Say Something Real National Call to Protect Voting Rights By Michelle Bryant This week, I want to share information for a national call to protect voting rights. Whether the average voter appreciates it or not, voting rights are under siege and we are ceding ground every day that we don’t fight back. Recent Supreme Court […]
Rights Clash in Records Dispute
YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW By Matthew DeFour The Wisconsin Supreme Court will soon hear a case involving records related to the voting rights of mentally incompetent people. No matter which side wins, the public has in some ways already lost. That’s because while the case pits the public’s right to scrutinize voter eligibility against the […]
Senator Tammy Baldwin Leads Voting Rights Roundtable
By Karen Stokes Senator Tammy Baldwin celebrated the inauguration of her campaign’s new Milwaukee midtown office on Saturday, April 27. She was joined by community leaders for a roundtable discussion focusing on safeguarding the constitutionally protected right to vote. The roundtable, moderated by Mandela Barnes of Power to the Polls Wisconsin, featured various leaders from […]
Time is Money: Exploring the 21st Century Poll Tax Levied by the Georgia G.O.P.
By LaKeshia N. Myers When I was a classroom teacher, to explain the inequity of poll taxes and other ballot-blocking measures that were used in the Jim Crow south, I would give my students the Louisiana voter literacy test. Students had ten minutes to answer the questions and undoubtedly all of them would fail—because the […]
Honoring the Undervalued, Underestimated, and Often Unknown
Say Something Real Celebrating Women’s History Month By Michelle Bryant It’s time to vote. This civic responsibility has been etched in my DNA, from family members who hail from Birmingham, Alabama. Anyone who understands the regional history of this country, knows that mentioning either that city or state comes with a huge amount of baggage. […]
Power to the Polls Addresses the Importance of Voting Rights in Wisconsin
By Karen Stokes Sunday, November 5 marked one year until Election Day 2024. The organization, Power to the Polls, in conjunction with community and elected leaders from Wisconsin, gathered at St. Gabriel’s, 5363 N 37th to address the crucial matters of voting rights and voter access. “We’re here today because our voices are our power […]
Supreme Court Upholds State Court’s Authority in Election-Related Case, Rejects Republican Argument
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia The U.S. Supreme Court declined to impose new restrictions on state courts regarding election-related matters. The decision came as the Court ruled against Republicans in North Carolina fighting for a congressional district map that favored their candidates. The justices voted 6-3, stating that the North […]
Voting has Gotten Harder in Wisconsin. Organizers Have Found Ways to Help
Two different research initiatives have documented the ways it’s now more difficult to vote in Wisconsin, from disparities in access to added barriers. by Matt Mencarini Wisconsin Watch Around noon on an overcast April Election Day, dozens of canvassers returned to a second-floor conference room of the Greater Spring Hill Missionary Baptist Church on Milwaukee’s […]
Why do we Need to Vote
African Americans and women have always fought to vote. There’s been a long history of preventing people of color from voting. African Americans knew that the inability to vote resulted in economic, political, and social harm to themselves, their families, and their communities. Originally under the Constitution, only white male citizens over the age of […]
Can formerly incarcerated people legally vote in Wisconsin? It depends.
What people with criminal convictions should know about voting rights in Wisconsin. by Jonmaesha Beltran Wisconsin Watch Nearly 4.6 million people in the U.S. were barred from voting due to a felony conviction in 2022. That includes more than 65,000 people in Wisconsin, according to The Sentencing Project, an advocacy and research group. Neighboring Michigan, […]