voter suppression
The broad battle against limiting voting rights
Twenty years ago, Dee Her suffered a severe stroke after starting on dialysis. It curtailed her mobility, so she now uses a wheelchair or walker to get around. Then in 2017, shortly after a medically induced coma, the Sun Prairie resident became an indefinitely confined voter. She tells her personal story in a matter-of-fact manner, […]
Congressional Democrats scrutinize state elections laws for effect on minority voters
WASHINGTON—Members of a U.S. House panel on Monday debated whether some state elections laws disenfranchise certain voters, including people of color, and split along party lines in their conclusions. The chair of the elections subcommittee of the House Administration Committee, Rep. G. K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), voiced his concerns about recent voting requirement laws in states […]
Wisconsin is one of a handful of states on Heritage Action’s voting-restriction target list
A video obtained by the investigative group Documented, and published last week by the magazine Mother Jones, shows the director of the right wing group Heritage Action for America telling donors at a gathering in Tucson, Arizona, about the group’s efforts to push voting restrictions throughout the U.S. by providing model legislation to state legislatures […]
Behind LeMahieu’s taciturn style lies a staunch conservative
State Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu and his GOP caucus took a beating from Democrats during the Senate floor session on Wednesday as the Republicans voted for bills to spend Wisconsin’s share of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in ways that likely violate the law. But the intensity of that debate did not appear […]
Wisconsin Legislature follows a nationwide systemic push against voting rights
Republican-led legislatures across the country continue a systematic push to pass laws they claim are aimed at ratcheting up election security. The policy debate over voting rights and election integrity has exploded in state houses, ignited by last year’s contentious elections where more people voted — particularly by absentee and mail-in ballot — than ever […]
New voter restrictions fit a long pattern
In this current debate about whether to expand or restrict voting, each side is probably spot on about the basic motivations of the politicians on the other side of the argument. GOP legislators say expansion, such as expressed in a sweeping measure in Congress, H.R.1, intended to achieve nearly universal voting, is a power grab […]
Voting rights advocates air worries about onslaught of new state election laws
WASHINGTON—A U.S. House elections panel on Thursday heard from witnesses about the need to craft a new formula that identifies which states or jurisdictions have problematic histories of racial discrimination when it comes to access to the ballot box. The hearing in the House Administration Committee’s elections subcommittee also served as a way for […]
Trump serves up cold leftovers at CPAC
At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Sunday, Donald Trump served up cold leftovers that have gone rancid. It was mostly a rerun of his old campaign speech (filled with his bragging until, yep, he said it again, “the China virus” hit) and his post-election rants about how he was “cheated” out of the […]
Why can’t Wisconsin keep a mask mandate? Gerrymandering
It didn’t have to be this way. Our state Legislature could be doing more to help Wisconsinites, but they aren’t. Why? Because too many legislative districts are drawn so that elected representatives don’t have to be responsive to their constituents. State government is fighting itself at every turn. The Legislature not only didn’t convene — […]
Election reform to return as a priority for Dems in Congress
WASHINGTON—Democrats who control Congress by narrow margins and the White House are making a fresh attempt to move forward a massive package that tackles dark money in campaigns, voter suppression and election security. The architect of the bill, Rep. John Sarbanes, said in an interview that the tumultuous 2020 election was a perfect example of […]
Democratic committee members denounce ‘forum for debunked conspiracies’ at Assembly hearing next week
As Trump’s last-ditch efforts to overturn Wisconsin’s presidential election results wind their way through the courts, Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Majority Leader Rep. Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna) announced that the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections will hold a public hearing about the 2020 presidential election on Friday, Dec. 11 at 10 a.m. “With numerous […]
Stop blaming people of color for the 2020 election mess
I think we can all agree that this has been the longest election cycle ever, and an even longer year. 2020 has brought a tremendous amount of trauma and tragedy. Some of the most marginalized people are some of the most vulnerable in this pandemic. Those same people tend to be targets for voter suppression. […]