Voting
Republicans offer joint resolution on redistricting
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu drafted a joint resolution on establishing new voting maps and referred it to the Legislature’s rules committee Thursday, which put it on the calendar for the Assembly’s floor session next week. The resolution’s first two points are uncontroversial, stating that, in drawing new legislative districts […]
State and federal courts are both set to draw voting maps — now what?
On Wednesday the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to take a redistricting case brought by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) that could put it in the position of drawing Wisconsin’s next round of voting maps, should the Legislature and the governor fail to agree on a new map following the 2020 census. […]
Gableman video puts a polished gloss on election nonsense
On Monday, the ethically challenged former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who is overseeing state Republicans’ “investigation” of Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election released a six-minute video warning local elections clerks that he might use his subpoena powers to force them to hand over information. He also put them on notice that the burden of proving that […]
Revised voting rights bill rolled out in U.S. Senate, with Manchin on board
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a revamped voting rights bill that would expand voter registration as well as create nonpartisan redistricting committees, but the measure is still likely to face an uphill battle in an evenly divided Senate. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he will bring the legislation to the floor of […]
Safar takes the helm at Law Forward
Law Forward, Wisconsin’s nearly one-year-old public interest law firm, announced Thursday that it has hired its first full-time executive director, Nicole Safar. Safar helped lead Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin for many years, including as the group’s vice president of public affairs and legal advocacy, before leaving to serve as Gov. Tony Evers’ assistant deputy secretary […]
Why the Wisconsin Supreme Court doesn’t want to take on redistricting
The conservative legal outfit Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) is once again urging the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take control of drawing the state’s political maps. But the best arguments against doing so have come from none other than the conservative justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court itself. Despite being rebuffed a few […]
GOP to spend “$680,000, at least, to start” in hunt for disproven “steal”
On Wednesday dueling releases from the Republican and Democratic leaders of the state Assembly addressed the election audit that Speaker Robin Vos assured former President Donald Trump, who lost the 2020 election, he would perform while riding on Trump’s plane to a rally on Saturday. The so-called audit is part of the project for which […]
House passes voting rights bill but Senate approval unlikely
The U.S. House on Tuesday passed, 219-212, along party lines a bill to reinstate a core section of the Voting Rights Act — a direct rebuke to state laws the bill’s supporters say have restricted voting rights. The bill, named for the late civil rights icon and longtime Georgia Democratic U.S. Rep. John R. Lewis, […]
DOJ civil rights official urges Congress to act soon on voting rights
WASHINGTON—A top Justice Department official on Monday stressed the need for Congress to pass legislation named after the late Georgia civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis in order to protect voting rights across the United States. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Kristen Clarke told lawmakers that since a 2013 Supreme Court decision that struck […]
Trump’s valentine to Brandtjen as Vos-Gableman are “going off the rails”
Former President Donald Trump has found a new Wisconsinite worthy of his praise — and taken another shot at beleaguered Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. Vos is fast becoming a scapegoat for the QAnon-wing of the Republican party despite his having waded very deep into the falsehoods and misinformation about the 2020 presidential election, spreading them […]
First shots in the redistricting wars come with census data arrival
Thursday’s release of the delayed census data for each state was the official kickoff of the redistricting process — and officials and groups throughout Wisconsin reacted less to the new information and more to the battles about to ignite as the process of drawing legislative maps gets underway. Redistricting takes place every 10 years as […]
U.S. Senate to try again on voting rights in September
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is planning to bring a comprehensive voting rights package to the Senate floor for a vote when the chamber returns from recess next month. Schumer, a New York Democrat, said Wednesday that the Senate will take up a compromise version of the voting and elections bill, S.1, […]