voter suppression

COMMENTARY
finger pointing, people arguing

 Voters don’t agree with the GOP. Republicans don’t want to hear it.

BY: - November 10, 2023

Wisconsin Republicans passed a pair of  campus “free speech” bills through the Assembly this week, one of which gives students unfettered editorial control of campus newspapers, and another that sets new free speech standards and heaps fines and punishments on campuses if they violate them. As Baylor Spears reports, floor debate on both measures revolved […]

COMMENTARY
Members of SEIU and Voces de la Frontera arrive at the Capitol Tuesday | Wisconsin Examiner photo

Backlash against voter suppression is changing politics in Wisconsin

BY: - October 25, 2023

On Tuesday, shortly after members of both houses of the Legislature wrapped up a hearing on proposals to enshrine voter ID in the Wisconsin Constitution, along with new rules to ensure that noncitizens cannot cast ballots in local elections, union members clad in purple SEIU T-shirts burst through the doors of the Capitol and marched […]

Signage at an early voting center

On Democracy Day, newsrooms unite for pro-democracy coverage

BY: - September 15, 2023

It’s no secret: U.S. democracy is under serious threat. Politicians use rigged maps to entrench themselves in power, allowing them to ignore the will of voters. Hundreds of members of Congress, state lawmakers, and top state officials — including chief elections officials — deny the results of the last presidential contest. And a leading candidate […]

National bill on voting standards pushed anew by Democrats in Congress

BY: - July 18, 2023

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats on Tuesday said they plan to again introduce a bill to set national voting standards in response to state legislatures passing strict voting laws. The bill, known in a previous Congress as the Freedom to Vote Act, would establish national standards for early voting, mail-in ballots and protection of poll workers […]

Voting rights activists and others gather at the Midtown Center in Milwaukee on the first day of early voting. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

Keep Our Republic launches in Wisconsin to defend democracy, protect the vote

BY: - June 5, 2023

Keep Our Republic, a bipartisan group founded in 2020 to shore up confidence in U.S. elections, is announcing the launch of its Wisconsin chapter on Monday. The group’s creed, according to its mission statement, is: “Let all eligible voters vote. Let all votes be counted. Let the vote count stand.” Chapters in Pennsylvania and Michigan […]

"No vote for you" sign

A top GOP lawyer wants to crack down on the college vote. States already are.

BY: - May 1, 2023

 A top Republican election lawyer recently caused a stir when she told GOP donors that the party should work to make it harder for college students to vote in key states. But the comments from Cleta Mitchell, who worked closely with then-President Donald Trump to try to overturn the 2020 election, are perhaps less surprising […]

Milwaukee residents gather for an early voting rally at the Midtown Center. (Photo | SEUI Wisconsin State Council)

Community leaders push early voting in Milwaukee

BY: - February 16, 2023

Community activists, elected officials and Milwaukee residents gathered at the city’s Midtown Center Wednesday to encourage people to vote early. Early voting for the 2023 spring primary opened on Feb. 7 and will run until Feb. 18 in Milwaukee. (Check the MyVote.com website for information on voting hours in each municipality, absentee voting, and where […]

COMMENTARY
Protesters organize against GOP voter suppression efforts at the Radison Hotel, during the GOP's annual Reagan Day Dinner. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

On MLK Day, a choice between fascism and democracy

BY: - January 16, 2023

The MLK holiday is a time for service and hopefully deep reflection. People volunteer, give their time, donate money etc, but what does this holiday mean in this moment, when  democracy continues to be fragile and not accessible to everyone? Last week I wrote an Op-Ed for the Recombobulation Area about the voter suppression we […]

COMMENTARY
Wisconsin election rally Spindell

What will Wisconsin Republicans do after Spindell spilled the beans on suppressing Black votes?

BY: - January 12, 2023

Thanks to the excellent reporting of Bruce Murphy in Urban Milwaukee, we now know that fake Trump elector and Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Robert Spindell crowed about Republicans’ successful efforts to suppress the Black vote in Milwaukee in the November 2022 elections. The quotes Murphy pulls out of Spindell’s congratulatory message to Republicans, as party chair […]

Rev. Erica Lieu, 2020 Election poll chaplain

Seeking to bring peace, ensure justice, clergy prepare to stand watch at the polls

BY: - November 7, 2022

Along with elections workers and poll watchers, Wisconsin voters may encounter faith leaders when they go to the polls on Tuesday. Clergy of several faiths are volunteering to serve as poll chaplains on Election Day. They will be there, organizers say, to provide support and comfort for voters and poll workers. And in a time […]

A Maricopa County , Arizona, drop box, October 2022. Photo by Kira Lerner/States Newsroom

Concerns grow that voter intimidation could disrupt midterm elections

BY: - November 4, 2022

PHOENIX — The two outdoor ballot drop boxes in Maricopa County are both unassuming—secure metal boxes, about the size of blue mailboxes, located just outside county buildings. But in recent weeks, they’ve at times been monitored by volunteers with far-right organizations, prompted by former President Donald Trump’s claims of widespread fraud and misinformation about drop […]

"No vote for you" sign

Election officials risk criminal charges under 31 new GOP-imposed penalties

BY: - July 19, 2022

Second in a two-part series. See part one here. Since the 2020 election, Iowa has enacted one new felony and two new misdemeanor offenses targeting election officials.  The state’s omnibus election law, passed in 2021, criminalizes election officials who fail to perform their duties, don’t adequately maintain voter lists, or interfere with other people performing […]