Campaign 2018: Early Voting Is Key to Ending Republican Party Anti-Voter Laws

Madison, Wisconsin — The Republican Party's war on voting has taken a toll on 10,000s of Wisconsin voters.

But thanks to a federal voting rights case, One Wisconsin Institute v. Thomsen, metro voting districts have been freed to offer voters increased access to cast ballots and have those ballots counted, (In These Times).

Madison has led the way, with Milwaukee and other municipalities following suit, (Wisconsin State Journal).

In Dane County, defending voting rights from Republicans and only Republicans has become a community effort, to the chagrin of Republicans who complained about "too much access to the voters," (The Capital Times).

Groups such as the Dane County Voter ID Coalition reach out to disabled seniors, students, and ethnic minorities, frequent targets of voter obstruction.

"We go to where we think voting rights may be at risk—food pantries, college campuses, homeless shelters—to register voters and help them get an ID, including taking them to the DMV," says Marian Matthews of the League of Women Voters of Dane County. "I feel strongly about social justice and I think voting rights are critical to achieving it," (In These Times).

Julia Gilden of the All Voting Is Local campaign works with hundreds of people in Dane County in the fight for the vote, (Sommerhauser, Wisconsin State Journal).

Reports the Wisconsin State Journal:

In Madison, Milwaukee and other Wisconsin cities, the campaign has enlisted volunteers to go door-to-door, mostly in low-income neighborhoods with a larger share of voters who could struggle to comply with the ID requirement. Voter turnout data also are used to target neighborhoods that saw significant turnout drops in the 2016 election.

The volunteers ask voters if they have the ID they need to vote, and if not, they steer them to someone who can help them get one. 

Bottomline: Voters are turning out in record numbers and Republicans are desperate.

Reports Chris Aadland in the Wisconsin State Journal this week:

The number of people voting early in Madison and Milwaukee has already set records for a midterm election, and officials in both cities expect the surge in early voting to continue.

With Election Day one week away, 22,387 in-person early ballots have been cast in Madison — well over double the number who voted early in the last midterm election in 2014 — as of Monday afternoon.

'We’ve already set a record,' Mayor Paul Soglin said Tuesday. 'Based on what’s happened to date, based in terms of early voting, we will undoubtedly set a new record' for overall turnout.

Near-presidential level turnout likely spells doom for Republicans across Wisconsin. Wisconsin voters whom the Republican Party have obstructed likely won't be casting ballots for Republicans this time around.

And not just in Wisconsin.

Voters casting ballots is a phenomenon Republicans have worked against for many years across America.

Early voting is a weapon against this anti-democratic effort.

Reports Audrey Carlsen in the New York Times this morning:

More Americans are taking advantage of absentee and early voting this year, with 28 million ballots already cast nationwide and four days of the campaign still to go. In 18 states and Washington, D.C., advance vote counts have already surpassed those of the last midterm election.

In Wisconsin, 420,015 ballots have been cast as of Nov 1, reports Carlsen.

A new legal, legislative and administrative offensive against voters by Republicans will be waged before 2020.

Gov. Scott Walker Will Lose by Four Points, Says Harry Enten

Scott Walker equals underdog, desperate, sinking ship ...

Madison, Wisconsin — Gov. Scott Walker (R) will lose his reelection bid by four percentage points to Tony Evers, Democratic Party nominee, says polling expert Harry Enten, (CNN).

Enten's model tracks with conventional wisdom that paints a hostile terrain for Walker, (Bauer, AP), (Nichols, The Nation).

Moreover, Enten's model does not account for increased turnout from populous Wisconsin municipalities that tend to vote Democratic-progressive.

Wisconsin cities have contacted Madison election officials (second largest city) asking about facilitating voter turnout.

Bureaucratic training of metro election officials has accelerated following a 2016 federal court decision that freed municipal election officials to pursue voter-friendly policies.

Green Bay, third largest city, is expected to have near-presidential turnout, a local election official says.

Scott Walker and Republicans are desperate, and a new round of negative, dark-money ads are flooding the state.

But Walker and Republicans have maxed-out the low-information, racist, stupid vote, and a visit by Donald Trump likely cannot save Scott Walker.

All Walker and Republicans can do is scream black and brown people are going to kill you, as early-vote numbers come in signaling the end of Wisconsin's worst era in its statehood.

2,008 Madisonians voted at one of our in-person absentee voting locations today making it our busiest day yet this election! To date, 11,616 voters have voted in-person absente, and 16,148 total absentee ballots have been cast in the City of Madison. pic.twitter.com/7fSZhrxhkm

— Madison WI Clerk (@MadisonWIClerk) October 24, 2018

So you've heard Donald Trump is appearing in Wisconsin with
Scott Walker. You know they're racist. You know they're
sexist. And you know they have a terrible record on
just about every issue imaginable.

You also know the visit is going to be splashed across
newspapers and television screens across the
state ad nauseam, and there's probably not much you can
do about that.

But there is something you can do right now to help stop
Donald Trump and Scott Walker's racist, sexist agenda:
VOTE. EARLY.

Stop what you're doing. Go to the polls. And vote. Right now.

Need help? Start here. Via One Wisconsin Now

Wisconsin Midterms — Dems' Get out the Vote v. GOP's Stop the Vote

Madison, Wisconsin — A middle-aged black woman tried to early-vote at the Meadowood Library, and left the polling place dejected in August.

She wasn't registered and had no proof of residence, so she could not register or vote.

