As Rebecca Kleefisch, Ron Johnson attend Annual Reagan Day Dinner, coalition of voters, advocates, legal experts to denounce their coordinated attacks on voting access

Protestors will carry a life-sized puppet of Kleefisch, large letters that read “VOTERS DECIDE”

 

Milwaukee  – Members of the Wisconsin Voting Rights Coalition will join Rep. Christine Sinicki, local voters, community and faith leaders in a protest outside the state GOP’s Annual Reagan Day Dinner Friday, condemning the WI Supreme Court decision allowing a ban on ballot drop boxes to come into effect for the state’s April elections.

 

As outraged voters and community members protest outside of the Radisson Hotel Milwaukee West, they will be directly in the line of sight of Republican politicians who have led the party’s charge to limit the voting rights of Wisconsinites.

 

The recent Supreme Court ruling – pushed forward by local right-wing legal group WILL and hailed by GOP members attending the dinner including Rebecca Kleefisch and Ron Johnson – will strip senior citizens, people with disabilities, Black and brown voters, shift workers and people without cars from using a vital option for voting easily and safely.

 

Members of the Wisconsin Voting Rights Coalition, including Souls to the Polls MKE, SEIU Wisconsin, MASH, Fight for $15 and a Union, Voces De La Frontera, and others are taking to the streets in response. Bearing signs that read “Our Voice, Our Vote” and a life-sized puppet of Kleefisch, protestors will raise the alarm on the severity of the GOP voter suppression attempts currently underway across our state.

 

The ballot drop box ban presents an ominous sign for the future of voting in the state. Key local Republicans have been ruthless in their attempts to upend Wisconsin’s nonpartisan elections ahead of the midterms, filing over a dozen bills to modify the way our elections are run, many targeting the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

 

EVENT DETAILS

 

WHAT: Protest outside of the WI GOP’s Annual Reagan Day Dinner, decrying voter suppression attempts and the WI Supreme Court decision to ban ballot drop boxes in our April election. Action to follow current COVID-19 safety protocols.

 

WHO: Members of the Wisconsin Voting Rights Coalition – including Souls to the Polls MKE, SEIU Wisconsin, MASH, Fight for $15 and a Union, Voces De La Frontera – Rep. Christine Sinicki, local voters and community allies.

 

WHEN: Friday, February 18, 2022 at 4pm CT

 

WHERE: Outside the Radisson Hotel Milwaukee West

NW Corner of N. Mayfair Road and W. North Ave, Wauwatosa, WI

 

VISUALS: Participants holding a life-sized puppet of Rebecca Kleefisch, large letters that read, “VOTERS DECIDE”; “Our Voice, Our Vote”; “Radical Rebecca: Hands Off Our Votes.”

 

BACKGROUND

 

On Thursday, January 13, 2022, Judge Michael Bohren of Waukesha County sided with right-wing, anti-voting rights institutions in ruling that absentee ballot drop boxes are illegal under Wisconsin state law. The decision came as Republicans and their allies aim to further restrict access to the ballot and roll back voting rights ahead of the 2022 election.

 

Judge Bohren announced his plan to issue his written order that formally put this ban into effect during a January 19 hearing and ordered the Wisconsin Elections Committee to comply with this decision by January 27, 2022.  On January 24, the Wisconsin Appeals Court decided to stay this lower court ruling that banned the use of ballot drop boxes in the state.

 

But on February 11, at the behest of right-wing legal group WILL, the Wisconsin Supreme Court voted 4-3 to remove the stay and allow the lower court order to go into effect that bans ballot drop boxes in the state’s April election. The legality of ballot drop boxes in the November election remains uncertain.

 

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