Voting Rights & Election Protection

Wauwatosa alder launching voting restriction effort

Two simple truths about voting in the U.S.: one, there is no evidence of wide-scale voter fraud; two, voter ID would disenfranchise eligible voters. But that’€™s not going to stop a Wauwatosa alder from organizing a petition drive to require voter IDs in order to vote. From Wauwatosa Now: After her proposal for a voter […]

Green Bay’s City Clerk using post to push right-wing political agenda

Green Bay’€™s Republican City Clerk is using what should be a non-partisan office to push his right-wing political agenda to restrict voting rights. Chad Weininger, the former deputy chief of staff for ex-Rep. Mark Green (R) who was a staunch advocate for restrictive voter ID laws in Congress and throughout his unsuccessful campaign for governor, […]

Sen. Ted Kanavas threatens to move to Texas, endorses combined reporting

“If we don’t change and change soon, I may bump into my lawyer friend again, but it just might be in Texas.” — Senator Ted Kanavas’s threat to move to Texas, 6/30/2009 What do you think of when you think of Texas? The Dallas Cowboys (shudder)? How about Enron? George W. Bush (double-shudder)? Despite those […]

Constituents Call for Kind, Kagen, Petri to Vote for Clean Energy Bill Friday

MADISON, Wis. — Constituents from across the congressional districts of U.S. Reps. Ron Kind, Steve Kagen, and Tom Petri have signed a petition urging them to both strengthen and vote in favor of critical legislation on the House floor Friday to transform the economy into one harnessing the power of green technology. “Wisconsin and the […]

If You Don’t Vote, Does It Matter What You Think?

The “news” from the latest St. Norbert’s poll is that Gov. Doyle is allegedly at the nadir of his popularity, because less than 50 percent are satisfied or very satisfied with his leadership. Time is ticking and soon the chorus of Wisconsin conservatives will be claiming this “drop in popularity” is due to the Governor […]

A Video to All of You Who Voted to Write Hate into Wisconsin’s Constitution

The Courage Campaign, a California organization with a similar mission as One Wisconsin Now, has produced a powerful video about efforts to overturn more than 18,000 previously-legal same sex marriages in the Golden State. http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/divorce Despite some great gains for progressives in the last two years, one of the most distressing setbacks has been the […]

Who Gets the Progressive Vote for Sunday’s Super Bowl?

(Note: So yinz know, this guy’s from dahn nere in Pittsburgh, n’nat.) With so much going on at the national and state levels, one question progressives may still be asking themselves: Do I support the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Arizona Cardinals in Sunday’s Super Bowl? Consider: Pittsburgh owner Dan Rooney endorsed now-President Barack Obama and […]

A Friendly Letter from the Wisconsin Consitution to Jeff Fitzgerald

Dear Minority Leader Fitzgerald (the Assembly one), Happy 2009! We, the articles and sections which make up the Wisconsin Constitution, noticed that on top of financing the cost of you and your family’s health care, that you are spending some of the people’s tax dollars having your ample staff waste time and resources creating something […]

Van Roy Twice Votes ‘No’ on Wisconsin Jobs

MADISON, Wis. — Rep. Karl Van Roy (R-Green Bay) broke a pledge made just this month to his constituents to assist job growth by voting against two critical job creation bills passed with bipartisan support in the State Assembly Tuesday. “It took Karl Van Roy one day on the State Assembly floor to return to […]

Milw. Assistant DA Bruce Landgraf: Making Voter Fraud a “Reality”

Five. Five people remain under investigation for casting an improper ballot on Election Day in Milwaukee County. Five. Out of nearly 500,000 votes cast. And the crusade to criminalize voting continues. The de-facto leader this time around? Milwaukee County Assistant DA Bruce Landgraf. Despite the lack of any substantiated evidence of a ‘€œwide-spread conspiracy’€ to […]

MJS: Voter Fraud a Fairy Tale

Wisconsinites have good reason to be proud as Wisconsin had the second-highest voter turnout among all fifty states in last week’€™s election. And Milwaukee County can rest easy that the election was fair and accurate given the fact’€”as explained in a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article‘€”that among the hundreds of thousands of ballots cast in […]

Lautenschlager: Van Hollen wants to suppress vote

Now can we stop hearing the claim that by sending out 50 law enforcement agents to polling places Tuesday that Atty. Gen. J.B. Van Hollen is just doign what Peg Lautenschlager did four years ago? Here’s what Lautenschlager herself says: In 2004 Peggy Lautenschlager, now an attorney for Lawton & Cates, said she also used […]

OWN Statements on Van Hollen Partisan Lawsuit Dismissal

MADISON, Wis. — One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross released the following statements after a judge today dismissed Attorney General JB Van Hollen’s partisan lawsuit against the state of Wisconsin. “Today’s decision was a complete rejection of Republican Attorney General and John McCain for President Co-chair JB Van Hollen’s partisan lawsuit which could have […]