But she had no apparent intention of going home and returning with proof of residency.

"It's alright," she said. "Forget it."

The voter explained to an attentive poll worker she didn't like Wisconsin's photo voter ID law, a distaste that shaped her feelings towards the entire voting process, including a simple voter-registration step.

This woman is a Republican success story — a nonvoting resident who is dismayed and frustrated, too discouraged to vote.

In Wisconsin, as in the nation, a key Republican objective is blocking and frustrating as many voters as possible.

Democrats and progressive are voting rights advocates, passionately.

In the last 10 years in their voter-obstruction effort, Wisconsin Republicans falsely claimed:

• Legal mandate for exact-match of state databases as a condition of voting, (2008)
• Imperative for all municipalities running only one early-voting site
• Requirement that ''dorm lists' used as proof of residence include citizenship information
• 28-day residency requirement leads to fraud
• Prohibition on distributing absentee ballots by fax or email
• Bar on using expired but otherwise qualifying student IDs
• Need for narrow range of photo voter ID as condition of voting
•  Determination to illegally block state elections

Many voter-obstruction laws were swept away in federal court in 2016, (Mal Contends).

Wisconsin progressives and citizens' groups pushing the Democratic Party may sweep away Republicans in the Wisconsin midterms, as early voting accelerates this week.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) seems likely to be reelected.

Wisconsin voters may be able to breech the gerrymandered state legislative districts.

An unknown question is the governor's race between Scott Walker (R) and Tony Evers (D).

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Barack Obama are coming to Milwaukee in the next week to get out the black and young vote in segregated southeastern Wisconsin.

Tony Evers is a weak candidate. Attempts to paint over this milquetoast, equivocating bureaucrat with no history of work for social justice are not compelling.

In Bloomberg this morning, veteran political operative and Democratic Party analyst, Bill Dixon of Madison, spins a comical riff trying to prop up Evers: "Tony is the smooth, calming presence, talking about education, that gives us a much better chance than previous elections against Walker."

Right. All over Wisconsin are working families and communities looking for politicians to calm them.

What Wisconsin families want from elected officials is simply people who are working for them, not for donors to Scott Walker.

Not for Foxconn.

Not for special interests.

The national political winds and voting rights work may lift a less-than-gifted Tony Evers over the most corrupt and destructive politician Wisconsin has ever experienced.

Almost 2 out of 3 Americans did not vote in 2014. As a result, extreme-right wing Republicans swept the midterms.

This year is going to be different. If young people vote in 2018, you will transform America.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) October 22, 2018

Trump Civil Rights Division Expected to Target Voting

Update: State and municipal corruption now have a free hand in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Ethics Commission, a titular election watchdog, member, Robert Kinney has resigned in disgust.

Reports Jason Stein: "Kinney said that in a private session the commission has already declined to take action on a complaint that he believed merited it."

"If financial or ethical improprieties are leveled, or allegations of quid pro quo corruption are made, they must be thoroughly and timely investigated, and, if warranted, aggressively prosecuted. Sadly, it appears we have created a system which almost guarantees that this will not occur," Kinney said in a statement Monday (Stein, MJS), (Capitol Newspapers).
 ---
Too many in American political culture fail to recognize that President-elect Donald Trump does not believe in the foundational liberty of voting rights.

We can expect a devastating assault on the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice in the Trump adminstration.

As noted at the United State Department of Justice, the Civil Rights Division was enacted in to uphold civil rights against municipal and state incursions on individual liberty:

The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, created in 1957 by the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, works to uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all Americans, particularly some of the most vulnerable members of our society. The Division enforces federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, disability, religion, familial status and national origin.

Time to get to rid of that liberal know-it-all stuff.

Via the Election Law site:

Sam Bagenstos for The American Prospect:

Voting Rights. After the Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County decision cutting the heart from the Voting Rights Act, states formerly covered by the statute’s preclearance requirement initiated a wave of new vote-suppression measures. Other states also adopted voting restrictions in advance of the 2016 election. The Civil Rights Division responded with an aggressive program of lawsuits that limited the worst abuses, even if these lawsuits were not always successful.
I expect the efforts to attack voter suppression to end in the Trump administration and the division instead to bring new lawsuits that will themselves be designed to suppress the vote. A provision of the National Voter Registration Act (commonly known as the Motor Voter law) requires states to maintain up-to-date voting rolls. Many conservative commentators—including leading right-wing voices on voting issues like Adams and von Spakovsky—believe that the voting rolls in many jurisdictions fail to comply with that provision because they contain people who died, moved out of the jurisdiction, or otherwise are not eligible voters. I expect the Trump Civil Rights Division to bring suits under that provision in places with large minority, youth, or other Democratic-leaning populations. The goal of these lawsuits will be to trim the voting rolls.

Trimming the voting rolls, an achievable objective when democracy is weak.

Seventh Circuit Refuses En Banc in Both Wisc Voting Rights Cases; No More Changes Unless SCOTUS Intervenes

Voting rights win, Republicans lose.

Rick Hasen has the story. Order denying Wisconsin petition is at Election Law.

Twenty-seven days until voting begins, the United States Supreme Court is unlikely to consider application, emergency petition, if Republicans in the Wisconsin Dept of Justice decide to file.

Republican Voter Obstruction Looms as Wisc Voting Begins Sept 23

Voting Is Legit, Voter Obstruction Is Not

Updated - Wisconsin Republicans have engineered a broad voter suppression campaign as general election voting begins some four weeks from today.

