Latest GOP Anti-Voter Scheme: Less Voting, Less Transparency

Once Again, Partisans Are Attacking Right to Vote for Political Gain,' Says One WI Now

MADISON, Wis. — Republican State Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) has introduced a series of bills that would not only attack the right to vote for seniors, the poor and those living in cities across Wisconsin, but also reduce transparency by drastically altering the reporting requirements for political contributions.

“Here come the latest attacks on the right to vote by Republican leader Glenn Grothman,” said Scot Ross, Executive Director of One Wisconsin Now. “The Republicans don’t like what the people of Wisconsin did at the ballot box in November 2012, so they are going to try and keep certain people from being able to vote in the next election.”

Grothman circulated three separate cosponsorship memos this morning, which would drastically restrict the ability of legal voters to cast an in-person absentee ballot and end weekend “Souls to the Polls” voting; put onerous new hurdles for those wishing to assist the elderly living in nursing homes to vote; and finally, quadrupling the threshold for individual political donors to disclose their employers.

“Glenn Grothman simply doesn’t want ‘certain’ people to vote, including seniors, minorities, students and the poor,” said Ross. “Once again, partisans like Glenn Grothman, are attacking the right to vote for political gain and this is the real fraud around our elections in Wisconsin.”

In the last decade, less than two-dozen cases of voter impropriety have been prosecuted, the vast majority being felons on parole who improperly voted. This comes after Republican Attorney General JB Van Hollen put uncovering so-called “fraud” at the top of his agenda.

Ross noted that Grothman’s bill comes right after One Wisconsin Now released an analysis showing that employees of companies receiving nearly $30 million from Gov. Scott Walker’s privatized and failing Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation have donated $400,000 to Walker’s campaign since 2010 and these companies have donated an additional $200,000 to the Republican Governors Association, which has spent in excess of $14 million to support Walker.

One Wisconsin Now completed a comprehensive analysis of voting in Wisconsin and the attacks on the right to vote, titled “Protecting the Right to Vote in Wisconsin.”

The three components of Grothman’s proposed legislation are available here.

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