America Votes Statement on Indiana Supreme Court Ruling The voice of every American citizen needs to be heard at the voting booth. It should be easier— not more difficult— for Americans to cast their ballots. This is why the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding Indiana’s law requiring voters to present government identification is so deeply disturbing. […]
On Monday the Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s strict voter ID law. The most direct and accurate analysis of this decision was by Representative Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee). She said that the decision was ‘an unconstitutional solution in search of a problem.’ This is such a good statement because it is accurate and gets directly to the […]
In Wisconsin, approximately half of the African-American population does not have driver’s licenses, and at least 123,000 people were found to have no form of state-issued photo ID in 2005. And 33% of Wisconsin’s DMV offices, where one theoretically could register to vote, are open less than 4 days a month. Lucky for us, though, […]
While J.B. Van Hollen is having a problem hanging on to veteran lawmen at the Department of Justice, there is no shortage of political cronies that he isn’t willing to hire and promote. The Wisconsin State Journal reported that Jim Warren, the state’s former top criminal investigator felt that his sudden retirement was ‘shoved down […]
Yesterday a coalition of groups, including the One Wisconsin Institute, formally launched an effort to restore voting rights to felons that have served their time in prison. Under current law, convicted felons can’t vote until after they are off probation. In some cases this disenfranchises people for decades even after they have already served their […]
The Kentucky House has approved a proposed constitutional amendment seeking to automatically restore the voting rights of certain felons. (See http://www.lex18.com/Global/story.asp?S=8105451&nav=menu203_2) Rep. Parisi of Madison is currently sponsoring legislation in the Wisconsin Assembly to the same effect. “Felon voting” was a huge issue in the 2004 Milwaukee elections fiasco. Legislation like this would allow felons […]
The League of Women Voters says it all in this MJS editorial. “…it is shocking that proponents of voter ID are citing a report which rolled out old findings that appear to point to widespread illegal voting in Milwaukee in the 2004 election. The truth is that virtually all of the irregularities identified in the […]
Wisconsin Democrats stonewalled Republican attempts to bring AJR17 (photo ID amendment) to a vote yesterday, despite the dramatic fanfare of a GOP press conference that went down in flames. But a voter ID debate of greater import is raging right now in the uppermost echelons of our nation’s government, as the Supreme Court deliberates the […]
Senate Republicans, flaunting the ridiculous rogue report put out by as-yet-to-be-identified members of the Milwaukee police bureaucracy, had hoped their press stunt Thursday calling for Voter ID would make news. Unfortunately for them, the news made was when Senator Spencer Coggs and Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker challenged them face to face. Coggs chimed in […]
Yesterday investigators from the Milwaukee Police Department issued a report on voting in Milwaukee in 2004. It is important to note that Police Chief Edward Flynn said that the report’s findings are the views of the investigators, and the department would not take a stand on the policy issues. Most of the report focused on […]
We’ve finally seen the results of the Milwaukee Police Department’s Special Investigation Unit’s 18-month taxpayer-financed look into allegations of voting problems in Milwaukee from 2006…er, 2004. Xoff breaks it down here, offering required reading for anyone expecting to run into a conservative yammering about the need to (supress the African American, Latino and student vote) […]
As expected, Assembly Republicans continued their war on voting today. In their crosshairs is the decades-old practice allowing same day voter registration. In many ways this tradition has helped to produce voter participation numbers that are the envy of most other states. Republicans on the Elections and Constitutional Law committee are ignoring the Constitution. Sacred rights […]
Another missile has been fired in the War On Voting. Rep. Sue Jeskewitz is once again trying to prevent Wisconsinites from exercising the most cherish right enjoyed by Americans: the right to vote. It’s not the first time she’s tried, but Jeskewitz has reintroduced a bill to end the right of Wisconsinites to register to […]
Today hearings are set on two of the latest attempts by conservatives in the state legislature to disenfranchise people that traditionally don’t vote for them. The first is an attempt to repeal election day voter registration in Wisconsin, the second to establish a voter photo ID requirement. These are just the latest two attempts by […]
Today the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel completely nailed the issue of requiring voter IDs to vote. The editorial was written in the context of a voter ID case scheduled to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court today. Specifically, it is concerning an Indiana law that is among the strictest in the […]
The Campaign to Protect the Right to Vote & Expand Access to the Polls