Republican SCOTUS Abets Wisconsin Republican Voter Suppression

The back- and- forth over whether the Wisconsin primary should be held today in the midst of a pandemic is over.  Democratic Gov. Tony Evers wanted to postpone the primary, as every other state with an April primary has done;  the Republican legislature, backed by the Republican- majority State Supreme Court said no.  Yesterday, the bad guys won, abetted by the heavy hand of the five Republican vote suppressors on the Supreme Court.

Here's a brief background:

... Other states have postponed their primaries as the novel coronavirus made gathering with your neighbors in long lines in a middle school gym seem like a terrible idea.

Evers was willing to hold the election as scheduled until recently, but he tried to make the voting safer and easier amid the pandemic. Yet Republicans resisted.

Evers called for the state to simply send every voter an absentee ballot, but Republicans refused. Democrats filed lawsuits to remove certain absentee ballot requirements that will be impossible for some to follow during the lockdown. Republicans fought those, too, as well as a suit seeking to give the state more time to count the increased number of absentee ballots.

All this has led to reasonable speculation that Wisconsin Republicans are actively hoping to carry through this election with lower turnout, because they believe that will benefit them in a big race: one that pits conservative Justice Daniel Kelly against liberal challenger Jill Karofsky, competing for a 10-year term in a coveted state supreme court seat.  (our emphasis)

It's all quite simple in Wisconsin and elsewhere:  the more people vote, the more Republicans are going to lose.

Wisconsin Republicans took the matter to the Republican U.S. Supreme Court, the same outfit that gutted the Voting Rights Act and promoted unlimited dark money in politics (Citizens United).  The result was a 5- 4 foregone conclusion.  But leave it to our heroine, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to speak the truth in her dissent:

“The question here is whether tens of thousands of Wisconsin citizens can vote safely in the midst of a pandemic,” Ginsburg wrote on Monday. “With the majority’s stay in place, that will not be possible. Either they will have to brave the polls, endangering their own and others’ safety. Or they will lose their right to vote, through no fault of their own.”

She continued: “That is a matter of utmost importance — to the constitutional rights of Wisconsin’s citizens, the integrity of the State’s election process, and in this most extraordinary time, the health of the Nation.”

The Wisconsin Election Commission reported Monday that 43% of the absentee ballots already requested had not yet been returned.

“While I do not doubt the good faith of my colleagues, the Court’s order, I fear, will result in massive disenfranchisement,” Ginsburg wrote. “A voter cannot deliver for postmarking a ballot she has not received. Yet tens of thousands of voters who timely requested ballots are unlikely to receive them by April 7, the Court’s postmark deadline.” (our emphasis)

We're free to doubt the good faith of the Republican ideologues and water carriers currently representing the majority on the Court, even if Justice Ginsburg is loath to do so. This is all part and parcel of the Republican Party's rear guard action to hold onto power for as long as possible, by whatever means necessary as the ground shifts around them.

If justice (not the Supreme Court kind) were to prevail, Wisconsin voters would see through this naked power grab that endangers the lives of their fellow citizens and vote for the Democratic supreme court candidate.  We're not holding our breaths.

(Image:  Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

BONUS: Despite Republican efforts to disenfranchise them, Milwaukee voters gave them the finger and showed up in numbers, as National Guard members helped staff the limited polling places.  Masks and distancing were in practice.

Milwaukee, WI. 45 minutes after polls open. The line to vote goes on for a quarter mile at this station alone. Masks and social distancing abound. So proud and scared for my city. pic.twitter.com/5px2XZ6Ysn

— Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) April 7, 2020

But they made it as difficult as they could.

Milwaukee has just five voting locations open today, down from the usual 180 for a typical voting day. https://t.co/d6Q6zWTnfz

— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) April 7, 2020

So,

If Democrats don't want November to look like Wisconsin's election, they have only one chance: demand its inclusion in the next coronavirus bill and be prepared to walk away https://t.co/5i5WS3qFhg

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) April 7, 2020

Voter Suppression Continues in Wisconsin

Rethuglican attempts to deny voters IDs in order to steal elections is continuing in Wisconsin. Their Governor, failed Presidential hopeful and  Scott "Have A Koch" Walker and his Department of Motor Vehicles are either denying or dragging their feet in issuing State-approved IDs to Wisconsin minority group members and students around Milwaukee, Madison, and Green Bay. The IDs were approved by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on the condition that the State would make those IDs accessible to all eligible voters.  Federal District Judge James Peterson has ordered the State to investigate rampant reports of voter suppression in the failure to issue IDs, and to report back to the Court by October 7.