Republicans use the broad authority given to Republican-named Chief Election Inspectors and municipal bureaucrats populating smaller municipal offices, (with armed assistance from municipal police), as brown shirts in the war against voting.

There has been a silent coup the last five years at the point of voting for most people as election laws have been changed to favor Republicans. Few object.

It's fair to suggest inadequate personality types populating Republican-named, white poll-worker rosters and smaller municipal bureaucracies seek positions in which to say 'no,' acting with hostility against black and brown voters with the familiar mix of awkward and antagonistic posturing racists manifest.

Sad and pathetic people, but a fair hypothesis for the hostility voters encounter at the polling place.

Against this explanation are the Republican-enacted election laws fighting non-Republicans' franchise.

It bears noting that absent a voting rights body with the resources to station observers chronicling voter obstruction efforts at the some 3,500 polling places in Wisconsin, voters capriciously denied their right to vote will be people from whom the public will not hear. Point is presenting social scientific evidence of intentional and broad suppression efforts requires a labor-intensive enterprise beyond the means of most. Ask the plaintiffs' attorneys in the federal voting rights cases, One Wisconsin Institute v. Thomsen and Frank v. Walker.

Margaret Krome has a piece in the Capital Times on the unAmerican effort to impede voting, now joined by Donald Trump.

... Trump has never let facts stop him from promoting a message that advances his interests. 'We have to call up law enforcement, and we have to have the sheriffs, and the police chiefs, and everybody watching,' he has been saying. 'Because if we get cheated out of this election, if we get cheated out of a win in Pennsylvania.' So he asks supporters to help 'stop Crooked Hillary from rigging this election' by becoming election observers. ...

To many, this looks more like a strategy of minority voter intimidation and possibly a face-saving explanation if he loses, but one that could obstruct constitutional transfer of power if Clinton wins. Both are destructive and dangerous intentions, utterly unworthy of any candidate for any office or for any political party to condone. But it’s obvious that the candidate of the finite and diminishing pool of angry white male voters is actually counting on suppressing minority and other non-Trump voter turnout to navigate his ever more perilous path to winning in November.

What’s more, it’s not just Trump’s approach but builds on longstanding Republican strategy. In the 1970s, the Republican National Committee hired off-duty police officers to question voters at minority polling places. Legal action forced this to end, but the dwindling base of white voters continued to alarm Republican leaders. How frustrated they were when the 2012 elections reinforced their concern! And how appalling that their response was not to adjust their platform or outreach strategies to broaden their tent, but rather to develop new strategies to suppress minority votes nationwide. 

Protection from Republican efforts attacking voting rights is not going to happen from election inspectors. This writer, and sworn election inspector, can tell you that communications sticking up for the rights of voters are met with hostility and retaliation, at best. The voter must be vigilant toward her own liberties and the liberties of fellows.

This is voting in Wisconsin today. Watch this space for proposed specific solutions.

Dem VP Nominee Blasts Wisconsin Voter Obstruction

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine paid a surprise visit to Milwaukee and blasted Republicans in Wisconsin for voter obstruction.

"Your state officials here have been trying to put barriers up to participation. They’ve been trying to close down participation, rather than open it up," said Kaine, (Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

I wonder if Kaine and the Democratic Party know how bad it's become.

Local municipal voting districts are staffing up Party-named, out-of-district Republicans to administer elections at the polling place in an effort to control another level of government for the specific benefit of the Republican Party, and with the intent to obstruct unwanted voters, especially brown, black and young voters.

This writer has voted at Fitchburg Fire Station, Number 2, for some 15 years, working as a sworn election inspector, (contract employee), for some nine years, and I was prevented from voting for 35 minutes facing a gauntlet of four hostile, white election inspectors.

Never seen anything like it, but I'm guessing I will in November.

As noted in these pages, our state has some 3,583 voting precincts.

In 2011, Wisconsin Republicans decided to name their polling workers across the state, (Barbour, Wisconsin State Journal.

No Republican need live in the district of the polling place at which they are assigned to harass targets of opportunity.

Take some 3,500 voting sites, harass and obstruct non-Republicans across the state and Republicans have a decent suppression regime, if they can frustrate and obstruct even two people in each district.

Local municipal clerks, bureaucrats and typically not the brightest bulbs, will go along.

US Dist. Judge: Wisconsin Voter Obstruction Laws Remain Halted, Injunction Against Voter ID Is Delayed

Update: Ernest A. Canning has the story and analysis of an emergency appeal before the full court of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Writes Canning, "The plaintiffs in One Wisconsin Institute v. Thomsen, one of several long-running court challenges to Wisconsin Republicans' strict Photo ID voting restriction, have filed an emergency petition with the full en banc U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, asking that it overturn its previous photo ID decision in Frank v. Walker.
The still pending Frank case as well as the One Wisconsin challenge have, to say the least, undergone a circuitous recent history in a number of federal courts that oversee Badger State election law," (Brad Blog).
---
In a victory for voting rights, numerous Republican-enacted voter obstruction laws remain halted from enforcement, and one aspect of a July 29 order against the Republican-enacted voter ID law will take effect after the November 8 presidential election, ordered U.S. District Judge James Peterson yesterday in One Wisconsin Institute v. Thomsen.

The status of two Wisconsin federal voting rights cases, One Wisconsin Institute v. Thomsen and Frank v. Walker, is fluid and the September 22 date at which the Wisconsin Elections Commission will begin mailing absentee ballots is approaching.

