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

Bernie Sanders Is Coming to Wisconsin to Save Win Against Scott Walker

Bernie Sanders is coming to Milwaukee on Oct 22 to
rally for voting rights in a community targeted by
Republicans with imprisonment, killing and poverty.

Madison, Wisconsin — After eight years of voter obstruction imposed by Gov. Scott Walker (R) and Republicans, voter turnout in downtown Milwaukee remains a X-factor, likely determining Wisconsin's next governor.

Contributing factors to recent declining Milwaukee turnout include a malfunctioning voting rights community.

The big question is, as early voting picks up, whether progressives can lift and carry the milquetoast Tony Evers (D) to victory.

Bernie Sanders is in town soon to help.

Put an event in your calendar! 🗓️ October 22@BernieSanders is coming to WI for a #EarlyVoting rally with @tammybaldwin @Tony4WI @TheOtherMandela @Gwen4Congress & @IronStache!

RSVP: https://t.co/LYzXNoanK8

— Democratic Party WI (@WisDems) October 10, 2018

Even Tony Evers' campaign concedes voter turnout is critical:

It all comes down to turnout.

With less than one month until Election Day, now is the time to take action! The best way to counter Scott Walker’s attacks, mobilize voters, and take our state back this November is to get involved ➡️ https://t.co/P3HKPJcaEg https://t.co/7poGGObBLS

— Tony Evers (@Tony4WI) October 10, 2018

Veteran Wisconsin Election Inspector Resigns, Cites Voter ID

Al Potts of Fitchburg,Wisconsin - Resigned chief
election inspector position because of Wisconsin's voter
photo ID law that obstructs voters from voting.
Photo Credit: Potts family

Updated - A veteran election inspector, Al Potts of Fitchburg, Wisconsin, said partisan-inspired changes to Wisconsin election law in the last five years caused him to call it quits before the presidential primary.

“I won’t help perpetuate a fraud on voters," said Potts.

The Fitchburg Star has the story.

Potts has it right.

Tierney Sneed of Talking Points Memo reports today:

A former top staffer for a Republican legislator in Wisconsin suggested this week that GOP legislators were motivated to pass the state’s tough photo voter ID law because they believed it would help them at the ballot box, an account he expanded on in a Wednesday interview with TPM.

Todd Allbaugh, who served as chief of staff for state Sen. Dale Schultz (R) until the legislator retired in 2015, first made the claims in a Tuesday Facebook post that caught the attention of national voting rights experts.

In the post, Allbaugh recalled a 2011 caucus meeting of GOP state senators about the voter ID legislation. Allbaugh said during that meeting, some Republicans were 'giddy' over the legislation's "ramifications" and the effect it would have on minority and young voters.

Once he left politics, Allbaugh opened a Madison, Wisconsin coffee shop, where TPM reached him over the phone and he elaborated on those claims.

'It just really incensed me that they started talking about this particular bill, and one of the senators got up and said, "We really need to think about the ramifications on certain neighborhoods in Milwaukee and on our college campuses and what this could do for us,'" Allbaugh said. 'The phrase ‘voter suppression’ was never used, but it was certainly clear what was meant.'

While Schultz, Allbaugh’s former boss, has notably spoken outagainst more recent restrictions on voting, he voted for the 2011 bill. According to Allbaugh, at this point in the point of meeting, Schultz brought up his own concerns with the voter ID legislation.

'He was immediately shot down by another senator who said, ‘What I am interested in is getting results here and using the power while we have it, because if the Democrats were in control they would do they same thing to us, so I want to use it while we have it,'” Allbaugh said.

Allbaugh said Schultz left the meeting in frustration after that, while he stayed behind to continue taking notes.

'It left a pit in my stomach to think that a party that I had worked for for years and years and years was literally talking and plotting to deny someone, a fellow citizen, their constitutional right,' Allbaugh said.

Allbaugh told TPM he was stirred to write the initial Facebook post after one of his young employees, who had moved from California to Wisconsin, was unable to vote Tuesday. Albaugh said that because the employee's California ID did not meet the state’s requirements to vote, he was told he needed to show his California birth certificate, which the employee was not going to be able to produce in time.

'When you see the real world ramification, it just sickens you,' Allbaugh said. 'I have to tell people what’s going on.'

Schultz was asked about Allbaugh’s Facebook post on Wednesday by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 

Meanwhile the Republican Wisconsin DoJ is busily defending the voter photo ID law in U.S. appellate court in Frank v. Walker, (Wisconsin DoJ).

Reads a Wisconsin DoJ press release in part dated this morning:

The Wisconsin Department of Justice will argue today in front of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in the case of Frank v. Walker to uphold Wisconsin’s Voter ID law. ...

