TPMMuckraker

Court Throws Out WI AG Voting Suit

It looks like some of the state and local efforts led by Republicans to stymie voters, aren’t panning out.

The latest loss for the GOP comes in Wisconsin. Where the suit filed by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen requesting confirmation on thousands of voter registrations, has been thrown out by a county circuit judge.

From Wisconisn State Journal:

Judge Maryann Sumi said Van Hollen failed to state an adequate claim for bringing the lawsuit and noted that state law has consistently favored protecting citizens’ right to vote. Sumi also said that Van Hollen did not have standing to bring the lawsuit.

…DOJ spokesman Kevin St. John said the Department of Justice plans to appeal, possibly directly to the state Supreme Court.

Just yesterday, the Nevada Secretary of State rejected a GOP argument that people who corrected incomplete registration information at the polls should be forced to cast provisional ballots. And in Indiana, a judge ruled against Republican efforts to shut down early polling places in Democratic-heavy areas of a key county.

Last week, the Supreme Court sided with Ohio’s Democratic Secretary of State, ruling against ruling against a Republican effort to require her to provide infomration on voters with mismatched registration information to county election officials, which could have led to GOP challenges.

Late update: TPMmuckraker caught up with Joe Wineke, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, who called the ruling “very strongly worded.”

“It’s great to know that the circuit court in Wisconsin understood that the rule of law is more important than partisan political campaigns,” Wineke told us. “The really amazing thing to me right now is that the attorney general plans to appeal with 12 day to go till the election.”

We should have a copy of the court’s decision shortly, so check back soon.

Voting

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