June 16, 2025 - Alexander Shur, Votebeat Exclusive: Big money plan eyes new way to push states further right
June 10, 2025 - Alexandria Jacobson, Raw Story
Monday, June 30, 2025
In the News - June 2025
June 16, 2025 - Alexander Shur, Votebeat Exclusive: Big money plan eyes new way to push states further right
June 10, 2025 - Alexandria Jacobson, Raw Story
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Call to Action: Urge Gov. Evers to Veto Hyper Partisan Measure to Impose a Modern Day Poll Tax and Block Right to Vote for Many Marginalized Voters in Wisconsin
For release: Tuesday - June 24, 2025
Image: Wisconsin Capitol / Photo: E Grunze
Wisconsinites from all corners of the state value our freedom to vote. We turn out to vote in record numbers, and that scares some politicians in Madison who know their unpopular political agendas won’t carry the day if we all have a say. So instead of doing the work we need them to do, like ensuring our schools are adequately funded and our healthcare is made affordable, they sometimes spend their time attacking our freedom to vote.
This time, they have rammed a hyper partisan measure - Senate Bill 95 / Assembly Bill 87 - through the Wisconsin Legislature that would prevent people with felony convictions from regaining their constitutional right to vote until they have paid all “fines, costs, fees, surcharges and restitution” imposed as part of their sentence.
This amounts to nothing more than a modern-day poll tax on many voters in Wisconsin – which American courts and lawmakers of both political parties have long opposed and fought against.
TELL GOV EVERS TO VETO THE POLL TAX BILL
But the goal of this misguided and partisan legislation is to make it more difficult for long marginalized and over-policed communities in Wisconsin who are disproportionately Black, Indigenous and other people of color, as well as people living in poverty and those with disabilities to be able to exercise their right to cast a vote.
The people pushing this bill want us to believe it’s about protecting crime victims. But using people who have been subject to crime as political cover for voter suppression is dishonest and deeply disrespectful.
According to the ACLU of Wisconsin, our state does not have a centralized database tracking the exact amount of an individual’s financial obligation that must be met for re-enfranchisement. This would make it nearly impossible for some individuals to determine what they owe, if anything, and whether they would be eligible to vote. This bill doesn’t make whole people who have survived crime; it just weakens democracy and puts the right to vote out of reach through a poll tax – an outrageous and deeply unfair price tag on the freedom to vote.
Along strict party lines, Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly passed SB 95/AB 87 in a 53 to 44 vote on March 13, 2025. And last week, on June 18th also with only Republican votes, the State Senate also narrowly passed this hyper partisan anti voter measure by an 18 to 14 margin.
It is now awaiting consideration and action by Gov. Tony Evers. We see through politicians who pass legislation to sabotage voters to attempt to gain partisan political advantage. We deserve leaders who protect our freedoms, not restrict them and call on Governor Evers to veto this deceptive and misguided measure -- SB 95/AB 87.
TELL GOV EVERS TO VETO THE POLL TAX BILL
You can utilize this letter writing form provided here to let Governor Evers know you oppose this measure and encourage him to use his veto power to prevent this bill from becoming law.
Thank you for taking action.