Van Hollen Gets Schooled on Voter Rights

From the moment that state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen filed his frivolous lawsuit against the Government Accountability Board (GAB) it was clear to any honest observer that it was without merit and motivated by rank partisanship. That was confirmed later when it was revealed that Van Hollen’€™s office had multiple communications with Republican Party […]

Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney on Voter Suppression Attempts

Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney on Voter Suppression Attempts October 23, 2008 It is deeply ironic that Republican operatives are working so hard to tarnish the most dynamic voter participation in our country in decades-apparently to justify and camouflage their most organized attempt yet to deny Americans the right to vote. The right wing […]

GOP ‘€œVoter Fraud’€ in California?

Republicans have been busy slandering ACORN in recent weeks improperly alleging ‘€œvoter fraud.’€ One has to wonder how these same people will respond to the fact that the California Republican Party hired a firm whose owner has been arrested for possible voter registration fraud. Reports state that Mark Jacoby, owner of Young Political Majors, was […]

Nearly 3,000 Petitions Call for Van Hollen to Investigate Suspicious McCain/RPW Mailings

MILWAUKEE — Nearly 3,000 Wisconsinites have signed a petition calling on Republican Attorney General and John McCain for President state co-chair JB Van Hollen to investigate suspicious absentee ballot mailings coming from McCain and the Republican Party of Wisconsin. One Wisconsin Now, which launched the drive, delivered the petitions to Van Hollen’s office Monday. “We […]

Van Hollen’€™s War Against African-American Voters

J.B. Van Hollen’€™s frivolous lawsuit against the Government Accountability Board, (GAB) is political mischief that could complicate voting for as many as 1 million people in Wisconsin. One Wisconsin Now, the League of Women Voters, municipal clerks, the GAB itself and many others have taken a stand against J.B. Van Hollen. Now the Milwaukee chapter […]

Save Wisconsin’s Vote!

Hundreds of thousands of legal voters are at risk ‘€“ but we only get utter silence from the McCain campaign. The media has been reporting that Wisconsinites have received absentee ballot applications from the John McCain for President campaign with incorrect return addresses, which would likely prevent the registration and processing from being completed. The […]

The truth about voter fraud in Wisconsin

The highly respected Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law, has a comprehensive, well researched and documented white paper by Justin Levitt on recent allegations of voter fraud allegedly occurring in Wisconsin and other states within the last eight years, entitled, “The Truth About Voter Fraud.” Once you read it, your […]

PRECOURT PRIMER: McCain Co-Chair Van Hollen’s Quotes, Timeline

8/20/2008 Van Hollen Takes Helm As McCain state Campaign Co-Chair “I’m honored to help lead John McCain’s Wisconsin campaign, and I’m looking forward to his victory in November.” [Van Hollen Campaign Website] 9/2/2008 Karl Rove Meets with Wisconsin Republican Team in Minnesota to Discuss Strategy “Rove also talked politics with delegates, telling them he still […]

New Election Task Force Must Investigate Specifics of False Absentee Ballot Mailing

MILWAUKEE — The newly-announced election task force by Attorney General JB Van Hollen and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm must make its first task a complete investigation of the John McCain presidential campaign’s recent statewide absentee ballot application mailing, which numerous recipients report contains faulty information which could negate their registration. “John McCain’s campaign […]

Partisanship, Arrogance and Planned Chaos at the Polls

Wisconsin’€™s Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen is trying to remake himself into the very image of Florida’€™s infamous Katherine Harris. His filing of a frivolous lawsuit against the state’€™s Government Accountability Board (GAB) is little more than a politically calculated move to serve his party masters and apparently to suppress votes in November. When […]

GOP: Lose Your Home, Lose Your Vote

Every major election cycle we are forced to watch Republicans run the same drill, attempting to suppress the votes of people that are not likely to support them. Usually they lead the press by the nose making wild and unfounded accusations of widespread voter fraud and then use those false claims to push policies like […]

Clerical Error Does Not Equal Fraud

It looks like Republican Party efforts to prevent people from voting were dealt a serious blow with news that four of six of the member of the state’€™s Government Accountability Board failed when their names were process through a new voter identification test. Why is this news? Because the Republican Party has been trying to […]

GAB Proposed Rule Change Would Disenfranchise Legal Voters

The Government Accountability Board is weighing in on a proposed rule change which, according to the non-partisan League of Women Voters, would disenfranchise voters and cause ending chaos at polling places across Wisconsin. Wisconsin League Executive Director outlined the serious problems with the proposed rule being considered by GAB today. The rule places additional unnecessary […]