On or after Sept. 22, it is unlikely the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit will change the status quo of the amassed injunctions, stays and motions to vacate as voting rights advocates continue the fight against Republican laws to obstruct Wisconsin voters.

It is a judicial doctrine, the Purcell Principle, that federal courts will not change election laws after the voting process has begun.

"District Court in Other WI Case Mostly Denies WI Request for Stay of Ruling," reads an Election Law piece by Rick Hasen, referring to two federal voting rights Wisconsin cases now likely facing scrutiny soon in federal appellate court.

Notes Hasen:

The State of Wisconsin tries to spin this as a win.

I assume the next step will be a request for a stay at the 7th Circuit, and one question is whether this goes to the same panel that just stayed the affidavit softening in the first WI voter id case. 

The plain language of the Peterson order puts the lie to the Republican spin-doctors at the Wisconsin Dept. of Justice. Writes Hasen, noting:

IT IS ORDERED that defendants’ motion to stay the court’s permanent injunction pending appeal, Dkt. 241, is DENIED in substantial part. As explained above, only the provisions of the injunction requiring the state to reform its IDPP within 30 days of the date of the court’s opinion on the merits are STAYED pending the outcome of the parties’ appeals. The rest of the injunction remains in effect, [p. 12, August 11, 2016 order].

Wisconsin corporate media without exception has brought the Republican spin.

Why is the DoJ spinning instead of informing and reporting? Because the Wisconsin DoJ is a Republican operation.

The Republican effort took a new turn at the polling place last Tuesday, as Republicans are using control of the polling place to obstruct voters, in violation of Wisconsin statutes and administrative rules, to obstruct voters.

This points to potential trouble at the polling place, and one hopes placement of U.S. DoJ officials in Dane, Racine and Milwaukee counties, as Republicans look to obstruct on a larger scope in November.

Wisconsin Voter ID Status Unclear as Frank Easterbrook Takes Refuge in Fact-free Cocoon

Judge Lynn Adelman's injunction against the Republican-enacted photo-voter ID law has been stayed, or halted by three Republican-appointed appellate judges in the voting rights case, Frank v. Walker.

Judge Frank Easterbrook's order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reads in part, "Because the district court has not attempted to distinguish genuine difficulties of  the kind our opinion mentioned, 819  F.3d  at  385–86, or any other variety of substantial  obstacle to voting, from any given voter’s  unwillingness to make the effort that the Supreme Court has held that a state can require, there is  a substantial likelihood that the injunction will be reversed on appeal," (Wisconsin DoJ document).

With Judge James Peterson's injunction in One Wisconsin Institute, inc v. Thomsen, against a wide range of Republican obstruction laws, including voter ID, still in place, the question is, will voter ID be in place for the presidential election in November?

Writes Peterson, "I conclude that the IDPP, [ID Petition Process], is unconstitutional and needs to be reformed or replaced. Because time is short with the fall elections approaching, I will issue an injunction targeted to the constitutional deficiencies that I identify."

Even election law experts can only offer speculation on what happens next.

Leading Wisconsin writers on the voting rights battle, Jason Stein and Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, can only find sources to offer this in their coverage: "Voters should keep following the news — the rules could change again between now and the Nov. 8 presidential election."

What is clear is that the Republican Party of Wisconsin and voting rights activists are at cross purposes.

The most likely next legal moves include the State of Wisconsin enacting last-minute administrative rules changing the ID Petition Process, (IDPP), to make the rules acceptable to Judge Peterson to save the voter ID legal regime in One Wisconsin, and an emergency appeal to the full court of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit by voting rights attorneys in Frank v. Walker.

From the Washington Post, (Zapotosky):

Dale Ho, director of the Voting Rights Project for the American Civil Liberties Union, said that as many as 300,000 registered voters in Wisconsin lack the right photo ID, although he acknowledged that not all of those people would vote and some probably could obtain documentation without much trouble. The ACLU had sued over the law.

As to whether requiring ID could tip the election in favor of the Republicans who support the law, Ho said: 'Obviously, the people behind these laws think it can help them. Whether or not it can, from our perspective, it really doesn’t matter. We’re just trying to make sure everyone can vote.'

As noted here, on September 22, 47 days from Election Day on November 8, the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), will begin mailing absentee ballots to local election clerks who in turn mail ballots to several classes of voters, per Wisconsin Statute, including permanent absentee voters, (Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC)).

Wisconsin voters should receive absentee ballots around September 29.

It is a judicial doctrine, the Purcell Principle, that federal courts will not change election laws after the voting process has begun. So, the clock is ticking.

Still, the Republican voter obstruction project is continuing in other ways:

During Election Day yesterday, Republican election inspectors, began a tactical voter suppression action that resulted in this voter being denied my right to vote for 35 minutes. This voter suppression action apparently includes use of outright hostility, mocking, and prevention of voting by Republican election inspectors who are now individually named by the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

Similar reports, including one incident involving the mother of a Fitchburg, Wisconsin alder, were fielded by elected office holders who say the tactical suppression program may spell trouble for voters on November 8, Election Day.

The obstruction incident at Fitchburg Fire Station, Number 2 yesterday, will be investigated by the Dane County District Attorney's office and the Wisconsin Elections Commission, upon receipt of complaints and relevant reports, top officials of the two agencies said yesterday after being reached by phone.

Voting Rights Winning Against Republicans, Still Desperate to Stop Voting

Voting rights rabble-rousers have really done it.

