Republicans Making It Harder to Vote
That includes disabled voters, who can’t vote unless someone delivers their ballot.
An absentee ballot. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Two of my friends who are both long-time voters ran into a new barrier for this spring’s election as a result of a recent court ruling. Both have had surgery that severely limits their ability to get around. Both applied for an absentee ballot and, until this spring, could have had a family member return the ballot to the Madison City Clerk’s office. But that simple act of support was not possible in the April 5 election because of the misguided ruling. If we’re lucky, the prohibition will be rescinded in the courts before the fall.
Unfortunately the practice of returning another person’s sealed absentee ballot has been in the crosshairs of Republican legislatures recently, and it was the subject of a lawsuit filed in Waukesha County by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), a conservative law firm. To make matters worse, the court ruling in favor of WILL has created confusion as to whether it actually prohibits the practice itself or simply the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s guidance on the practice.
The ambiguity of the recent court ruling stems from the fact that WILL targeted the Wisconsin Elections Commission in its lawsuit, seeking to have the agency rescind its guidance to local election clerks stating that the practice was legal. In response to the ruling, WEC has withdrawn the guidance. However, because WILL did not specifically name local election clerks in its complaint, they are not legally bound by the ruling. A letter written by attorneys for the League of Wisconsin Municipalities states that each clerk will have to decide individually what to do.
WILL certainly has some smart lawyers, and surely they were aware of the limited nature of their complaint. They could have known it would cause confusion, and yet they filed their mean-spirited lawsuit anyway. They have taken one aspect of election administration, which has worked well for many voters for many years, and made it ambiguous. You can bet there will be litigation following the election.
In their fervor to discredit the 2020 elections Republicans in the state Legislature have passed a slew of highly restrictive voting bills, including a proposal to ban people from returning a ballot on behalf of another. They say their reforms would give people more confidence in elections, but all they do is make it harder to vote.
If the Legislature remains under Republican leadership after the November elections, as expected, you can be sure these same bills — or even more restrictive ones — will go to the governor for his signature. That’s why we need a governor who will stand up to these threats to our ability to vote.
We can look forward to the day when a less radical group will be elected to the Legislature, allowing Wisconsin to move forward with clear, consistent legislation designed to make elections more accessible, efficient and fair.
This column was originally published by the Cap Times.
Andrea Kaminski is the former executive director of the Wisconsin League of Women Voters and currently serves on the group’s state legislative committee. Her views here are her own.
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Why not just mail the absentee ballot like we’ve been doing forever?
#1 it’s much simpler
#2 it’s 10, 000x more environmentally friendly (USPS collectively delivers mail for many vs 1 person driving around acting as a private delivery person in their own car to deliver 1 envelope)
#3 there’s much more certainty that your vote gets counted instead of someone “forgetting” to drop it off.
If I were cooped up at home w limited mobility due to a recent surgery, there’s probably a list of 100 other more helpful things a friend could assist me with, ie: prepare a meal, bathing, laundry, household chores, or maybe just spend quality time together. Why deprive myself of all that help when it would only require about 60 seconds of time to put an envelope in my mailbox?
The author identified a continuing strategy used by WILL and those conservatives working to undermine our democracy. First file a lawsuit to intimidate or harass a government official whether its a voting clerk, teacher, or civil. Make sure that the lawsuit is vague so that persons can not be sure whether they are violating the law or not. So the classes of persons who could be affected by the lawsuit will be menaced with the threat of being sued and might be less likely to do what they should be doing.
The answer to “why not” is simple. Republicans won’t allow it. And the reason they won’t is because they fear that failing to restrict our ability to vote conveniently will result in a diminishment of their illicit grip on the levers of power in our hyper-gerrymandered state.
Don’t be surprised if their next attempt to “reform” voting in Wisconsin involves requiring eligible voters to live at least 700 feet from their nearest neighbor and have a mailbox no less than 30 feet from their front door.
Wardt01, from what I understand, it is impossible for homebound citizens to LEGALLY mail in their ballot, too. I think WILL’s position is that you must PERSONALLY drop your ballot into a mail box—that another person (even a full-time caregiver or a spouse) cannot legally take it to the mailbox for you. So, unless you can actually travel to a mailbox yourself, you can’t vote by mail, either.
Of course, in most cases they won’t know if somebody else mailed your ballot, but they can tell for those that are homebound. If there were a close election (decided by a handful of votes), what would prevent a right-wing DA from forcing home-bound voters to PROVE that they actually visited the mailbox in person and examining the envelope for finger prints? Much stranger things—checking for non-existent watermarks and bamboo fibers—have already happened in the Arizona vote “audit”. Republicans now believe in overturning elections, and “illegal” votes by homebound people (who are more likely to vote Democratic) would be a way of doing that.
Of course, you could also leave your sealed and stamped envelope in your home’s mailbox for the postman (postwoman?) to collect, but even that isn’t possible if your mailbox is next to the road (or, if you’re in a wheelchair or worse, even a step down onto a porch).