Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Top Wisc. court halts absentee ballot mailing to hear Greens' access bid

Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is weighing whether Green Party presidential nominee Howie Hawkins should be allowed on the November ballot.

howiehawkins.us

The mailing of absentee ballots in Wisconsin has been put on hold just a week before voters are required to start receiving them, the result of a state Supreme Court ruling in a case pitting the rights of minor parties against the orderly conduct of a battleground state's presidential election.

The court ruled 4-3 on Thursday that no vote-by-mail ballots may be distributed until the justices decide whether to add the Green Party presidential ticket to the ballot, an action that may come more than a week from now.

The four Republicans on the court favored hitting the pause button and the three Democrats opposed it. The outcome of the Greens' bid could decide the fate of the 10 electoral votes in the tossup state, because the chance to vote for the progressive candidates is sure to siphon off support from Joe Biden to the benefit of President Trump.


More immediately, the high court's order added another chaotic chapter to the story of courts complicating voting in Wisconsin during this year's pandemic.

Almost 1 million requests for mail-in ballots have already been received, signaling use of the mail this fall will smash past records in the state. (The presidential vote total four years ago was 2.8 million). And at least 378,000 absentee voting envelopes have already gone in the mail, the state's chief elections official estimated Thursday night.

"It would be incredibly complicated and difficult" at this point to print more than a million new ballots and come up with a reliable system for relying on replacements for the ones already distributed, she said, especially because the responsibility falls to 1,850 municipal clerks across the state. (One illustration of the logistical nightmare is that Milwaukee County has to print 475 different ballots.)

The state's high court has the authority to suspend the law requiring that absentee ballots go out starting Sept. 17 — but it has no power to address a federal law requiring them to be sent to military and overseas voters just two days later.

The Green nominee, retired UPS laborer Howie Hawkins from upstate New York, is not the only minor party candidate who's sued after being denied a spot on the ballot by the state Elections Commission. So has rapper Kanye West, and his separate case could further delay ballot distribution.

Four years ago, Green candidate Jill Stein received 31,00 votes in Wisconsin — while Trump's margin of victory was only 23,000 votes, or less than a single percentage point.

The party sued after its 2020 ticket was blocked from the ballot last month, when the Elections Commission deadlocked on whether that was the right punishment for vice presidential candidate Angela Walker having used two different South Carolina addresses on her filings. The panel's three Democrats said that was enough to disqualify her and Hawkins. The three Republicans wanted to allow Wisconsinites the chance to vote for the Green ticket.

The GOP seems less interested in seeing if West, too, will take votes away from Democratic ticket. The commission rejected him for a spot on the ballot, 5-1, after finding his team was minutes late in filing the proper paperwork last month. An initial ruling in his lawsuit is expected next week.

A decision is also expected any day in a wide-ranging lawsuit by the Democratic National Committee, which is pushing to ease the rules in ways the party hopes will boost turnout — and with it Biden's chances.

The state's voters have become very used to watching judges arbitrate election rules this year.

Republicans who insisted on conducting the primary on schedule in April, as the first wave of the coronavirus was surging, got their way by persuading the state Supreme Court to overrule Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' plan for a delay — and by getting the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower court's decision that absentee ballots cast at the last minute should count even if delayed in the mail six days. At least a score of poll workers and in-person voters later became ill with Covid-19, the state says.

Read More

Carolyn Lukensmeyer Turns 80: A Life of Commitment to “Of, By, and for the People”

Carolyn Lukensmeyer.

The National Institute for Civil Discourse and New Voice Strategies

Carolyn Lukensmeyer Turns 80: A Life of Commitment to “Of, By, and for the People”

I’ve known Dr. Carolyn Lukensmeyer for over a decade, first meeting her about a decade ago. Dr. Lukensmeyer is a nationally renowned expert in deliberative democracy, a former executive director emerita of the National Institute for Civil Discourse, and a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences’ Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship.

On the weekend of her 80th birthday, former colleagues, clients, and friends offered a look at Dr. Lukensmeyer’s extraordinary commitment to “of, by, and for the peoples,” from her earlier days in Iowa and Ohio to the present day.

Keep ReadingShow less
Public Health: Ban First, Study Later? The Growing Assault on Fluoridated Water

Someone getting tap water.

Getty Images, urbazon

Public Health: Ban First, Study Later? The Growing Assault on Fluoridated Water

On May 15, Florida became the second state in the nation to ban fluoride from public drinking water. The bill, signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, is set to go into effect on July 1. Utah’s Governor Spencer Cox enacted a similar ban that went into effect this May. Five other states—Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and South Carolina—have introduced bills that aim to ban fluoride in public drinking water.

Fluoride is a mineral that, in small quantities, has proven to be effective against tooth decay, caused by bacteria that form in the mouth when we eat or drink. The American Academy of Pediatrics states on its website that studies have shown water fluoridation, an intentional treatment process of public drinking water, reduces tooth decay by about 25% in children and adults alike.

Keep ReadingShow less
POLL: Americans Wary About The President Taking Unconventional Actions
APM Research Lab

POLL: Americans Wary About The President Taking Unconventional Actions

Americans show a strong preference for their elected executives — governors as well as the president — to achieve their political goals through conventional, sometimes slow, procedures, according to the McCourtney Institute for Democracy’s latest Mood of the Nation Poll.

Results showed marked partisan differences. For example, 26% of all survey respondents rated a presidential action of firing all recently hired federal employees as “very appropriate,” including only four percent of Democrats and just over half of Republicans.

Keep ReadingShow less
The U.S. Is Rushing To Make AI Deals With Gulf Countries, But Who Will Help Keep Children Safe?

A child's hand holding an adult's hand.

Getty Images, LaylaBird

The U.S. Is Rushing To Make AI Deals With Gulf Countries, But Who Will Help Keep Children Safe?

As the United States deepens its investments in artificial intelligence (AI) partnerships abroad, it is moving fast — signing deals, building labs, and exporting tools. Recently, President Donald Trump announced sweeping AI collaborations with Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. These agreements, worth billions, are being hailed as historic moments for digital diplomacy and technological leadership.

But amid the headlines and handshakes, I keep asking the same question: where is child protection in all of this?

Keep ReadingShow less