Voting rights activists, including attorneys from the U.S. Dept of Justice, won major victories against Republican efforts to stop voters in North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Ohio and Kansas.

Richard L. Hasan has a piece in the New York Times today. Concludes Hasan:

The struggle is not over, but this wave of court decisions means that more eligible voters should get a chance to register to vote and cast a ballot in November. These votes will help elect a president whose choices for judges and justices will very likely seal the fate of voting rights (and much more) for a generation.

Not over, indeed.

The Republican Wisconsin Dept. of Justice filed an Emergency Stay motion yesterday with the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Frank v. Walker, (Wisconsin Dept of Justice).

This is a last-ditch effort to stop as many blacks, Latinos, college students, elderly folks, and other undesirables as possible from voting.

The state DoJ uses its new partisan, appellate unit in federal litigation, (Mal Contends).

What's the big emergency?

The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit calendar has no scheduled August or October oral argument days, so if Republicans are going to stop voters in time for Election Day, (voting will begin in late September), there is a rush.

On September 22, 47 days from Election Day on November 8, the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), will begin mailing absentee ballots to local election clerks who in turn mail ballots to several classes of voters, per Wisconsin Statute, including permanent absentee voters, (Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC)).

Wisconsin voters should receive absentee ballots around September 29.

It is a judicial doctrine, the Purcell Principle, that federal courts will not change election laws after the voting process has begun.

Fortunately, the battle for voting rights is turning in favor of voters against Republican governments working to stop our most fundamental of rights.

Wisconsin AG Fights Pro-Voting Rights Decision; GOP Unlikely to Prevail in Appellate Court

High-priority communication from Wisconsin Elections Commission
to local Election Clerks alerts officials to make available affidavit
for November 8 general election. Memo follows federal judge's
preliminary injunction of Wisconsin's voter obstruction law

Republicans Face Uphill Climb to Stop Voters in Appellate Court

A major Wisconsin voting rights victory in federal court this week has been appealed by the Republican-led Wisconsin Dept. of Justice.

The case is Frank v. Walker, (MoritzLaw). The case will be heard at the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit where the law of the case reads in part, the "right to vote is personal and is not defeated by the fact that 99% of other people can secure the necessary credentials easily," (p. 4, Frank v. Walker; April 12, 2016), (Canning, The Brad Blog).

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman's decision this week halts Wisconsin's Republican-enacted voter obstruction law designed to stop non-Republican-voting citizens from casting votes, (Mal Contends).

Adelman has issued a temporary injunction, (halting), of the law until Wisconsin allows citizens without approved photo voter ID to vote after signing an affidavit attesting to the difficulty in attaining voter IDs.

The next election in which Adelman's opinion will be in force is the November 8 general election.

The difficulty for 1,000s of registered voters in obtaining IDs has been found as fact in the 2013 federal trial, Frank v, Walker, decided by Judge Adelman in April 2014.

Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel released a statement on July 19, reading: "We are disappointed with the court's decision. We will decide the next course of action after Wisconsin Department of Justice attorneys have had time to fully review and analyze the court's decision," (WPR).

It did not take Republicans long to review, analyze and decide to appeal the voting rights victory.

The Wisconsin Republicans are moving for an expedited hearing on their motion to stay, (stop), Adelman's injunction mandating the option of an affidavit to protect the right to vote.

Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit which will hear the appeal will likely deny the Republican motions.

In April 2106, the Seventh Circuit's Judge Frank Easterbrook remanded Frank v. Walker to Adelman's district court writing in part, "Plaintiffs’ approach is potentially sound if even a single person eligible to vote is unable to get acceptable photo ID with reasonable effort. The right to vote is personal and  is not defeated by the fact that 99% of other people can secure the necessary credentials easily," (p. 4, Frank v. Walker; April 2016).

Republicans Hostile to Wisconsin Population

Part of Republican political strategy in Wisconsin is to harass the minority and college-age populations so frequently disfavored segments of the citizenry move out of Wisconsin.

Repulbican efforts to defend each voter obstruction law in state and federal court amount to 100s of hours of legal work for a partisan end to destroy the liberties of disfavored Wisconsin citizens.

Republican Press Release in Frank v. Walker

The Republican press release dated July 22 is reproduced below:

MADISON, WI – Today, the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ), on behalf of the State of Wisconsin, appealed the preliminary injunction entered in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin on July 19, 2016, requiring the State to adopt an affidavit exception to Wisconsin’s voter identification law for the November 2016 election. Along with the appeal, DOJ also filed a motion in district court seeking a stay and moved the court to expedite its decision on its motion seeking the stay.

Under Wisconsin law, any eligible voter who applies for a free photo ID at the Wisconsin Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) will receive such an ID for voting purposes within six days, which will be automatically renewed through the November election. Even after November, each eligible voter will continue to have a free photo ID unless the DMV makes a finding of fraud, ineligibility, or refusal to respond to repeated DMV inquires for six months, or the voter specifically requests cancellation of the DMV process. Under this robust process, any eligible Wisconsin voter can obtain a free photo ID for voting purposes using reasonable efforts, making the district court’s affidavit procedure entirely unnecessary.

