MILWAUKEE, WI – Wisconsin Supreme Court Candidate Judge Jill Karofsky released the following statement on Tuesday’s election, following continued developments showing many absentee ballots may not be counted and how rushed court decisions failed to fairly consider arguments from all parties:
“This was a chaotic election process and it’s clear that the two high courts contributed to that chaos. More than ever, people deserve to have trust in our institutions to apply the law fairly and protect their most basic rights, and that didn’t happen this week.
“Once again, the Wisconsin Supreme Court showed that their political allies play by a different set of rules as the rest of us. The majority apparently considered briefs from their political allies outside of the normal process, while giving respondents and others little time to respond. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision was riddled with major factual errors, including a clear misstatement about plaintiffs’ request for an extension, and an erroneous declaration that all voters who had requested ballots received them. The only conclusion can be that these courts are outcome-driven, not law-driven.
“We’re now seeing that postmarks on ballots don’t work the way the High Court assumed — setting up a ludicrous situation where people who put their ballots in the mail on Tuesday may be disenfranchised. The Election Commission needs to fight for every vote to be counted, and we are prepared to do whatever is necessary to protect the rights of everyone who participated in this election, whether or not they voted for me.”
The Karofsky campaign has also submitted a letter to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, detailing these issues and calling on absentee ballots to be counted properly. The full letter is available here.
