Wisconsin residents can help defeat the caging scheme of J.B. Van Hollen, the ultra-partisan Wisconsin Attorney General, by writing letters to the editors of local newspapers. We are all familiar with the efforts of the Republicans to suppress Democratic votes in Florida and Ohio in previous elections. The voters in Wisconsin are starting to realize that America's Dairyland has been targeted as one of this year's electoral laughing stocks.
In a scenario playing out in many states, the Republican party of Wisconsin is abusing and manipulating the Help America Vote Act to attempt suppression of newly registered voters - more often than not young and/or minority voters.
Van Hollen, the co-chairman of the McCain for President committee in Wisconsin, recently filed a lawsuit against the state's electoral agency. In an all too familiar warning, however:
...election experts warned that if the Justice Department lawsuit is successful, eligible voters could be disenfranchised and the state could face a post-election ballot-counting frenzy similar to Florida's after the 2000 presidential race.
Naturally, Van Hollen denied he was acting as a partisan claiming he "had no choice" but to file the lawsuit, and denied any contact between his office and the state GOP. After his denial it was revealed by the Wisconsin State Journal that:
The state Republican Party chairman said Monday he had multiple conversations with Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's top aide before Van Hollen filed a lawsuit against the state election agency to compel expanded voter registration checks.
But Reince Priebus, the party chairman, defended his contacts with Deputy Attorney General Ray Taffora, his comments in Van Hollen's presence this month at the Republican National Convention criticizing the election agency, and meetings between GOP lawyers and the Justice Department lawyers handling the lawsuit.
And he said party officials didn't collaborate with Van Hollen, a Republican, in preparing the lawsuit against the state Government Accountability Board, which oversees elections.
Did you catch that? They spoke to each other about it. They had meetings about it. But they didn't "collaborate" on the lawsuit. The state GOP later petitioned the court to be added as a plaintiff. But remember, they didn't collaborate. [Insert your own joke here about selling me a bridge in Alaska.]
After one court ruling that allowed Van Hollen to continue with his lawsuit against the state despite the fact that he represents the state, the ruling on the lawsuit itself is expected to be delivered only 12 days before the election.
Now, I find it nearly unthinkable that any judge will instantly invalidate thousands of voter registrations, but stranger things have happened. Fortunately, the news media, especially the newspapers, are wise to Van Hollen's game and are doing their best to educate Wisconsinites on the possibilty they will be initially denied a ballot, and how to fight back.
I was shocked when I picked up the local weekly and read an editorial mildly criticizing Van Hollen (a risky proposition for a small town paper) and giving excellent advice on how to avoid being caged. Right next to it was a letter from a local citizen blasting Van Hollen, calling him an embarrassment. The state's paper of record, the Wisconsin State Journal, had a front page article on Sunday describing the mess and offering advice on how to prepare.
If you live in Wisconsin, I urge you to write a short letter to your local newspaper expressing your outrage over these developments. I'll be doing the same. I hate to say it, but commenting in the paper's online forum is not nearly as effective. Comments are most effective when published in the print version.
The editors appear to be on our side on this. If we can get enough letters published, we will get state voters to double-check their registration, we will generate a backlash that will surely be noticed by the courts, and we will expose Van Hollen as the weasel he is and establish him as vulnerable in two years when he is up for reelection.