In its motion seeking a stay, DOJ explained that the district court’s decision is contrary to binding precedent from the United States Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The district court’s affidavit procedure creates a loophole in Wisconsin’s voter ID law, incorrectly informing voters that they can vote without a photo ID, even if they have not made any reasonable efforts to obtain such an ID. For instance, under the court’s ruling, if voters explain on their affidavit that they simply did not want to go to the DMV, those voters could still vote, despite the fact that the United States Supreme Court has rejected that specific argument. As the Supreme Court has held: “making a trip to the [D]MV, gathering the required documents, and posing for a photograph” is not a substantial burden on the right to vote. Rather, this is an entirely reasonable, modest requirement, which is properly designed to ensure the integrity of elections and public confidence in the fairness of the result.

Fed Judge Gives Wisconsin Voting Rights Win, Hits Republican Voter Obstruction Project

Ruthelle Frank of Brokaw, Wisconsin
fights for her right to vote against Scott Walker
and Republican efforts to obstruct non-GOP
voting Wisconsin citizens in Frank v. Walker

A prominent tool used by Wisconsin Republicans to obstruct non-Republicans from voting was held unconstitutional yesterday by U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman.

Adelman held citizens' right to vote conditioned on obtaining and presenting photo voter IDs needs to include the option of a signed affidavit for voters unable to get approved identification that accords to the narrowly drawn range of acceptable IDs, (Stern, Slate), (NYT), (Ferral, The Capital Times).

The case is Frank v. Walker, (MoritzLaw).

This is the second time a court has ordered major revisions to Wisconsin Act 23 (2011), passed by Republicans and only Republicans as a means of protecting elected Republicans from the voters' will.

The Republican-dominated Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the law in July 2014, holding that to pass state Constitutional muster, the state of Wisconsin must offer free photo voter IDs, in an activist opinion written to save the unconstitutional law, (Mal Contends),(Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Judge Adelman is a judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

He ruled yesterday the voter obstruction law is unconstitutional under the federal Constitution, violative of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Writes Adelman: "... I conclude that the plaintiffs are very likely to succeed on their claim that Act 23 is unconstitutional as applied to those who cannot obtain ID with reasonable effort, and that the appropriate remedy is to allow those voters to present an affidavit in lieu of photo identification," (p. 36), referencing his previous ruling, in which Adelman found Wisconisn Act 23 (2011) unconstitutional in April 2104 (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Another voting rights case against Wisconsin voter obstruction laws, One Wisconsin Institute v. Nichol, continues in the Western District of Wisconsin.

Republican voting obstruction efforts continue. Since 2011 Wisconsin Republicans have made some 34 changes to Wisconsin election law to keep Republicans in political power, (Ferral, The Capital Times)

The Republican-dominated Wisconsin Dept. of Justice issued a statement saying the Dept. is "disappointed" in the ruling. Of course, they are.

Peace and Justice over Fascism

Happy Thanksgiving:

Voters Are Pot of Incoherent, Resentful Ignoramuses

A series of pieces out offer some facts of the American political culture.

The Marquette University Law School, Democratic Strategist, ProPublica and The New York Times’ Sunday Review, 538.com and Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior all confirm what is clear: America is a depoliticized state where policy and socio-political knowledge and sentiment are mostly confined to racism, social resentments, fear and a vague idea that a few special interests are looking out for themselves.

Low turn-out, midterm elections show the results.

Republican Party efforts to obstruct voting and gerrymander state and Congressional districts show why shifting demographics minimizing the electoral power of white, rural, Evangelical voters are imperative to Republican Party success, even post-Citizens United.

The large swath of voters who have given up on electoral politics need reasons (spelled out and repeated) and a dynamic candidate to drag them out to vote next November 2106.

First things first, get past the Republican gauntlet obstructing voting.

"Anybody who suppresses the vote, who intentionally tries to keep people from voting, is a political coward. They are undermining democracy," said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont).

Republicans are political cowards, but indecency and undermining democracy are no deterrent to what Republicans do. They are after power and their base is fascistic.

These are facts you won't read in the above analyses and corporate political reporting: Republicans do not believe in Democracy.

Non-profits, Dems Educate Wisconsin on Voter ID; Municipal-State Bureaucracies Flounder

Update: Madison and Dane County have jointly launched a Public Outreach Campaign on Voter ID one day following Jessie Opoien's piece in the Capital Times.

One in five voters don't know they need a GOP-approved photo voter ID to vote, reports Jessie Opoien in The Capital Times.

Opoien's piece was posted minutes before news hit that an emergency petition to the U.S. Supreme Court had been filed by multiple plaintiffs to block Wisconsin's photo voter ID law this morning.

"Young voters are least likely to know about the requirement, with 26 percent of voters ages 18-29 unaware," notes Opoien.

Good news for the Republicans.

Bad news for Wisconsin democracy.

To borrow from Pogo with a little citizen Don Ystad thrown in, 'we have found the enemy and he is us,' - the voters. So the Republican Party believes.

Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Board (GAB) is asking the Wisconsin legislature for "$460,800 for a statewide TV, radio and online campaign to educate residents about the voter identification law that will be in effect for the Nov. 4 election." (Green Bay Press Gazette)

That will help.

So would the GAB speaking up for the voters, echoing the point that changing the rules after elections have begun is likely to disfranchise voters.

So, Wisconsin's 1,852 municipal clerks with staff administer and implement the conflicting guidelines from the GAB to educate the electorate: Result, one in five voters don't know what to do.

Election law experts call this a failing grade.

I helped a voter cast her absentee ballot after receiving conflicting statements from the municipal clerk's office on photo voter ID.

Confusion came from the GAB, I was told. I believe it.
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Difficult to administer an unconstitutional law when the rules are changed after voting has already begun.

