The Capital Times, Madison, Dec. 23
Attorney General Kaul should investigate GOP voter suppression
A top aide to President Trump’s reelection campaign appeared in late November at a Wisconsin event and told Republican politicians and operatives - including Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, and Wisconsin Republican Party executive director Mark Jefferson - that, “Traditionally it’s always been Republicans suppressing votes in places” in battleground states such as Wisconsin.
Justin Clark, a senior political adviser and senior counsel to Trump’s re-election campaign, also told the Republican National Lawyers Association gathering: “Let’s start playing offense a little bit. That’s what you’re going to see in 2020. It’s going to be a much bigger program, a much more aggressive program, a much better-funded program.”
Those remarks from an audio tape of the event obtained by the liberal groups American Bridge and One Wisconsin Now and shared with The Associated Press sure sound like a threat to ramp up voter suppression and voter intimidation in Wisconsin.
Clark, when confronted by the AP, tried to do some cleanup.
“As should be clear from the context of my remarks, my point was that Republicans historically have been falsely accused of voter suppression and that it is time we stood up to defend our own voters,” he said. “Neither I nor anyone I know or work with would condone anyone’s vote being threatened or diluted and our efforts will be focused on preventing just that.”
But the record of the Republicans and their allies suggests that Wisconsinites should be skeptical of Clark’s attempt to absolve himself, the Trump campaign and the GOP. Wisconsin has, over the past decade, seen repeated efforts to restrict voting rights by legislative Republicans and former Gov. Scott Walker.
Restrictive voter ID laws and limits on early voting were put in place. In addition, as the AP noted, “Republican officials (have) publicly signaled plans to step up their Election Day monitoring after a judge in 2018 lifted a consent decree in place since 1982 that barred the Republican National Committee from voter verification and other ’ballot security’ efforts. Critics have argued the tactics amount to voter intimidation.”
And, now, a conservative group has gotten an Ozaukee County judge to order the state to remove 234,000 registered voters from the rolls because they may have moved.
That order is being appealed. But, if it stands, there is a real likelihood that eligible voters will have a harder time casting ballots.
“Any time people have to go through extra steps to vote, and certainly re-registering is a significant additional step, the result is that fewer people end up voting,” said Attorney General Josh Kaul. “Fewer people will be registered. A number of people will have to re-register.”
Kaul was right to express that concern. And we hope that his concern will extend to the broader concerns about voter suppression that have been raised in recent weeks.
Kaul is a Democrat, but this goes beyond partisanship. As the state’s chief law enforcement officer, he has a responsibility to ensure that parties and candidates respect the rules with regard to voting rights - along with Wisconsin’s historic commitment to high-turnout elections.
The attorney general should open an inquiry into the issue, with an eye toward determining just exactly what Justin Clark meant when he said, “Traditionally it’s always been Republicans suppressing votes in places” such as Wisconsin. Wisconsinites have a right to know whether there is a threat that the “tradition” will continue in 2020.
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The Journal Times of Racine, Dec. 29
Check your voter registration now
Fasten your seatbelts, 2020 is just two days away and we predict it is likely to be a barn-burner festooned with all sorts of political chicanery, attack ads and half-truths - and maybe even some foreign meddling - as we march off to the polls for a bevy of elections, including a presidential one.
We didn’t need a crystal ball to make that prediction; the election flames have been fanned all fall with the House impeachment of President Donald Trump.
And here in Racine and across Wisconsin the partisan fires flared when an Ozaukee County judge ruled that up to 234,000 state voters - about 7 percent of the state’s registered voters - should be purged from state voter rolls immediately.
Democrats decried the ruling as a wholesale disenfranchisement that targeted college students and Democrat strongholds like Milwaukee. Republicans responded it was just keeping the voter rolls current and accurate.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi even chimed in with a tweet on her political account saying, “It’s beyond alarming that more than 200,000 registered Wisconsin voters will be prohibited from voting.”
That hyperbole earned the speaker a “Pants on Fire” rating from Wisconsin Politifact.
Those 234,000 Wisconsin voters got a mailing from the Wisconsin Election Commission in October after a check of multi-state databases partnered in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) - including the post office, the state Division of Motor Vehicles, voter registration and motor vehicle records from other states - indicated they might have moved and their listing on the state voter rolls might not be current.
