Lawsuit Challenges Wisconsin Republicans’ Lame-Duck Cuts to Early Voting

Republicans passed the voting restrictions in a lame-duck session before a Democratic governor takes office.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signs bills passed in the lame-duck legislative session on December 14, 2018.@GovWalker/Twitter

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Voting rights groups filed a lawsuit Monday to blockĀ voting restrictionsĀ passed by Wisconsin Republicans in a lame-duck session this month before a Democratic governor takes office in January.

The legislation limits Wisconsinā€™s early voting period to two weeks. Currently, Wisconsin counties can decide when to begin early voting, and Democratic-leaning cities like Madison and Milwaukee allowed six weeks of earlyĀ voting in 2018, contributing toĀ record turnoutĀ for a midterm election.

The lawsuit was filed by the National Redistricting Foundation,Ā a nonprofit founded by former attorney general Eric Holder,Ā and One Wisconsin Institute, a Madison-based progressive advocacy group. The suit charges thatĀ the new law was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature “as part of a partisan attempt to retain and regain power” and violates a 2016 ruling by a federal judge striking down previous cutbacks to early voting in 2016. In a statement, HolderĀ called the new law ā€œgrossly partisan, deeply undemocratic, and an attack on voting rights.ā€

In 2014, Wisconsinā€™s Legislature cut early voting from 30 days to 12, reduced early voting hours on nights and weekends, and restricted early voting to one location per municipality, hampering voters in large urban areas. A federal judgeĀ ruledĀ in 2016 that the early voting cuts ā€œintentionally discriminate on the basis of raceā€ and had been passed ā€œto suppress the reliably Democratic vote of Milwaukeeā€™s African Americans.ā€ (That ruling has been appealed to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.)

Wisconsin Republicans admitted that the early voting restrictions passed in 2014 were intended to benefit their party. Glenn Grothman, then a Republican state senator, saidĀ of extended early voting hours in heavily Democratic cities like Madison and Milwaukee, ā€œI want to nip this in the bud before too many other cities get on board.ā€ The county clerk of conservative Waukesha County said early voting gave ā€œtoo much accessā€ to voters in Milwaukee and Madison.

“The same partisan and racial motivations underlying the previous state-imposed early voting limitationsā€”motivations that this Court found to be unconstitutional and intentionally discriminatoryā€”visibly drove the passage of [the new law],ā€ the groups behind the lawsuit said in their filing.

The Republican-controlled Legislature passed several bills in the lame-duck session to limit the ability of incoming Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to make administrative changes to state laws and prohibit him from making key legislative appointments. They also prevent incoming Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul from withdrawing from federal lawsuits initiated by the state without legislative approval, likely blocking Kaul from removing Wisconsin from aĀ multi-state lawsuitĀ challenging the Affordable Care Act.

This is also the latest in a series of efforts by Wisconsin Republicans to weaken voting rights. The redistricting maps passed by Wisconsin Republicans in 2011 are among the mostĀ gerrymandered in the country: Republican assembly candidates received 46 percent of statewide votes in 2018 but retained 64 percent of legislative seats. And Wisconsinā€™s voter ID law, which first went into effect in 2016, disenfranchised tens of thousands of disproportionately Democratic-leaning voters andĀ helped President Donald Trump carry the state.

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