Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
The vanishing votes in Wisconsin
This article is a must-read - helpful for letting people know the hoops they will have to jump through to ensure that they will be able to cast their votes. Best to go to the link and read entire piece.
----------
https://www.gregpalast.com/wisconsin-eats-its-young/
Wisconsin Eats its Young
Scott Walker's Revenge
By Greg Palast for Truthout adapted from Palast’s newly released book How Trump Stole 2020
SNIP on Election Day 2016, a giant hunk of the student vote simply… vanished. And the Milwaukee Black vote also seemed to just… disappear.
And so, Trump took Wisconsin by 22,000 votes out of 3 million cast.
SNIP
Where did they go, the voters who mysteriously didn’t show up?
The first thing that caught my attention: While the rest of the nation had massive voter turnout in 2016, in parts of this down-to-the-wire state, voting fell off a cliff. Which parts? In Black-majority Milwaukee, turnout plummeted from 66 percent to 56 percent of the voting-age population. That’s strange.
And Wisconsin’s student vote evaporated. Nationwide, only two states recorded a drop in student voting. Wisconsin’s drop was breathtaking: In-precinct voting by students declined by a third, from 67 percent to 49 percent.
SNIP
They didn’t need to drag the local lakes to find the missing students and Black voters. They were disappeared in plain sight by the Republican legislature under laws crafted by Wisconsin’s radical-right governor, Scott Walker.
One new law required a government photo ID to vote. But the photo ID issued by the state to its 182,000 University of Wisconsin students did not qualify them for voting nor for registration.
How brilliant is that? Gun permits could be used to vote; but not student ID.
SNIP
A Wisconsin driver’s license would do. But not everyone has a license. Who doesn’t drive? People who don’t have cars — students in Madison, low-income renters who take the bus in Milwaukee, i.e. voters of color. And the color is Democratic Blue.
What was particularly devastating was that the law was ordered into effect by a court only two weeks before the 2016 election. Even those who knew of the change had little time to correct their lack of paperwork, even if they could.
SNIP
Gov. Mandela Barnes — has tried to make it easier for Wisconsinites to vote without dropping dead from the virus.
The GOP won’t have it. Republicans went to court to successfully overturn Governor Evers’s order waiving the requirement that absentee ballots include a witness signature.
SNIP
students will have to get more than a new ID. Wisconsin is alone in the U.S. in requiring that a student voter can’t register without including proof of enrollment in good standing. Like, huh? Fall behind in tuition, flunk algebra… lose your vote?
As Common Cause warns,
The standard student ID at only four of the University of Wisconsin’s 13 four-year schools and at eight of the state’s 23 private colleges can be used as a voter photo ID.
SNIP
And so, Trump took Wisconsin by 22,000 votes out of 3 million cast.
SNIP
Where did they go, the voters who mysteriously didn’t show up?
The first thing that caught my attention: While the rest of the nation had massive voter turnout in 2016, in parts of this down-to-the-wire state, voting fell off a cliff. Which parts? In Black-majority Milwaukee, turnout plummeted from 66 percent to 56 percent of the voting-age population. That’s strange.
And Wisconsin’s student vote evaporated. Nationwide, only two states recorded a drop in student voting. Wisconsin’s drop was breathtaking: In-precinct voting by students declined by a third, from 67 percent to 49 percent.
SNIP
They didn’t need to drag the local lakes to find the missing students and Black voters. They were disappeared in plain sight by the Republican legislature under laws crafted by Wisconsin’s radical-right governor, Scott Walker.
One new law required a government photo ID to vote. But the photo ID issued by the state to its 182,000 University of Wisconsin students did not qualify them for voting nor for registration.
How brilliant is that? Gun permits could be used to vote; but not student ID.
SNIP
A Wisconsin driver’s license would do. But not everyone has a license. Who doesn’t drive? People who don’t have cars — students in Madison, low-income renters who take the bus in Milwaukee, i.e. voters of color. And the color is Democratic Blue.
What was particularly devastating was that the law was ordered into effect by a court only two weeks before the 2016 election. Even those who knew of the change had little time to correct their lack of paperwork, even if they could.
SNIP
Gov. Mandela Barnes — has tried to make it easier for Wisconsinites to vote without dropping dead from the virus.
The GOP won’t have it. Republicans went to court to successfully overturn Governor Evers’s order waiving the requirement that absentee ballots include a witness signature.
SNIP
students will have to get more than a new ID. Wisconsin is alone in the U.S. in requiring that a student voter can’t register without including proof of enrollment in good standing. Like, huh? Fall behind in tuition, flunk algebra… lose your vote?
As Common Cause warns,
The standard student ID at only four of the University of Wisconsin’s 13 four-year schools and at eight of the state’s 23 private colleges can be used as a voter photo ID.
SNIP
19 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Twice. 
