Conservative Law Firm Tries To Stop Racine’s Voting Truck
Truck is used for mobile in-person absentee voting.
The city of Racine’s voting truck was used in the February 2022, April 2022 and August 2022 elections. Photo courtesy of the city of Racine.
A conservative law firm is attempting to stop the city of Racine from using a truck as a location for in-person absentee voting.
The truck, or “mobile voting unit,” was used for the first time in the February 2022 election, and was also used in the April 2022 election and again in this week’s partisan primary, according to Shannon Powell, chief of staff to Racine Mayor Cory Mason.
The complaint alleges that the voting truck violates state statute because it moved to different locations throughout the early voting period, staying at each spot for a few hours.
“Conducting an election in this fashion leads to voter confusion,” the complaint read, also alleging that the locations themselves favored the Democratic Party.
A list of the truck’s locations for in-person absentee voting for the partisan primary, including dates and times, was published in the Racine Journal Times and on the city’s website.
The complaint also alleges that state statute requires in-person absentee voting to take place in a “fixed location.”
“The plain language of the statute contemplates that ‘polling places’ shall be in buildings and not in a transitory vehicle such as a van,” the complaint read.
Also at issue is ballot security, said LoCoco. In an interview with the Associated Press, McMenamin said ballots cast were placed in a locked container.
Lesia Hill-Driver is the director of the Dr. John Bryant Community Center, where the truck was set up on the morning of Aug. 5. She said although there weren’t many people who showed up to vote that day, she was glad to have the vehicle there as an option.
“I thought it was a wonderful experience and it gave the people in the community an opportunity to get out and vote, which is so very important,” she said.
Hill-Driver hopes the truck will be allowed to operate in future elections, and described the complaint as “frivolous.”
“People need to have the opportunity to vote any legal way possible,” she said.
LoCoco said the aim is not to make voting more difficult, but to correct actions that WILL believes are against the law.
“There’s no dispute that voting is a right in Wisconsin,” he said. “Our only concern here is making sure that the clerks follow the laws that are in effect.”
The voting vehicle was purchased using money from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a group funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Listen to the WPR link here
Complaint seeks to stop Racine from using truck for in-person absentee voting was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio
A van with a big sign on the side stating, “VOTE HERE,” while parked, is a fixed location for voting. The inability to understand this may relate to a condition of not understanding the concept of object permanence.
This is once again showing the effort of The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) to block voter access and disrupt, diminish, and eventually replace our democracy.
The triumph of The WILL means the demise of democracy in Wisconsin.
The persons at the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty see voting in our Democracy as a form of tyranny on the rich and those self appointed arbitrators of community morals. They probably wish they could have had the slogan, “One Call, Thats All” but David Gruber probably has it copyrighted.
From The Brennan Center for Law and Liberty:
“Racial Motivations Behind Anti-Voter Laws
Many have blamed the alarming pattern of state voter suppression laws on partisan efforts by legislators to change election rules to favor their party. But that isn’t the whole story. Brennan Center research finds that white racial resentment — and not just partisanship and competitiveness alone — is a significant driver of restrictive voting laws. A new analysis illustrates how the most racially diverse states under single-party control are far more likely to introduce and pass measures that make it harder to vote.”
Referring to Will as a “Conservative Law Firm” is a misnomer.
Racism is the root of everything.