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Voting in ballot box with Wisconsin flag
Members of the Wisconsin Voting Rights Coalition are joining voters, community activists and religious leaders in protesting the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s recent ban on absentee ballot drop boxes for the state’s upcoming April election. Folks are gathering at the corner of Mayfair Road and North Avenue outside the Radisson Hotel Milwaukee West during the GOP’s Annual Reagan Day Dinner, 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18.
Groups including Fight for $15 and a Union, Voces de la Frontera, Souls to the Polls MKE, SEIU Wisconsin, and MASH as well as Rep. Christine Sinicki will be joining the Wisconsin Voting Rights Coalition in taking to the streets and will be directly in line of sight with the Republican politicians.
The decision came as the latest attack on voting rights by right-wing institutions in their mission to further restrict access to the ballot. Pushed forward by legal group Wisconsin Institute of Life and Liberty, Judge Michael Bohren of Waukesha County signed the law into effect last month and the Supreme Court voted 4-3 on Febr. 11 to uphold his order. Such a decision takes away a vitally safe and easy option to vote for people with disabilities, people without cars, Black and Brown voters, shift workers and senior citizens.
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GOP members Ron Johnson and Rebecca Kleefisch are attending the dinner so organizers are coming prepared with a life-sized puppet of Kleefisch and large letters reading “VOTERS DECIDE.” Signs reading “Our Voice. Our Vote” and “Radical Rebecca: Hands Off Our Votes” will bring attention to the relentless attempts by the GOP to pass bills that modify the way elections are run, many of which target the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
Whether or not absentee ballot drop boxes will be illegal in the November election is uncertain.
