Wisconsin Republicans have come out from under their rock to assert a truth: it’s to their party’s advantage when voting is suppressed, however you do it. Their latest methods are new and frightening.
Wisconsin’s governor, a Democrat, sought to move primaries to a safer summer deadline.; the vote would include a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, as conservative as the R-dominated statehouse, Republicans wanted to keep it that way. They took the Governor to a state district court, which upheld the Governor’s move, but then SCOTUS took up the case, and narrowly (along party lines) upheld the Republican move to vote at in-person polls today and to shorten the deadline for absentee voting.
They vote for judges in Wisconsin. So if you are a Wisconsin citizen who wants to replace a conservative judge with someone you prefer, all you have to do is risk your life. Oh, and put the old ladies at the polling desk at risk. And first find the place where you’re supposed to vote. In the interest of polling “safety,” numbers of sites for voting have been reduced. There are now four for the city of Milwaukee!
Meanwhile, requests for absentee ballots go unacknowledged and unsent, according to many. Not surprising. There’s a pandemic going on.
Is this a preview of Republican plans for November???
The great SCOTUS Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg wrote the dissenting opinion: “The majority of this Court declares that this case presents a ‘narrow, technical question, That is wrong. The question here is whether tens of thousands of Wisconsin citizens can vote safely in the midst of a pandemic. Under the District Court’s order, they would be able to do so. Even if they receive their absentee ballot in the days immediately following election day, they could return it. With the majority’s stay in place, that will not be possible. Either they will have to brave the polls, endangering their own and others’ safety. Or they will lose their right to vote, though no fault of their own. That is a matter of utmost importance— to the constitutional rights of Wisconsin’s citizens, the integrity of the State’s election process, and in this most extraordinary time, the health of the Nation.”
Thanks to Alternet and Cody Fenwick for covering this story. And thanks to NPR for its reports of voters turning out in masks, and polls having plastic shields and more. Let’s see what happens! Tell your legislators you want paper votes and absentee votes for November.
