Following Obama’s Victory, Wisconsin Governor Proposes New Limits On Voter Registration
Two weeks after Barack Obama and Sen.-elect Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) carried the state of Wisconsin with the support of minorities and young voters, Gov. Scott Walker (R) announced one of his major policy proposals for the upcoming session: ending the state’s 40-year old law that allows citizens to register to vote on Election Day.
And with Republicans now back in control of the Wisconsin state legislature, Walker may well get his way next year.
In 2008, Wisconsin enjoyed the second highest turnout of any state in the nation (72.4 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot), due largely to the fact the Badger State law allows residents who aren’t registered or have recently moved to register at the polls. That year, approximately 460,000 people used Election Day Registration, 15 percent of all Wisconsinites who cast a ballot.
Walker pressed his case for ending same-day registration during a speech at the Ronald Reagan Library in California on Friday:
“States across the country that have same-day registration have real problems because the vast majority of their states have poll workers who are wonderful volunteers, who work 13 hour days and who in most cases are retirees,” Walker said. “It’s difficult for them to handle the volume of people who come at the last minute. It’d be much better if registration was done in advance of election day. It’d be easier for our clerks to handle that. All that needs to be done.“
Wisconsin was the first state to enact Election Day Registration in 1971, followed soon by states like Minnesota and Maine. Today, eleven states have laws allowing citizens to register at the polls. These states enjoy the highest turnout in the nation not by chance, but because Election Day Registration boosts turnout by 7 to 14 percentage points. In addition, studies show that minorities, poorer voters, and students benefit the most from being permitted to register on Election Day.
This gutless punk thug, aka Scott “Fartknocker” Walker, needs to be voted out of office in 2014!
Source: justinspoliticalcorner
NBC News, Fox News, and CNN have now all officially projected a win in WIsconsin for incumbent Republican Governor Scott Walker. The exit polling from just hours ago suggested an extremely tight race, deadlocked at 50/50, and seemed to point to a protracted night of parsing election returns, but at least for the governor’s office (there are still three GOP state senators facing recall) it appears to be a win for the GOP. Whether this has broader implications nationally is yet unclear — Walker’s recall was incited by his push to strip union rights from public sector employees, and his GOP comrades could view this as a mandate for further state level union-busting, or could see it as a cautionary tale of how close the wunderkind governor came to falling. Suffice to say the win didn’t come cheaply — the Walker campaign outspent the Barrett campaign by a nearly 8-to-1 margin. (Photo by WisPolitics)
“The exit polling from just hours ago suggested an extremely tight race, deadlocked at 50/50”
So you know
CNN and MSNBC can stop calling it now with only 25% reporting.
Even if Walker wins (gahhhh knock on wood), we sent a pretty clear message: you can outspend us 8-1 but not get eight times the votes. OK, technically the Koch brothers will have bought this election, but they can’t buy EVERY election… right?
I’m hoping Democrats take this as a wakeup call for campaign finance reform. People like the Koch brothers aren’t going to put big bucks behind them. Sad that it has to be this way, but campaign finance is such a mess right now, we really need something big to happen to make a dent.
(via randomactsofchaos)
Source: shortformblog
Why Wisconsin voters should recall Walker and Kleefisch on 06.05.2012
It is 11 days away from the critical, all-important recall election that will decide the fates of not only Gov. Scott Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch; but the 4 GOP State Senators under recall (Scott Fitzgerald, Van Wanggaard, Terry Moulton, and Jerry Petrowski)
The polls open at 7AM CDT and close at 8PM CDT, on June 5th, 2012.
Donation Links from ActBlue (Desperately needed to counter the Koch Brothers and their cronies):
Governor/Lt. Governor:
Tom Barrett (WI-Gov)
Mahlon Mitchell (WI-Lt. Gov)
Donate to Defeat Scott Walker group
Daily Kos Wisconsin Recall Fund
Wisconsin Democratic Party
DFA Wisconsin (Recall Campaign)State Senate:
Lori Compas (WI-SD13)
John Lehman (WI-SD21)
Kristen Dexter (WI-SD23)
Donna Seidel (WI-SD29)
Flip The Wisconsin State SenateRemember NOT to let Kathy Nickolaus, Karl Rove, The Koch Brothers, and their buddies win this battle! Wisconsin’s sanity is counting on every single voter and the GOTV operation.
Handy Hashtags on Twitter to use: #wirecall, #recallwalker, #wiunion, #recallkleefisch,#reclaimwi, #unitedwi
Source: justinspoliticalcorner
This race in Wisconsin is the most important race in the country before the presidential election. June 5th. Republicans think they’ve got it in the bag. And if they do, they’re on their way to a permanent structural advantage over the Democratic party for which there is no repair. There’s no way to undo it. And that will affect every race in every partisan election on every ballot. It is less than two weeks until the vote in Wisconsin. At this point, the Democrats should be fighting for this like the existence of their party depends on it. Because it does.
Source: wisconsinforward
Anyway, Wisconsin.
There is a rally on April 28th at the capitol at noon. It’s a recall Walker/99%/Move On/everything is terrible in Wisconsin rally.
Get your asses on up to the capitol, and if any tumblr friends nearby want to join me, now’s the time.
I would appreciate a signal boost here.
WE ARE ALL WISCONSIN.
Signal Boost
Source: tehblackbirdincardigans