On Wisconsin,
Jay Heck, Executive Director, Common Cause Wisconsin
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Jay Heck
608/512-9363 (cell)
Common Cause in Wisconsin
152 Johnson St, Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
152 Johnson St, Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
Thursday, June 5, 2025
The Cure for the Ills of Democracy is Indeed More Democracy
For release: Thursday - June 5, 2025
Image: We Power: democracy is our common cause
After more than four months of national political chaos, confusion, economic disruption and uncertainty, Wisconsinites of good will have every right to feel as if they have been battered and abused by the latest iteration of MAGA and Trumpism as it slashes and burns its way through our state, country and the world. But while these have been extremely difficult and trying times for most of us, there is also cause for hope and optimism in our mutual quest to preserve and protect our democracy and basic human decency. Why? Because we have pushed back and fought back hard against those who seek to diminish our voice and our vote. In just the past year we have helped advance the cause in support of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all of us, not just for a selected few and to the exclusion of the many as Donald Trump has sought to do. Consider, if you will that:
- CC/WI was a leading voice in the statewide education of Wisconsin voters and in the opposition to the unprecedented interference in Wisconsin's nationally significant Wisconsin Supreme Court April 1st election by the world's richest person, Elon Musk, who poured more than $30 million in support of one candidate and in attacking the other. CC/WI published a very widely read and circulated guest editorial on this matter: Commentary | Elon Musk invades Wisconsin (March 14, 2025 - Jay Heck, Wisconsin Examiner) and we were interviewed extensively in the state and national media including this segment on national CBS News: How Wisconsin's high court race became the most expensive in U.S. history. The candidate backed by Musk and by Donald Trump lost by 10 percentage points in an election that was considered the first barometer of voter sentiment about Musk and Trump's first few months back in the Presidency. It also effectively drove Musk out of national power, at least for now.
- The $100 million judicial election has ignited campaign finance and judicial reform effort in Wisconsin led by CC/WI: Commentary | Will $100M Supreme Court elections be the new normal in Wisconsin? It shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be that way.
- As a result of the fair state legislative voting maps championed by CC/Wisconsin which were enacted into law in early 2024, CC/WI took a major role in educating Wisconsin voters about the new districts and challenged state legislative candidates to pledge support for redistricting reform before the 2030 Census occurs. As a result, last November ten Wisconsin Assembly seats and four State Senate seats were "flipped" from the previous Republican super majority-gerrymandered voting maps and the composition of the new Wisconsin Legislature is now much more equal and reflective of the 50/50 divide that makes our state one of the most closely contested in the nation.
- Last Summer and Fall CC/WI filed an amicus brief in support of a successful lawsuit that overturned a state prohibition on the utilization of secure ballot drop boxes in order to provide voters casting absentee ballots with a means of returning their ballots on time to be counted instead of having to solely rely on the US Mail or having to hand deliver absentee ballots to the county election clerk's office. As a result, thousands of absentee ballots that were not counted because of the prohibition in place in 2022, were counted in 2024 and 2025, thus increasing voter participation rates in Fall and Spring elections.
- CC/WI was a leader in helping to establish clear rules for election observers which after a two-year process were adopted recently with bipartisan support by the Wisconsin Elections Commission and thus far, by the Legislature.
So, in the face of an all-out assault by Trump and MAGA to undermine us, CC/WI and many others have stood tall and have contained much of the damage being heaped upon us, but we have also advanced some democratic reforms to a better place than they have been in many years or ever. Here are some other things you can do in the weeks and months ahead to strengthen democracy and combat the forces of suppression and intolerance:
Stop the SAVE Act: Tell Senator Baldwin and Senator Johnson to REJECT the anti-voter SAVE Act. Sign here.
Join a “No Kings” Rally near you on Saturday, June 14th. There are over 43 events being planned in Wisconsin! From city blocks to small towns, from courthouse steps to community parks, we’re taking action to speak out – and show the world what democracy really looks like. We’re making it clear: We reject Trump’s authoritarian actions and corruption – and are coming together to build something better. Find an event near you.
Support The People’s Promise. It’s a nationwide call for a livable economy—one that works for everyday people, not just CEOs and campaign donors. Sign here.
Wisconsin’s most celebrated and effective political figure, Governor and U.S. Senator Robert M. (“Fighting Bob”) La Follette, Sr. famously and very accurately exclaimed more than a century ago: “The real cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy.” And it remains so for us today. To counter evil we must work to accomplish good and the work that we the people are doing is what will restore our democracy and faith in our state, nation and the world. Rather than despair, take action and be active and do your part to make us better. It works!
On Wisconsin. Forward!
Jay Heck, Executive Director
Common Cause Wisconsin
--------------------------
Jay Heck
608/512-9363 (cell)
Common Cause in Wisconsin
152 Johnson St, Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
152 Johnson St, Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
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