This is a huge matter, because approximately 9 percent (or 300,000) of registered voters don't have a valid voter ID, the vast majority of whom rely on public transportation if they are low income and don't have a car, or are out-of-state students residing in Wisconsin but without a Wisconsin drivers' license. The Court should hold Walker and responsible State officials in contempt of the Appellate Court's order, as well as striking down the voter ID law itself.  In America, voters should choose who represents them, not the other way around.

BONUS:  If it's not Rethuglican officials themselves trying to suppress the Democratic vote, it's their neo-fascist demagogue candidate, Donald "Rump" Trump, who has taken to encourage his thuggish supporters to form vigilante groups on election day to "watch" voting. His latest scurrilous suggestion was yesterday in Pennsylvania:

"You’ve got to go out. And you’ve got to get your friends. And you’ve got to get everyone you know. And you got to watch your polling booths, because I hear too many stories about Pennsylvania. Certain areas." (italics supplied)

Hmm, "certain areas," wonder what that means. And "watch your polling booths?" If that's not intimidation, then Rump's perfectly sane.

Voting Rights Victories In Wisconsin And Kansas

Following the news that the voter suppression law in North Carolina has been slapped down, courts in Wisconsin and Kansas have dealt serious blows to efforts by banana Republicans in those states to disenfranchise voters who normally vote Democratic.

Here's the editorial from the Kansas City Star on the immediate impact on that state:

The most crucial decision locally came in a last-minute victory for 17,500 Kansans, when Shawnee County District Judge Larry Hendricks essentially slapped down part of an overly restrictive 2013 state voter ID law. 

The upshot: The votes of those Kansans will count in all races in Tuesday’s primaries in Johnson and Wyandotte counties, and across the Sunflower State as well. 

Hendricks’ ruling was a sharp rebuke for Gov. Sam Brownback and the Legislature that approved the questionable law but especially for Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has stubbornly fought to enforce it.  [snip]

Kobach had told these 17,500 people that their votes would count only in federal elections, not in crucial state and local elections, because state law required them to provide proof of citizenship when they register to vote. 

They had registered to vote when they also registered their cars at motor vehicle offices. Under federal law, no proof of citizenship is required to get put on the voting rolls in that case. 

Hendricks properly brushed aside Kobach’s specious request to uphold the state law’s voter ID requirements.

In Wisconsin, where Koch brothers employee of the year and weasel/ human hybrid Gov. Scott "Koch Head" Walker and his pet Republican legislature have gone to great lengths to disenfranchise as many Democratic voters as possible, another hopeful development:

Finding that Republican lawmakers had discriminated against minorities, a federal judge Friday struck down parts of Wisconsin's voter ID law, limits on early voting and prohibitions on allowing people to vote early at multiple sites.  [snip]

Peterson also turned back other election laws Republicans have put in place in recent years. 

"The Wisconsin experience demonstrates that a preoccupation with mostly phantom election fraud leads to real incidents of disenfranchisement, which undermine rather than enhance confidence in elections, particularly in minority communities," U.S. District Judge James Peterson wrote. 

"To put it bluntly, Wisconsin's strict version of voter ID law is a cure worse than the disease."

Of course, the banana Republican Wisconsin Attorney General has vowed to appeal, and the 7th Circuit is over- loaded with Republican appointees.  One hopes that these judges will look at what's really going on here and come down on the right side of history.

Wisconsin Republican: Voter Suppression Is Going To Help Us!

