As we watch the historic threat to our financial system, good news is in the air politically and legally.
From Adam Skaggs on the dismissal of the voter suppression case.
In Wisconsin this morning, Judge Maryann Sumi dismissed all claims in a case brought against the state's elections agency by the Wisconsin Attorney General. We've written about this case before, and why it was troubling: if the court hadn't thrown out the Attorney General's case, it could have put between 53,000 and 200,000 Wisconsin Voters at risk of having to vote provisional ballots. And, historically, as few as 30%of provisional ballots cast in Wisconsin actually get counted.
In rejecting the Attorney General's arguments, the court correctly reached two important conclusions (among other reasons for tossing the case). First, it rightly concluded that nothing in the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires states to condition a voter's eligibility to vote on a successful database match - an argument we pressed in our amicus brief. Second, the court concluded that denying a voter's right to have their ballot counted because of a typo or data entry error made by a government clerk violated Section 1971 of the Voting Rights Act, the so-called 'materiality provision.' (A federal court relied on that law, which provides that no voter can be denied the right to register or vote based on a mistake that's not material to determining the voter's eligibility, in striking down Washington State's strict no match, no vote law when we challenged it in 2006. More recently, we argued that the materiality provision prohibited rejecting an Ohio voter's request for an absentee ballot just because the voter failed to mark a superfluous check-box.) Although the Attorney General has said he'll appeal the court's ruling, the decision was absolutely correct on the merits, and we are hopeful that the appellate courts won't waste any time before affirming the dismissal. That way Wisconsin election officials will be able to get back to the important business of ensuring a smooth election.
What we know as Wisconsin citizens is that Van Hollen is a liar and a corrupt partisan unfit for office.
No comments:
Post a Comment