[T]he Seventh Circuit will decide if Wisconsin’s Voter ID law holds up against the plaintiffs’ new, narrower challenge.  The plaintiffs claim that this narrower challenge is not new because they had asserted these claims in their arguments in the original Frank v. Walker.  The Attorney General argues that this is not true and that the plaintiffs’ narrower challenge consists of new claims which the plaintiffs are not allowed to raise after the Seventh Circuit’s final decision in 2014. Even if plaintiffs are allowed to raise these claims, Wisconsin’s law is still constitutional under Crawford and the original Frank v. Walker decision.

Solicitor General Misha Tseytlin will make these arguments to a panel of three judges from the Seventh Circuit.

Stopping Wisconsin voters from voting is a project Wisconsin Republicans will see to its completion, if not acceptance from the Wisconsin people.

Wisconsin Post-Election Notes

Updated - Some notes from Wisconsin's April 5 presidential primary:

Bernie Sanders' resounding victory over Hillary Clinton and virtually the entire state Democratic Party establishment shows anew Sanders' ability to bring citizens into the electoral process who are young, independent and suspicious of concentrated wealth and special interests.

Scott Walker and the Republican Party of Wisconsin's attempt to obstruct voters was successful. A legal counter-attack is pending and is expected to include new affidavits and data from last night in the federal case, One Wisconsin Institute et al v. Nichol, (Case No. 15-cv-324), expected to be heard next month in May 2106.
---
U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wisconsin) was caught on video explaining Wisconsin's photo voter ID law is going to help turn Wisconsin into a red state, (Benson, WTMJ, Wright and Scott, CNN).

Republicans still engage in the lie a vast number of voters impersonate other voters, although they remain unable to point to one case. The real objective of suppressing the vote remains clear: Keeping as many non-Republicans from voting as possible to keep Republicans in power.

A veteran election inspector, Al Potts of Fitchburg, Wisconsin, said partisan-inspired changes to Wisconsin election law in the last five years caused him to call it quits before the presidential primary.

“I won’t help perpetuate a fraud on voters," said Potts.

The Fitchburg Star has the story. 
---
"Wisconsin’s Voter ID Law Caused Major Problems at the Polls Last Night, Students waited hours to vote and longtime voters were turned away by the state’s new photo ID law," notes Ari Berman in The Nation.

Bernie Sanders Is a Wisconsin Progressive

A March for Bernie Sanders in Waupaca, Wisconsin on
the weekend before the April 5 presidential primary election.
(Facebook)

There is one clear choice for the Democratic Party nominee for the presidency—Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The stakes have never been higher.

What we have is a life-long civil rights activist and economic justice worker, Bernie Sanders, against a corporatist whose campaign is a gargantuan funnel for special interests.

Democratic Party establishment insiders have largely fallen in line against the progressive Sanders. So what?

Bernie Sanders stands out for his decency, and his fearless work for a nation in which living in a democracy means citizens should be the decision-makers, and not the special interests dominating the Democratic and Republican Party establishments.

The Clinton camp would have voters believe her special-interests campaign would represent a strong top of the Democratic Party ticket. All polls show this to be untrue, as Sanders outperforms Clinton by significant margins as the Democratic Party nominee, (RealClearPolitics), and has for months.

Even as Wisconsin is decimated by a sociopathic governor and a gerrymandered legislature, the progressive state will never give up the fight.

For president, Bernie Sanders.

Wisconsin Early Voting Is Record-High, Reports Say

Wisconsin's pivotal status in the Repulbican and Democratic Party presidential primaries is bringing record-turnouts in early voting, (in-person, absentee voting).

In Fitchburg, Wisconsin in Dane County, 1,000-pus people had already early-voted Thursday. Fitchburg has a population of 25,000.

Milwaukee Election Commission executive director Neil Albrecht tells WTMJ radio early voter turnout is up more than 400 percent over previous presidential primaries in 2008 and 2012.

In Appleton, the line outside the city clerk's office has been steady with voters who don't want to wait until Tuesday to cast their ballot. Clerk Cami Lynch tells WBAY-TV the number of early voters is double the number in the last presidential primary, (AP, WKOW.TV).

Up north, social media posts indicate long lines at towns and villages this week suggesting high turnout.

Today is the last day of early voting in Wisconsin because of a Republican-passed law slashing early voting periods.

Knowledge of the Republican-passed photo voter ID law's first application in a presidential-level election likely also ran up the early voting as suppressing voters in urban areas and creating long lines on Election Day are expected consequences.

Wisconsin's photo voter ID law could block as many as 300,000 registered voters from casting their preference, (Mal Contends), (Frank v. Walker, (Nos.  14-2058 and 14-2059), Judge Richard Posner dissent).

"To exacerbate matters, Wisconsin has allocated no money to educate voters about the new law, as required by the legislation, and Republicans have dismantled the non-partisan Government Accountability Board in charge of supervising elections," writes Ari Berman in The Nation.