Wisconsin's Supreme Court rules along partisan lines to require the state to hold its election Tues.

[Celerity]

Wisconsin’s plan to hold an election in the middle of a pandemic is back on.

https://www.vox.com/2020/4/6/21209670/wisconsin-governor-delays-election-tony-evers-republicans-state-supreme-court

On Monday, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers attempted to reschedule an election the state is planning to hold on Tuesday, handing down an order suspending in-person voting until June 9 “unless the Legislature passes and the Governor approves a different date for in-person voting.” On a party-line vote, however, the Republican-controlled state Supreme Court struck down Evers’s order, meaning that the state is now on track to hold its election as originally scheduled.

The vote was 4-2, with Justice Daniel Kelly, a staunch conservative, recused because he is a candidate in Tuesday’s election. Republicans have fought tooth and nail against nearly any effort to delay the election or to make it easier for voters to cast mail-in ballots, and the state Supreme Court is dominated by Republicans. Last week, Evers called the state legislature into session and asked it to delay the election. But the Republican-controlled legislature ended that session a few seconds after it was convened.

Republicans also rejected Evers’s proposal to automatically mail ballots to every voter in the state, and they’ve fought hard in federal court — including in the US Supreme Court — to prevent ballots from being counted after the original April 7 election date. On Monday evening, the US Supreme Court ruled against a lower court judge’s order extending the deadline for receiving mail-in votes. Nearly a dozen states have chosen to postpone presidential primary and local elections as most Americans remain at home to avoid spreading the coronavirus.

Wisconsin’s election is shaping up to be a trainwreck

With the coronavirus pandemic raging, most poll workers had refused to work Tuesday’s election, leading Evers to call up the National Guard in order to staff the polls. But this stopgap measure appears to have done little to prevent mass poll closures. In Milwaukee, for example, local election officials announced that there would be only five polling locations open — instead of the typical 180.

Link to tweet

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[LongtimeAZDem]

1. Only one person can stop it, but he won't do it

[exboyfil]

2. We don't live in a democracy anymore

Just raw power. The fact that so many more voters per machine was already a problem for fairness has even been stretched to a ridiculous level.

[samsingh]

3. How did Ohio get to move their primary and Wisconson cannot?

[The Magistrate]

4. In Ohio, Sir, The Courts Backed The Governor

There may be some local variations in the law on the matter, each state handles elections differently. But DeWine, a Republican, worked for the postponement, and judges eventually decided in his favor in suits brought to oppose his directive.





"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[samsingh]

16. the corrupt courts strike again

[Raven123]

5. If voters cannot vote due to closed polls, I assume there will be another suit.

[certainot]

6. hey wisconsonites! the u of wisconsin badgers broadcast on 3 limbaugh stations that have been

denying covid along with trump.

they were yelling HOAX in a covid theater and need to lose their licenses

no radio advertiser in Wis should be able to advertise on those stations without recognition as contributors to delaying action on covid, and getting many more thousands killed

and the U of wisconsin, one of over 87 universities supporting ober 260 limbaugh stations, has no excuse for not looking for alternatives - same with the brewers, green bay packers,etc

[ancianita]

7. Wait. Did or did not SCOTUS rule on it, too? I ask b/c I've not read which SC did, or if both did.

Sorry to ask. I'm so tired, I guess I just haven't kept up.

[Celerity]

9. both did, they both sided with the Rethugs (quelle surprise) nt

[ancianita]

11. Thanks. Now my anxiety grows about November.

One would think a pandemic could be used by the courts to broaden the means of voting access.

But no, our highest courts now ... I don't know what they think they're doing for equality under the law at this point.

[Grown2Hate]

10. SCOTUS ruled against extended voting.

5-4. BIG fucking surprise...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/us/politics/supreme-court-voting-wisconsin-virus.html

[nolawarlock]

8. Maybe this will teach Bernie a lesson ...

Maybe now, Bernie will see what a farce it is to still even require these primaries at all. Every election can be postponed till next year but the presidential, according to Article Two, but since this can't, let this impose upon Bernie what, perhaps, he needs to feel to realize that he's not going to win and staying in is simply going to cost lives. I'm not saying down-ballot elections aren't important, but I think they can wait till this virus is more controlled. To do that with the presidential, which I'd support in spite of Trump, we'd need an amendment.

[ancianita]

12. He might see that. He wouldn't endorse endangering people just because he wants delegates.

I hope he withdraws out of humanitarian concern for voters.

All of us will have sacrificed before this is all over.

In these circumstances, he shouldn't consider himself any different.

[nolawarlock]

13. You think he wouldn't?

I think he would. I don't think Bernie Sanders deserves the accolades. I think he's a demagogue and he's only marginally better than Trump because of a number of his better policies, but because of what I believe to be his lack of ethics and actual compassion. He's playing a fiddle and people are listening. I detest him only marginally less than I do Trump.

[ancianita]

14. I'm not using accolades. It's basic human decency that must guide politics right now, and

Bernie knows that. Winning at the risk of his own supporters' lives is not something you should even imply that he'd want.

He's not a demagogue. His win-at-all costs campaign people make him look bad, but he's not, and he won't go along with any of their arguments. That's not accolades. That's me knowing Bernie from 2015-16.

How you feel about him comes from before this pandemic hit. This killer microbe has changed the world. There's still time to see what he does.

I think this pandemic will change everyone, including his supporters. They know they will have to get out the vote in the general, or be seen as no better than Republicans who'd rather pit their politics against a pandemic microbe than exert human decency about the upcoming elections.

[nolawarlock]

17. Well ...

… you have your opinion and I have mine. I said what I said and that's what I think. I don't think he cares. Stalin killed millions in the hope of establishing the kind of regime I'm not completely sure Bernie doesn't want. So, if that's in the rulebook, why I shouldn't I wonder about his motives?

[nolawarlock]

18. And as for my opinion of him ...

This Tara Reade crap that Nina Turner has passive-aggressively thrown a few emoji-nods to has happened since this virus.

The savaging off civil rights icon John Lewis has already begun on Twitter. What did it take? Five minutes?

Sorry, but if there's anything that upsets me, it's that this virus has become political and Bernie's just as guilty of it as Trump.

[liskddksil]

15. This has nothing to do with Bernie. There's a critical state supreme court seat at stake

which is why they the GOP wants to suppress votes.