Voter Registration: Everything Worked Just as it Should

Although conservatives will try their best to shoehorn all sorts of conspiracy theories into ACORN’€™s hugely successful voter registration drive, everything in the process worked exactly as it should. Some 35,000 people were registered to vote and only about 3 percent of those registration cards had any problems at all. That amounts to 2,000 cards […]

Efficiently Ignoring Votes and Facts on Energy

John McCain has made energy his primary issue in recent weeks. It seems to be a strange choice for a U.S. Senator that has skipped every major energy vote in the last two years. That means that McCain was AWOL on 15 important votes on things like renewable energies, energy efficiency, biofuels, and even offshore […]

Give Ex-Offenders the Right to Vote

Approximately 2.1 million ex-offenders, who have served their sentences, are denied the right to vote in the United States. According to an ACLU study, 62,324 people with felony convictions in Wisconsin are not allowed to vote; however, 61% of these people are no longer incarcerated. Wisconsin law states that ex-offenders are allowed to vote after […]

Protect Wisconsin’€™s Vote by Fighting Voter ID

Using the false pretext of widespread voter fraud, conservatives constantly attack the ease with which some people can vote. The centerpiece of their attack on voting is the insistence on requiring a current photo ID to vote. A study by Rutgers and Ohio State University last year shows the effects of such strict requirements. The study found […]

Bad Faith Betrays Hispanics in a Milwaukee Primary Race

Update: “While the executive director of Esperanza Unida was traveling in Turkey, some 11 workers at the south side job training agency signed a petition saying they had not been paid in four weeks and that some checks had bounced. (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, July 17 , 2008)” via Global Girl – Madison, Wisconsin – When I […]

Joe Leibham throws tantrum over nearly error-free elctions

Joe Leibham, State Senator from Sheyboygan just won’€™t stop trying to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin voters with his hair-brained voter ID scheme. Even as a new audit of the April 1 election found ‘€œnearly error-free voting,’€ Joe ‘€œStill Can’€™t Prove a Voter Fraud Case’€ Leibham keeps up the voter ID rhetoric. ‘€œI still […]

Republican ‘€œVoter Fraud’€ Rumor Mill

Another big election year means another year for Republicans to make false claims about voter fraud. It looks like they are already running the exact same drill that they have run stretching all the way back to the 1960’€™s. The Republican National Committee has added a page on its website entitled ‘€œYou Can’€™t Make this […]

A Good Idea: Federal Election Day Voter Registration

Federal Election Day Voter Registration is a great way to increase voter turnout. Election Day Registration would ensure that no voters are disenfranchised by voter registration regulations. Currently, there is a bill in the US Senate, proposed by Senator Feingold, that would establish Federal Election Day Voter Registration and it needs your support. As Wisconsinites, […]

A Case Study in Getting a Voter ID

If Republicans really cared about protecting elections, they' would make sure every one who wants to vote has the chance

The unkindest cut — Ron Kind votes for war money

Another cave-in by House Dems. Another $162-billion for war. At least 151 Dems voted against it, even if it was a token gesture and they knew the bill would pass. Wisconsin’s Ron Kind was one of 80 Democrats who voted yes. (The number keeps shrinking; last time it was 85.) Even Dave Obey and Nancy […]

Voter ID: Deterring Voter Fraud or Legal Voters?

    Over the past six years, it has been a goal of the Bush administration to crack down on voter fraud and the intentional corruption of the election process by voters.  The only problem is that voter fraud, on a broad corruption scale, is virtually nonexistent.  According to a Bernard College study, between 2002 and […]

“We should be encouraging more people to vote, not discouraging them.”

In a recent guest column for the Herald Times Reporter, Manitowoc County Clerk, Jamie Aulik lent some insight into that county’€™s recent elections. “In last February’s presidential preference primary and April’s general election, the voter turnout for all eligible voters in Manitowoc County was 34 percent and 17 percent, respectively. Given those statistics, we should […]

Kohl, Feingold both vote no as Senate passes war funding

Only 26 Senators had the courage today to vote against another $165-billion in war funding for Iraq and Afghanistan. We should be proud that both Wisconsin Senators, Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, voted no. Here’s why. WashPost reports: Senators stripped the package of all language governing the conduct of the Iraq war or mandating troop […]

The Partisans vs. The Professionals

Shortly after taking office State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen began handing out jobs to partisan cronies. For example, he made Ray Taffora his Deputy. He did this even though Taffora had no real prosecutorial experience and was little more than a politically connected corporate hack. Taffora served as counsel for Tommy Thompson and assisted […]

Nuns unable to vote in Indiana

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling that Indiana’s voter ID law is constitutional, about 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place because they didn’t have state or federal identification bearing a photograph.  Another person who attempted to vote with a federal ID card was turned away because the card […]