Various Wisconsin news outlets are reporting that early voting in the Wisconsin recall election is at or near record levels in many key municipalities like Milwaukee and Madison.
The reactions from various right-wing propaganda services can be summed up as "OMG! The college students and black people are voting! Fraud! Fraud! Citizen's arrest!"
Make no mistake about it. It's all about getting out the vote, now. While recent polls have shown Republican Scott Walker with a slight lead over Democrat Tom Barrett (all polls are within the margin of error), those same polls show that most people have made up their minds.There are very few undecided voters. The winner will be the man whose campaign can mobilize its supporters and get them to the polls.
Absentee and early voting began on Monday of this week and ends Friday, June 1st. The election day is Tuesday, June 5th.
A coalition of grass-roots, Labor and Democratic Party organizers has done an outstanding job of registering new voters in areas that are traditionally some of the strongest areas for Democratic votes. Now they are getting those voters to their city halls to cast early ballots, even providing transportation if needed.
The effort to publicize and encourage early voting in Wisconsin is being given a big boost by former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, who voted on Tuesday, attended an "early voting rally" in Middleton, and has campaigned for and with Tom Barrett recently.
From the LaCrosse Tribune:
Local municipalities are reporting high demand for absentee ballots — and heavy traffic from voters casting their ballots in advance of Wisconsin’s June 5 gubernatorial recall election.
More than 90,000 absentee ballots had been issued as of Wednesday, according to state election officials using a voter registration system that tracks absentee ballots in about a third of the state’s municipalities.
I will let you poke around the internet to find the completely predictable right-wing response to the news that voters are voting. I don't want to link them. I will say it is amusing to read their over-the-top, false allegations of voter fraud. The truth is they have no comparable grass roots coalition and they know it, and it bugs the crap out of them.
But don't waste too much time on them. Good things are happening in Wisconsin, most of which will not make the nightly news, but it's all about getting voters to the polls. If you can help with that effort, whether it's on the ground here in Wisconsin or just reminding your friends in Wisconsin to vote, do it. It's working.
10:22 AM CDT: Sorry about not responding earlier to comments. Here are some links if people want to contribute and/or volunteer:
http://unitedwisconsin.org/
http://www.wisdems.org/...
http://grassroots.barrettforwisconsin.com/...