Dimbulb (are there any other kind?) Wisconsin Republican congressman Glenn Grothman* unintentionally spilled the beans on the real intent of Wisconsin's voter i.d. law on Tuesday.  Here's Seth Meyers on Republican attempts to make voting as difficult as possible in Wisconsin -- and North Carolina, and Arizona (the best starts around 3:35):



Let's pause to give thanks to the Republican Roberts Supreme Court for its gutting of the Voting Rights Act, because this wouldn't be possible without their "help."

* We think Grothman bears a resemblance to the Stupidest Man on the Internet, right wing blogger Jim Hoft.  Agree?

BONUS:  Here's more on Wisconsin Republicans' cynical voter suppression.

On-Going Voter Suppression in Swing States

Republican governors in swing states Wisconsin and Ohio have recently signed legislation to suppress turnout by traditionally Democratic groups.  This follows efforts to introduce "voter id" laws similarly intended to suppress voting by the elderly, poor, minorities and students.  In Wisconsin and Ohio, both won twice by President Obama, here's the practical impact of those laws:

[March 27] Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed legislation eliminating early voting hours on weekends and nights, when it’s most convenient for many voters to go to the polls. When they took over state government in 2011, Wisconsin Republicans reduced the early voting period from three weeks to two weeks and only one weekend. Now they’ve eliminated weekend voting altogether. 

Over 250,000 Wisconsinites voted early in 2012, one in twelve overall voters. Cutting early voting has a clear partisan purpose: those who voted early voted for Obama 58 to 41 percent in Wisconsin in 2012, compared to his 51 to 48 percent margin on Election Day. Extended early voting hours were particularly critical with respect to high voter turnout in big cities like Milwaukee and Madison. “It’s just sad when a political party has so lost faith in its ideas that it’s pouring all of its energy into election mechanics,” said Wisconsin GOP State Senator Dale Schultz, a critic of the legislation. 

A month ago, Ohio passed legislation cutting early voting by a week, eliminating same-day voter registration and restricting the availability of absentee ballots while Secretary of State Jon Husted issued a directive doing away with early voting on weeknights and Sundays as well. 600,000 Ohioans, ten percent of the electorate, voted early in 2012. The cuts in Ohio, like Wisconsin, have a clear partisan and racial underpinning—in Cleveland, for example, African-Americans made up 56 percent of those who voted on weekends in 2008.  (our emphasis)

We're still living with the results of elections that have turned over Statehouses and legislatures to these anti-democratic forces, and thanks to Republican-engineering gerrymandering, will for some time to come.  Their ethos is pretty well summed up by Wisconsin Republican State Sen. Schultz, above (who passed up opportunities to switch parties years ago).  Their only focus in denying voting rights to millions of Americans?  We'll let BooMan play the hedgehog:

...maybe it's normal for a two-party system to develop in such a way that one party always benefits from higher turnout and one party always suffers. In such a system, the party that suffers will begin to doubt the worth of people's right to vote, since that right imperils their hold on power.  (our emphasis)

We know Democrats benefit from higher turnout, and Republicans fear it.  It should be clear by now to any sentient observer that's what's going on here.

Court Rules Against WI Voter Suppression Law

With multiple Rethuglican-controlled State legislatures passing laws intended to suppress Democratic voter turnout, we're seeing some victories in the court system, to wit, a Wisconsin judge declared Wisconsin's "voter ID" law would place undue obstacles to voting. While the decision will be appealed, the ruling (along with two other undecided cases pending) almost certainly delays a final hearing by the Wisconsin Supreme Court until after the November elections.

It's a good day for democracy.

A Victim of Voter Suppression

We've noted in previous posts that the Rethuglican / New Confederate Party is pulling out the stops in a number of states to make it hard, if not impossible, for Democratic-leaning voters to vote. Think Progress has a story today about a 95 year-old Wisconsin woman who was impacted by Wisconsin's Rethug-engineered voter ID law. Florence Hessing stopped driving when she reached 90, and was delivered by midwife so she had no birth certificate. Although lawyers were able to win an exemption for her, she's an example of the attempts by Rethugs to suppress the votes of likely Democratic voters by placing hurdles in their way.

Along with the infusion of enormous amounts of money from hyper-wealthy tycoons and large multinational corporations on the Rethug side, voter suppression is the ultimate attack on democracy. That's why this election is so important.