The Trump administration has already failed the people of Wisconsin with his disastrous response to coronavirus. So Pence is Coming to do Damage Control.

MADISON - Wednesday night, Vice President Pence announced he is traveling to Madison next week to visit a GE health care manufacturing facility. If at first you’re surprised by these travel plans, once you take a look at what happened last week, it’ll be extremely clear why he's making this trip.

Amid a global pandemic, Wisconsin voters defied the president, rejecting his pick for SCOWIS, incumbent Dan Kelly, and choosing Jill Karofsky, the liberal justice, by more than 160,000 votes. As a reminder, Trump won Wisconsin by roughly 20,000 votes in 2016.

Karofsky didn’t just win in liberal strongholds of Milwaukee and Dane county, but also in the suburbs and even some of Wisconsin’s rural areas. And though Kelly still picked up the WOW counties, it was by reduced margins compared to the 2019 Wisconsin Supreme Court race.

Karofsky swept the southwestern counties, which included several that went to Obama in 2012 but shifted to Trump in 2016, suggesting support for the president is not guaranteed in these areas. And in last week’s election, Trump himself received fewer total votes than Karofsky’s opponent.

It’s clear that support of the president is slipping in every corner of this key battleground state. So Trump has called on Pence to pay a visit and do damage control.

Wisconsinites aren’t buying it. The Trump administration has already failed the people of Wisconsin with his disastrous response to coronavirus that has put Wisconsinites lives at risk and forced over 300,000 Wisconsinites to file for unemployment so far. Voters from across the state are fired up and speaking out against his failed response, filming selfie videos while in quarantine:

And instead of doing what actually matters in this time of crisis — making sure everyone has the supplies they need to confront coronavirus — the Trump campaign is suing a local Rhinelander TV station over the fact that they have continued running a Priorities USA Action ad that uses Donald Trump's own words to show how he downplayed the spread of COVID-19 for months while the number of infected Americans increased exponentially. Trump may not want voters to hear what he was saying as the virus spread, but we will not stop holding him accountable.

So as Pence comes to Madison to do damage control, please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or if you’d like to be connected to a Wisconsinite who can speak to how Trump is failing our state.

Best,

Cassidy

http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/trump-2020-sou-s5.pngApril 7 election results over Trump-backed candidate demonstrate how Wisconsin voters are continuing to move away from the president.

http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/jill_karofsky-s5.jpgWisDems thank all the poll workers and voters who made unimaginable sacrifices to keep a semblance of democracy working last Tuesday.

Widespread reports of absentee ballots being returned to election officials by the USPS with either no postmarks, illegible postmarks, or postmarks without dates.

MADISON, WI - Following widespread reports of absentee ballots being returned to election officials by the USPS with either no postmarks, illegible postmarks, or postmarks without dates, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s legal counsel has sent a letter to the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) with suggested guidance on how best to count such ballots.  This guidance is in accord with WEC staff’s guidance and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week in Republican National Committee v. Democratic National Committee which, in creating a brand-new postmark requirement, emphasized the importance of counting ballots that were voted on or before election day.

The letter urges clerks to 1) count ballots that arrived on April 8 without a postmark, 2) assume ballots received on April 9 to have been mailed on time unless proven otherwise, and 3) count ballots received on April 10 or later if there’s reason to believe they were mailed on time. 

You can read the entire letter here.

"Today, I am asking all Americans — I'm asking every Democrat, I'm asking every independent, I'm asking a lot of Republicans — to come together in this campaign to support your candidacy, which I endorse," Sanders said.

WASHINGTON, DC - Ex-Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) endorsed former rival Joe Biden during a virtual event on Monday.

Read the developing report here

They discuss the effect of coronavirus on voting attitudes, legal strategies to fight the disenfranchisement of voters, and urge a vote-by-mail solution for the May 12 special election.

MADISON, WI - On a press call Monday, Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez and Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler discussed pending results from the April 7 election in which thousands of Wisconsinites were forced to vote in-person in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

They discussed internal polling on the effect of coronavirus on voting attitudes, previewed legal strategies in response to the disenfranchisement of Wisconsin voters, and urged a vote-by-mail solution to the upcoming May 12 special election in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District. 

Chairs Perez and Wikler also called out Donald Trump and his conservative allies for forcing Wisconsinites to choose between exercising their democratic rights and risking their lives by going to the polls to vote.

You can listen to the press call here and excerpts of what Chairman Perez and Wikler said below.

Quote from Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez: “This was voter suppression on steroids... Let’s have the battle of ideas...and then let’s ensure that every eligible person can exercise their sacred right to vote this May in Wisconsin, this November across the country....Our resolve to make sure that people can vote in Wisconsin and across this country is unshakable. We will use courts of law; we will use courts of public opinion; we will work with Democrats, Republicans, independents across the country because seeking to vote, and vote in a safe manner, is not an issue of right versus left, it’s an issue of right versus wrong.” 