Only 2,400 residents who got the letters from the state responded that they still lived at the address listed; another 16,500 had already re-registered at new addresses and 60,000 letters were returned as undeliverable.
But state election officials worried that up to 7% of the identified “movers” in the ERIC report might be on the mover list by mistake and wanted to delay the “purge” or reconciliation for between 12 and 24 months while they reviewed each case - which could put it past the fall presidential election.
That triggered a lawsuit from three voters backed by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) which argued that under state law the updating of the voter rolls was supposed to be done 30 days after the mailing to ERIC “movers” had been sent out and those voters who had not responded should immediately be taken off the voter rolls.
The legal dispute is over whether the ERIC list provides “sufficient reliable information” - as the Ozaukee county judge ruled - or whether the state Elections Board can take months to make sure the information on the movers list is accurate.
Now, it’s off to the races with the state attorney general appealing the ruling, the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin filing a federal lawsuit, followed by WILL asking the conservative-dominated State Supreme Court to take up the issue.
That may take weeks and might even bump up against the first election of the new year in February. We hope the courts act quickly.
But voters who fret they might, unbeknownst to them, be on the purge list - actually all voters - should take matters into their own hands and check to see if they are on the voting rolls.
It would take you all of two minutes to go online via computer or smartphone at myvote.wi.gov to check your status by filling in your full name and birth date. If you have been flagged for the “purge” - and that could potentially include almost 7,000 voters here in Racine County.
In seconds you can update your information and add your new address if you have moved. You can do that up to 20 days before an election if you have an up-to-date Wisconsin driver’s license or state ID card. You can even ask for an absentee ballot to be mailed to you for one or more elections.
If you would rather, you can call your municipal clerk to make sure you are in good standing and your address and polling place are current. You can register at the clerk’s office until the Friday before an election. If all else fails, Wisconsin is one of 21 states where you can register or re-register at the polls on Election Day if you have proof of residence like a driver’s license, property tax bill, current utility bill, bank statement, paycheck stub, lease or workplace ID.
Your vote is important and it takes only a few minutes to protect it by checking online to make sure you are good to go on Election Day.
Take the time to do that and you won’t have to pay attention to the partisan polemics and scare stories that you’re bound to hear in the coming weeks. And don’t forget to vote.
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Kenosha News, Dec. 29
Time for Wisconsin to work toward agreement on medical marijuana
“We’re going to be an island.”
That was the statement from state Rep. Tod Ohnstad, D-Kenosha, when asked about the possibility that marijuana would become legal in Wisconsin.
Starting Jan. 1, recreational marijuana becomes legal in Illinois. It’s already legal in Michigan. And Minnesota is one of 33 states that allow for medical marijuana.
And despite overwhelming public support for making medical marijuana legal in Wisconsin - a Marquette University Law School poll showed that 83% of Wisconsinites support legal medical marijuana - prospects of it happening anytime soon seem dim.
Wisconsin Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald is strongly opposed to legalization, and when two of his GOP colleagues introduced a bill recently to legalize medical marijuana on a very limited basis, he quickly shot it down.
Republican refusal to even talk about medical marijuana is, as Ohnstad said, making Wisconsin an island. And that puts pressure on law enforcement in the state, particularly the border areas.
While local law enforcement has issued warnings about trying to bring marijuana over the border, come Jan. 1, you can bet plenty of people living north of the border will be heading south, hoping to buy legal weed and bring it back to Wisconsin.
“That artificial state line is not going to keep people from using,” said Guida Brown, executive director of the Hope Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse. “I think it’s highly available already, and this will lower inhibitions to trying it because it’s ‘legal’.”
Brown does not favor legalized marijuana - saying there’s no concrete way to gauge marijuana impairment, similar to a breath test for alcohol - but admits the time has probably come for the legalization of medical marijuana in Wisconsin.
And there may be some incremental movement in that direction. Though Fitzgerald won’t consider any move toward legalizing marijuana, Assembly Majority Leader Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has said he favors medical marijuana with restrictions.
And while Vos said he believes medical marijuana will become legal, he admitted it won’t be soon.
“I want this to become law but people have to trust that it’s going to be a deliberate process; it’s going to take a while,” Vos said. “We’ve got to convince people that it’s the right idea and eventually it will become law.”
It’s time for Wisconsin to start moving in that direction, instead of remaining an island in the upper Midwest.
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