Wisconsin Right Now

Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney said Wisconsin needs a proper process to check its voter rolls for noncitizens and remove them, ensuring election integrity in the state. Currently, election commissions cannot check their rolls with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to ensure an estimated 90,000 individuals who are currently legally in the state, who can get a drivers license, do not register to vote. Toney was one of several officials statewide to take part in a Tuesday morning press conference from the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy about Wisconsin election integrity. Wisconsin election managers recently pushed for an Office of Election Transparency and Compliance, with a $2 million budget request for the office approved by the Wisconsin Election Commission. “We want to make sure that it is easy to vote but hard to cheat,” said Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany, who holds the state’s Seventh Congressional seat. Tiffany pointed to the...

A Dane County Circuit court ruled against former Independent party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., siding with the Wisconsin Election Commission’s decision to keep Kennedy’s name on the state’s ballot this November, despite his withdrawal from the race and request for removal. Kennedy’s lawsuit argued that, absent a compelling reason, the state’s different treatment for third party candidates violates the Equal Protection Clause and the First Amendment. It claimed the different deadlines for ballot withdrawal for major party candidates versus third-party candidates – Sept. 3 for the former and Aug. 6 for the latter – are unlawfully discriminatory. Judge Stephen E. Ehlke disagreed, saying Kennedy’s request was essentially that the WEC ignore Wisconsin election law, which only allows a certified candidate to exit the ballot in case of death. “Courts are required to apply the law as written, not as some party wishes it were written,” Ehlke said. “Under the statute, t...

  A Kennebec County Superior Court judge has issued a stay on the Maine secretary of state’s decision to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the primary ballot, citing the 14th Amendment. In Justice Michaela Murphy’s decision, she refused to rule on the case until the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on Colorado’s attempt to disqualify the former president. Murphy underscored the need to “promote consistency” in an effort to “avoid voter confusion.” In addition to the stay, Murphy denied an  appeal filed by Trump’s legal team  earlier this month. Last month, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows  issued a decision  brought forth by Maine voters to challenge Trump’s primary petition, determining it invalid. Bellows, a Democrat, “ruled that the declaration on his candidate consent form is false,” saying the former president is not qualified to hold the office of president, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. The Supreme Court agreed to hear Trump’s appeal challengi...

"When Congress throws so much money at the cities that they don't even know how to spend it, we have a problem," A county government in southeast Michigan is moving forward with plans to build a sports complex with federal COVID relief money that could cost up to $80 million. Some residents are pushing back. A rural county in Utah spent $321,000 in federal COVID relief money to get snow to the Buckskin Hills Ski and Snow Tubing Hill. An auditor's report later flagged some of the COVID relief spending. In Tennessee, Shelby County Schools spent $25 million on air purifiers from Global Plasma Solutions, but a lawsuit maintains the purifiers are ineffective. These are just a few of the examples of how local governments spent billions of dollars in federal taxpayer money provided by Congress to stem the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adam Andrzejewski, founder and CEO of government watchdog OpenTheBooks.com , said the amount of federal money has municipaliti...

"When Congress throws so much money at the cities that they don't even know how to spend it, we have a problem," A county government in southeast Michigan is moving forward with plans to build a sports complex with federal COVID relief money that could cost up to $80 million. Some residents are pushing back. A rural county in Utah spent $321,000 in federal COVID relief money to get snow to the Buckskin Hills Ski and Snow Tubing Hill. An auditor's report later flagged some of the COVID relief spending. In Tennessee, Shelby County Schools spent $25 million on air purifiers from Global Plasma Solutions, but a lawsuit maintains the purifiers are ineffective. These are just a few of the examples of how local governments spent billions of dollars in federal taxpayer money provided by Congress to stem the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adam Andrzejewski, founder and CEO of government watchdog OpenTheBooks.com , said the amount of federal money has municipaliti...