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

This isn’t the first time moms have been blamed for their kids’ autism

There are echoes of mother-blaming in how President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are now talking about autism, pregnancy and vaccines.

(Getty Images)

This isn’t the first time moms have been blamed for their kids’ autism

JJ Hanley can still remember the pediatrician’s words.

It was the early ’90s, and the mother of two in suburban Chicago had begun to worry that her toddler-age son, Tim, was showing language delays and other behaviors that didn’t align with his older brother’s development. Hanley turned to her son’s doctor, who declared: “There’s nothing wrong with him. What’s wrong with him is you.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Fulcrum Roundtable: Political Violence

Protest, person holds sign Silene = Violence

Fulcrum Roundtable: Political Violence

Welcome to the Fulcrum Roundtable.

The program offers insights and discussions about some of the most talked-about topics from the previous month, featuring Fulcrum’s collaborators.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rebuilding Democracy After Comey’s Indictment
James Comey, former FBI Director, speaks at the Barnes & Noble Upper West Side on May 19, 2025 in New York City.
(Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Rebuilding Democracy After Comey’s Indictment

Introduction – Stress Tests and Hidden Strength

The indictment of former FBI Director James Comey in September 2025 was a stark reminder of how fragile our institutions have become under Trump 2.0. An inexperienced prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, chosen more for loyalty than expertise, pushed through felony charges at the president’s urging. The move broke with the Justice Department’s tradition of independence and highlighted the risks that arise when political power bends justice toward retribution.

This is not just a story about one man. It is a warning that America’s democracy is like a bridge under heavy strain. Crises expose cracks but can also reveal hidden strength. For ordinary citizens, this means a justice system more susceptible to political pressure, a government less accountable, and daily life shaped by leaders willing to bend the rules for personal gain.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Independent Exodus
two stickers with the words i vote on them
Photo by Mockup Free on Unsplash

The Independent Exodus

Every week, thousands of Americans - who live in the 30 states that register voters by party - go to the post office, DMV, or download a voter registration form, and change their registration status from “Democrat” or “Republican” to “Independent.”

This trend is accelerating. Nationally, 43% of Americans identify as independent. In a handful of states, registered independents outnumber Democrats and Republicans combined. But the response to this trend from the politics industry has been “nothing to see here, people…the two-party system is alive and well.”

Keep ReadingShow less