Quote from Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler: "Republicans tried to steal Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election by weaponizing a deadly pandemic, because they believed that coronavirus would disproportionately suppress the votes of Democrats, and especially African Americans. We will find out tonight whether the Republican effort to steal the election succeeded, but we already know Wisconsin lost. The choices of Robin Vos, Scott Fitzgerald, every Republican state legislators, conservative justices, and Trump’s team at the Republican National Committee exposed Wisconsin to mortal danger in an attempt to hold on to power."

http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/trump-pusa-ad-s5.pngTrump ignored warnings from experts and downplayed the coronavirus. Now he doesn't want voters to hear the truth and is trying to bully TV stations into submission.

Five states currently maximize ballot access by mailing ballots to every voter. Current COVID-19 public health crisis underlines need for change.

MADISON, WI- Last week, Representative Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison) co-sponsored legislation to create a Vote by Mail system for the remainder of Wisconsin’s 2020 elections. Mail voting has become increasingly popular throughout the country, and five states currently maximize ballot access by mailing ballots to every voter. Wisconsin’s “Pandemic Primary” on April 7th, unnecessarily put public health and people’s lives at risk while leaving tens of thousands of voters disenfranchised.

Vote by Mail legislation would allow Wisconsinites to exercise their right to vote while adhering to the Safer at Home order. Voting by Mail elections are quickly becoming a national conversation during the COVID-19 public health crisis. Several voting rights groups are pushing for a major expansion of mail balloting, and U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, is partnering with Senator Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, on a bill to require every state to provide the option of a mail ballot in the November election.

Representative Shelia Stubbs released the following statement after co-sponsoring this important Vote by Mail legislation:

"On April 7th, I saw our young people, our elders, our fathers - our mothers standing in long lines block after block waiting to cast their vote. They risked their lives to stand in the rain and in the hail to exercise their constitutional right to vote. As it stands right now, the voting system we have is not designed to provide access to free and fair elections during a global pandemic. The system has not changed, and that is unacceptable."

Rep. Stubbs noted, "Nearly half (44 %) of all the people who have died of COVID-19 in Wisconsin are Black. This is a shocking reality for a state that has a population of only 6% Black people. We are such a small community, and no part it has been spared. Each and every one of us has been affected by this pandemic."

Rep. Stubbs further explained, "The COVID-19 cases and related deaths showcase Wisconsin's severe disparities in access to good health care, nutritious and affordable food, secure housing and jobs that pay a living wage. We do not know how many new cases will be reported as a result of Tuesday's exercise in voter suppression – especially in underserved communities across the state of Wisconsin."

Rep. Stubbs expressed, "This is beyond inequity. Our people have already endured generations of having to choose between our lives and voting. That is why this legislation is so critically important - especially for communities of color. It is our responsibility to make sure that this never happens again."

Conservation Voters propose changes to voting system.

MADISON – This week’s election, which was held during a global pandemic and under a stay-at-home order from the Governor, is a dire indication that democracy in Wisconsin is broken – and that it must be fixed.

“When thousands of people across the state are forced to vote in person at great risk to their own personal safety and the safety of all of us, it’s crystal clear this is an emergency situation. And it has risen to the level of life or death,” said Executive Director Kerry Schumann. “This latest move by Republican leadership in the legislature – particularly Speaker Robin Vos and Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald – is the most extreme extension of their concerted and long running campaign to deny people a voice in their own government.”

Wisconsin Conservation Voters has put together a lifeline for Wisconsin’s democracy. It’s a list of changes that must be made to our electoral process as soon as possible. Wisconsinites deserve to have fair, safe, and open elections.

To that end, Wisconsin Conservation Voters proposes Wisconsin adopt the following measures:

• Mail a ballot to all registered voters automatically before each election, ideally 30 days before the election date. Voters should not be required to have a witness or provide proof of an ID to request or return their ballot.
• Allow voters to return ballots multiple ways: through the mail, the use of secure drop boxes, and by dropping off at polling locations on the day of the election.
• Every municipality should have a minimum number of polling locations within their community based on the size of the population, located in areas that can serve all populations in the municipality and allow voters to register and vote quickly and efficiently if they choose to vote in person on election day.
• Every municipality should offer in-person access to early voting and voter registration, as well as ballot drop boxes for several weeks before Election Day.
• Voter registration should be as easy as possible through automatic voter registration in schools or at the DMV. Voters should also be able to register in person on Election Day and during early voting periods.
• All voters should remain on the voter rolls unless there is an action by the voter that indicates they have moved, or through government records (such as death records) that would indicate they are no longer eligible to vote. Wisconsin should not use passive efforts to remove voters such as through returned postcards or past voting history, which are notoriously unreliable and unfair.
• The government should fund public education efforts to ensure that all citizens are aware of how our voting process works and how they can participate.
• Citizens for whom English is a second language should have access to language assistance for voting. This should include access to ballots and elections materials in their native language.

“From gerrymandering districts to consolidate their power, to stripping the governor’s office of crucial powers, to voter ID laws and complicated proof of residence requirements, these unceasing, unrelenting attempts to deny Wisconsinites their most fundamental right has reached its pinnacle,” Schumann said.  “The dangerous debacle we saw this week cannot happen again.”

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Engaging voters to protect Wisconsin's environment.

http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/vote-47-milwaukee-mb4-s5.jpgWe cannot make people choose between voting and public health. Bill would move all elections in calendar year 2020 to voting by mail.