Blue Collar Blogger
A well-educated, articulate, hard-working, employed and aggressive progressive, I am the antithesis to Glenn and Rush. I reside in Greendale with my wife and two small children and spend my "spare" time picking up dog poo in the yard, searching the house for lost hats and mittens and muttering obscenities under my breath concerning right-wing nut jobs.
In Case You Missed the Republican Debate The Other Night, It Went a Little Something Like This . . .
The GOP Throws 99% of America Under The Bus
What do women know about being denied the right to vote anyway? - A lot!
The League of Women Voters today released a report on a citizen election observer program that placed 130 volunteer poll watchers in the 8 state senate districts that had recall elections in August. Motivated by concerns about the impact of the new election law on citizen participation, the League was looking for problems related to implementation of the law and best practices for maintaining a smooth voting process in the polling place. Having citizens show an ID and sign the poll book slowed down the voting process and resulted in long lines in almost all locations for at least part of the day, including in places that have not had this problem in previous elections. The observers also documented confusion on the part of many voters and election officials as to what types of ID will be acceptable once the law goes into full effect in 2012. See the press release or the full report for more details.
A new study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law estimates that restrictive new voting laws adopted this year in several states, including Wisconsin, will make voting significantly more difficult for as many as 5 million citizens in 2012. This is why the League of Women Voters is preparing to challenge Wisconsin's voter ID law in state court.
Before a joint legislative committee today, state elections officials pulled back on an earlier decision related to how recall petitions can be distributed online, as well as on a decision allowing colleges and universities to issue stickers to "retrofit" student ID cards and make them qualify as voting IDs. Kevin Kennedy, head of the Government Accountability Board, noted that most universities are now looking at issuing students a second ID specifically for voting rather than using stickers. While the legislative committee did not take a vote today on these matters, the meeting led to a heated, partisan debate about the power of the Governor to approve administrative rules related to recall elections and the autonomy of the GAB itself. The League of Women Voters supported the creation of the GAB in 2007 as an independent, nonpartisan agency with the responsibility and authority to enforce the law in the areas of ethics and elections, including campaign finance.
Senator Lazich is working hard to ignore reality
Senator Mary Lazich is co-sponsoring bill LRB-2088 that will force school districts to teach "Abstinence-Only" in "sex education" in WI.
