US Supreme Court Rules Pandemic Voting in Wisconsin Must Go Forward
April 14, 2020 – Wisconsin voters were dealt a bad hand–a pandemic during a statewide election and a Democratic primary. The options: putting them in harms way, shuttering their polling places, or ending the statewide absentee ballot campaigns. By no fault of their own, these voters were caught in the cross-hairs–a legal battle that would either disenfranchise them, or put their lives in jeopardy. Sound unbelievable? Not if you’ve been following the Roberts court.
In a 5-4 opinion, the US Supreme Court ruled that the vote must go on as scheduled despite the deadly pandemic. Such a ruling not only boggles the mind, as stated by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her dissent, but is an affront to public health; it also shows a callous indifference to those who would be voting and is clearly bad precedent. It is no doubt this attempt to disenfranchise thousands of Wisconsin voters was an attempt by the Republican National Committee (RNC) to get the voting date to occur on schedule–during the pandemic–and thereby limit the number of Democrats who would risk putting themselves in jeopardy in order to exercise their right to vote. But they were wrong.
Despite of all the legal tricks to dissuade voters, hoards of Democrats turned out despite the long lines and frightening conditions. Not only did voters have come out in force to prevent their absentee votes from being nullified–that is, by a number of stringent conditions and deadlines set by the courts–including rigid postal time stamps for absentee voting, and ballot “witnessing rules“. To exacerbate an already tenuous situation, many voters were not going to receive the absentee ballots they requested from their municipal clerk, even well before the deadline. These clerks and their huge backlogs were not issues reconciled by the courts. Between shortages of envelopes, to shortage of workers, Wisconsinites could see that the Courts were not coming to their aid, and that the only way to change the status quo, was to brave the pandemic and cast their vote.
Even the voters who received their ballots were disadvantaged by the stringent “witnessing” which conflicted with “social distancing” requirements that were in effect. And, even if those folks certified in a statement that their signature was true, if they could not get a witness to sign their ballot, there was no guarantee that their vote would be counted. Similarly, those who sent in their absentee ballot were unclear if their ballot would be counted if the postal service failed to put a dated postmark on their return envelope.
Hearing the dilemmas of the municipal clerks, a lower federal court ruled that the clerk’s should be given more time to get the ballots out and received, acknowledging the clerks were greatly overburdened by the huge number of absentee ballot requests amid the pandemic. After this ruling, the Republican legislature appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which did everything it could to hamper the voters, including claiming that the Governor, a Democrat overstepped his authority in calling an emergency when trying to postpone the election until June, or provide more time for voters to return their absentee ballots.
The absurdity is clearly palpable, as well as the partisanship. One must ask, Is it really a good time to display partisanship when life of “every” American is at stake?” If the the answer is “yes” then we really have some serious social problems in this country–as rational people would always put safety over process in the height of a deadly pandemic.
As US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg clearly stated, it “boggles the mind” what is taking place here–as the utmost priority is to safeguard the American people, for without them, we have no nation. Fortunately, the Wisconsin voters had clearly had enough, and the election results reflect it–electing a number of Democrats to legislative and judicial positions, including electing a Democrat as Chief Justice over the ten year incumbent. Such acts of courage and fortitude by disheartened voters speaks volumes–as even the incumbent Chief Justice could not survive through a pandemic, even with the endorsement from Donald Trump. Perhaps Americans have really had enough…….?
Copyright 2020, All Rights Reserved. Mary Kay Elloian, MBA, JD, Esq.