No serious jurist who not a partisan Republican believes Wisconsin's Act 23 should have ever passed muster with the Wisconsin Supreme Court, or the federal Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

So, we wait for the U.S. Supreme Court, likely to rule within days if not hours.

Meanwhile the Wisconsin League of Women Voters is desperately trying to educate the public.

The ACLU is desperately trying to educate the public.

The Democratic Party is desperately trying to educate the public.

Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television, and on and on.

Emergency Petition to US Supreme Court Filed to Block Wisconsin Voter ID Law

Update: ACLU site: The following is a statement from Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project:
"Thousands of Wisconsin voters stand to be disenfranchised by this law going into effect so close to the election. Hundreds of absentee ballots have already been cast, and the appeals court's order is fueling voter confusion and election chaos. Eleventh-hour changes in election rules have traditionally been disfavored precisely because the risk of disruption is simply too high."
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"[T]here is an overwhelming public interest in not disenfranchising large numbers of registered voters." (p. 19, Emergency Application to Vacate Stay RE Wisconsin Act 23) (emphasis added)

Via Rick Hasen, here's the text of the petition.

Emergency Application to Vacate Stay

To the Honorable Elena Kagan, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and Circuit Justice for the Seventh Circuit:

... Unless this Court vacates the order below, the panel’s stay will sow confusion at the polls and discourage voting in the November 4 general election in Wisconsin. Voting is the foundational element of a free society. Chaos in an election— especially when entirely preventable—is undemocratic. Yet weeks before a major election, the panel’s stay order dramatically changed the status quo for voters— i.e. , the continuation of Wisconsin’s traditional voting practices and suspension of Act 23’s stringent new photo ID requirements. (p.2)

Correct.

In fact one in five Wisconsin citizens do not know they need a photo voter ID to cast a vote. (Jessie Opoien, The Capital Times)

As for the Big Lie of in-person voter fraud:

[T]he court found that, after two years of litigation, “[t]he defendants could not point to a single instance of known voter impersonation occurring in Wisconsin at any time in the recent past.” App.49. Even taking unresolved reports of voting fraud into account, “[t]he rate of potential voter-impersonation fraud is . . . exceedingly tiny”; “virtually no voter impersonation occurs in Wisconsin”; and “it is exceedingly unlikely that voter impersonation will become a problem in Wisconsin in the foreseeable future.” App.48, 50, 53. Thereafter, the court denied the State’s motion to stay the injunction pending appeal, concluding “that it is absolutely clear that Act 23 will prevent more legitimate votes from being cast than fraudulent votes.” App.75. (p.7)

One in five Wisconsin voters: Don't know they'll need photo ID to vote

Jessie Opoien in The Capital Times has the story this morning.

Writes Opoien: "According to the most recent Marquette University Law School poll, released Wednesday, 20 percent of registered voters said — wrongly — that voters will not have to show an ID on Election Day. Among likely voters, the number was 18 percent."

For Republicans, these are dream numbers.

Confusion and chaos via dirty tricks and it's all legal.

Forget the Wisconsin and United States Constitutions, of no concern to GOP judges.

Frank Easterbrook of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit leads the way in our district, giving the imprimatur of GOP hacks on the bench.

Wisconsin's 1,852 municipal clerks are not to blame; not many expect clerks to act as civil liberty advocates.

Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner posters don't exactly line the walls at Wisconsin municipal buildings.

Suffrage, what's that? When the Packers lose?

The Wisconsin Governmental Accountability Board, Kevin Kennedy and Mike Haas for example, are complicit but only after the fact, refusing public criticism of the law and the GOP judges corrupt results-directed ruling as Wisconsin citizens face their voting rights blocked after our election had already begun.

Maybe a GAB official will speak up and express concern about Wisconsin citizens not being able to vote?

Nah.

Better to remain silent, and hope the ACLU files an emergency petition to the U.S. Supreme Court fast. [And they and other plaintiffs just did.]

Passive compliance from bureaucrats is to be expected; shocking.

Wisconsin Voter ID Ruling Derided by Election Law Expert as "Disingenuous"

Update: Counting on Wisconsin citizens to not stay current as Republican judges and Scott Walker play with their voting rights, stopping Wisconsin voters from voting is a bone fide movement of the Republican Party.

"For reasons I’ve flagged here, implementing voter id in Wisconsin at the last minute is likely to cause electoral chaos—a point which should be compelling regardless of where you stand on the actual merits of WI implementing its voter id law in an organized way," notes Rick Hasen's latest.
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Rick Hasen is a rigorous election law scholar whom most Americans perhaps find boring.

But after the release of the opinions [five-to-five] of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit denying the motion to restore the status quo of the injunction (or blocking) of Wisconsin's Voter ID law, Hasen let lose with a word not normally associated with a federal appellate court: Disingenuous.

Check Hasen's piece out.

The truth of the matter is the formal structures of our democracy are imperiled, along with the substantive functioning.

See also In Wisconsin, a Push for Voter ID Law, But Not Voter IDs. (Fischer, PRWatch)

The Judiciary no longer should be accorded any more respect than a corrupt Chicago alder from the 1960s.

The only problem is that hacks like Judge Rudolph Randa and the goons on the Seventh Circuit rule with the force of law.

Seventh Circuit Denies Wisc Voter ID En Banc Motion Five-to-Five

Next step is a likely Emergency Petition to the U.S. Supreme Court for the right to vote.

