October 24, 2008
Cheers for the voters!
In a crowded court room in Madison yesterday, union officials, lawyers, professors, Madison teachers, members of NAACP, firefighters, activists, voters, and reporters waited anxiously to hear the decision of Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi in the Van Hollen case. It was a thrill just to be in the courtroom. This was an important day in Wisconsin's progressive history.
Leading up to this day, Florida in 2000, taught the nation that it is not only important to vote, it is vitally important to know who counts the votes. And in the Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore, we all learned that the courts play an incredibly important role.
Ohio four years ago disgraced the state and the nation when a partisan Secretary of State, the chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign, made voting for minorities a nightmare. Many believe that he delivered Ohio to Bush-Cheney. Thousands of uncounted votes remain in Ohio.
Would Wisconsin become the Florida or Ohio in 2008? Would a partisan effort to limit voting in certain areas deliver the state's electoral votes to John McCain or would all votes be counted? Would the co-chair of the McCain-Palin campaign, Wisconsin's Attorney General, be the Ken Blackwell this election?
Got to give them A for effort. The Wisconsin GOP pushed for photo-ID and the pushed to force all voters have an error-free record of address, spelling of their names, etc. They called it the HAVA check. Had they prevailed yesterday tens of thousands of voters would have been challenged by the Republican operatives, and forced to cast a "provisional" ballot that would most likely not be counted. All challenged voters would be "flagged on election day."
(We have posted the transcript of Judge Sumi's decision and her order on our Documents page. Take some time and read it. See if you, like one of the lawyers in court, feel a tear or two.)
As you know, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that the Ohio Republican Party could not challenge voters under HAVA. (Read that as well in Documents.)
The Wisconsin GOP, coordinating with Van Hollen's team, took the Supreme Court decision in stride--In its brief, the GOP of Wisconsin, suggested that at least Judge Sumi permit challenges "where there is knowledge that criminal activity has taken place." Guess where they were going with that bogus nonsense. Yes indeed--right to the minority community in Milwaukee. ("Have you no sense of shame, sir" comes to mind.)
I will do another blog on the attorneys and defendants who made us proud yesterday. Meanwhile, go to Documents and do your homework.
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