Urge Gov. Evers to Veto the Latest Batch of Voter Suppression Legislation!

Tuesday - March 8, 2022

Gov. Tony Evers vetoing anti-voter legislation in the Capitol - August, 2021

Your Voice is Vital to Help Preserve and Protect Fair and Free Elections in Wisconsin

You’re probably already aware that majority Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature passed yet another batch of shameful, anti-voter bills late in February. (Read Common Cause Wisconsin's testimony against the measures.)

They’re trying to keep alive their completely false and debunked conspiracy theories and lies about the 2020 election in Wisconsin and to further deceive and inflame their most extreme supporters, and others who have responded to 2020's record voter turnout with hundreds of dangerous attacks on our right to vote -- restrictions particularly targeted at shutting out from our democracy voters of color, college and university students and even elderly and persons with disabilities. And, they are trying to make it more difficult for all of us to be able to vote.

 

Fortunately, we anticipate that Gov. Tony Evers will veto these anti-voter bills -- but he’s sure to come under harsh and unfounded criticism from the far-right, Trump-aligned forces behind this nationwide campaign of voter suppression and deception.

 

That’s why he needs to hear -- loudly and clearly from us -- that if he is willing to stick up for Wisconsin voters and defend our rights, we’ll have his back. Can you write to him today to thank him for defending our right to vote? Even if you have done this in the past on earlier voter suppression measures, it’s important that you weigh in against this latest assault on free and fair elections in our state. And it takes only a few minutes to get out this important message by using the Common Cause letter writing tool.

 

Elections in Wisconsin can always be improved. And there is opportunity to accomplish this constructively and responsibly. That process must start from the premise that the 2020 elections in Wisconsin were successfully and remarkably well conducted and during the worst public health crisis in a century! Election officials, clerks, and poll workers performed extraordinarily well under the unique and extenuating circumstances of 2020. We must not overlook and diminish the very significant fact that, according to experts in Wisconsin and across the nation, the 2020 election here is considered to be among the most securely run and administered in recent state history.

 

Yet, during this legislative session, partisan and unjustified legislation has been rammed through the Legislature focused on how to make voting more difficult for voters and making the administering of our elections needlessly complicated for clerks and election officials. Instead of drafting positive and forward-looking changes that empower voters and clear up ambiguities in current law, the bills’ authors created bad public policy based on the false narratives and lies that have been disproven about the 2020 election. Even the legislation that have some reasonable provisions for improving elections -- for example including actual verifiable audits of the vote or making improvements for the maintenance of voter lists -- are tied to measures that harm voters, diminish election integrity, and would continue to erode voter confidence in our elections and democracy.

 

Here are just a few of the shameful attacks on our voting rights headed to the Governor’s desk right now:

 

• A measure to make it more difficult for all of us to vote safely by absentee ballot – both to be able to receive and qualify for such a ballot, and to be able to return them and have them counted in elections. This would effectively disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters.
• New restrictions that specifically target elderly voters and voters with disabilities, making it much harder to vote for those living in a residential facility, and robbing these Wisconsinites of the respect and dignity that they deserve.
• The prohibition of vital sources of funding for election officials to be able to conduct safe and sufficiently staffed elections while creating burdensome and costly new requirements for election officials and not providing state government funding to replace the resources being denied county, city and municipal election clerks and staff.
• A partisan power grab by Republicans in the Legislature to gain complete control over the Wisconsin Elections Commission which would further inject partisan bias and party politics into nonpartisan election administration that is run by experts and professionals, including our local clerks who are supposed to serve all voters and not partisan politicians.

 

These bills are an outrageous and anti-democratic attack on the voting rights of all Wisconsinites. And that's why Gov. Evers needs to hear from us that we, the voters of Wisconsin, urge him to reject all of these: (SB 213, SB 935, SB 936, SB 938, SB 939, SB 940, SB 941, SB 942, SB 943)

 

Thank you for writing your letter today -- and for doing your part and raising your voice to fight back against these misguided, politically motivated attempts to take away our voting rights.

On Wisconsin!

All best to you,
Jay Heck

 

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Jay Heck

608/256-2686 (office)
608/512-9363 (cell)

Common Cause in Wisconsin
152 Johnson St, Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
www.commoncausewisconsin.org