Desperate Scott Walker will of course oppose petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, the more Wisconsin voters casting their preference the more likely Scott Walker loses.

Writes Rick Hasen: "... this is a really egregious order changing the rules midstream in violation of the Supreme Court’s own admonition in the Purcell v. Gonzalez case; and (b) now that the Court has before it the Ohio case, presenting a similar section 2 Voting Rights Act issue but with much worse facts for voting rights advocates, it would be better for this to be up there at the same time.  So there’s not much to lose to get this case before the Court at the same time."

The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit writes: "On September 12, 2014, a panel of this court stayed the injunction that the district court had issued. Plaintiffs have filed a motion for reconsideration, asking the court to vacate the stay and reinstate the injunction. The panel that issued the stay has voted to deny the motion for reconsideration. A judge called for a vote on the request for a hearing en banc. That request is denied by an equally divided court. Chief Judge Wood and Judges Posner, Rovner, Williams, and Hamilton voted to hear this matter en banc. In the coming days, members of the court may file opinions explaining their votes."

The ludicrous rulings piling up, around the world press is starting to take notice.

The ACLU released the following comment:

CHICAGO — The full Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals today declined to rehear a three-judge panel's order reinstating Wisconsin's voter ID law prior to the midterm election. The vote was split evenly, 5-5, meaning the panel's order stands. Neither the panel nor the full court has yet ruled on the actual merits of the law, which was found unconstitutional by a federal judge in April. The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the law, and petitioned for a full appeals court review following the panel's order on September 12 allowing the law to take effect. The ACLU presented oral arguments to the panel that day asking the court to uphold the April decision striking down the law as unconstitutional and in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

The following is a statement from Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project:

"Allowing this law to take effect so close to the midterm election is a recipe for chaos, voter confusion, and disenfranchisement. The court could have avoided this pandemonium and given Wisconsin voters a chance to cast their ballots free of obstruction. It failed to do so, and we are evaluating our next step."

The ACLU, the ACLU of Wisconsin, the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, and Dechert LLP are co-counsel in this case, Frank v. Walker, challenging Wisconsin's voter ID law.

At trial last November, the groups presented evidence showing that hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin voters lacked ID; that African-American and Latino voters, who have been subjected to historical and continuing segregation and discrimination in Wisconsin, were far more likely to lack ID and the documents needed to get ID than whites; that there are significant burdens imposed on voters trying to get ID; and that the government lacks strong enough reason to impose these burdens. A federal court agreed and struck down the law on April 29, prompting the state's appeal.

A copy of today's ruling is at:
aclu.org/voting-rights/frank-v-walker-order

More information about this case is at:
aclu.org/voting-rights/frank-v-walker-fighting-voter-suppression-wisconsin

Meahwhile, named co-plaintiff, Ruthelle Frank writes in The Guardian: "I’ve been registered to vote since 1948. But once Republicans passed the [Voter ID] law, I was asked to prove I’m not an ‘illegal alien.'"

Scott Walker Brief Cites Falsehood in Absentee Voters, Confusion Reigns

Scott Walker's brief opposing a judicial order blocking Photo Voter ID asserts, "GAB (Wisconsin Governmental Accountability Board) provided local election officials with draft communications that are to be sent to every voter who has requested an absentee ballot, thereby informing those voters to provide a copy of their photo ID to local election officials."

After initial reports in the press of the Wisconsin Governmental Accountability Board (GAB) saying a copy of a Photo Voter ID could be sent with an absentee ballot already sent out, it turns out voters cannot receive absentee ballots unless their first present a Photo ID at City Hall in person.

This was only for some absentee voters.

The following excerpt from a letter sent by the City of Fitchburg to some other absentee voters attempting to interpret the GAB communications reads:

So, some absentee ballot voters (often disabled) have to make a trip to City Hall, present an ID and then receive an absentee ballot in the mail, according to the email above and a hardcopy letter.

"Clerks now have to follow up with three sets of voters — those who have requested absentee ballots but haven't been mailed one; those who have been sent absentee ballots but haven't returned them; and those who have already turned in their absentee ballots. Kennedy didn't have a breakdown of how many people fell into each group," notes Patrick Marley in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Municipal clerks are struggling to make sense of GAB communiques, according to a Fitchburg City Hall source, as the GAB has resembled a cheerleader more than an agency ensuring Wisconsin voters get to vote.

Assisting a disabled voter yesterday, I was told that the voter could in fact send a copy of a Photo Voter ID with the ballot, but when I presented the letter saying first the voter had to come to City Hall and present an ID to get the ballot sent, the staffer said the GAB communications have been "confusing."

Catch 22 and confusion. For Scott Walker, mission accomplished.

Scott Walker Asks for Voter ID Chaos; Argues Against Vacating Stay Citing Confusion

"Plaintiffs [civil rights groups] focus on a very small number of voters who they speculate will have problems obtaining qualifying ID, but this focus on a fraction of the electorate is not a justification to revisit the panel’s Order" reads Scott Walker's brief against vacating a stay of Wisconsin Photo Voter ID law, passed with exclusive Republican support. (p.3)

Walker's very small number: 300,000 registered Wisconsin votes, who are unlikely to vote for Scott Walker.

Walker argues vacating the stay will cause "confusion," though he has made numerous requests for staying the law, vowing to have in Voter ID in place for Election Day, granting while the election had already begun. (p.7)

Rick Hasen has the story of the next step in appellate court; in sum law, reason and facts do not play well with Republican judicial activists.