the list.
When I initiate the workflow and assign an item to someone else it won't come up because they didn't create it and thus don't have permission to view it.
I tested turning off that setting and the email link works however I don't want all users to see everyone's submissions in that list on the allitems.aspx page.
so I'm not sure where the solution lies 1. fixing the query string like Microsoft recommends by changing the ID value to something else? or 2. fixing permissions in my list so when I assign an item created by someone else to a user using workflow it's visible
to them..