We expect to talk with Democratic Party Chair Ben Wickler ahead of their state convention
next month.
On absentee ballot drop boxes, the Republican Party weighed in against their use in a Wisconsin
lawsuit before the state Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments this week.
The case seeks to overturn a ruling made by the court two years ago in a case referred
to as Tegan, which barred the use of drop boxes after the 2020 election because law did not
expressly allow their use.
Tegan, the principle of it or Tegan, is that somehow if something is not explicitly stated
in the statute that it can't be done, isn't that, that principle, that's the principle
that turns everything else on its head.
In Tegan, what if we just got it wrong?
What if we made a mistake?
Are we now supposed to just perpetuate that mistake into the future?
At the same time, Common Cause Wisconsin argued for their use.
It's executive director, Jay Heck, joins us now and Jay, nice to see you.
Great to be with you, Fred, and good to see you again.
So in your mind, should Wisconsin voters expect to see the use of absentee ballot drop boxes
for upcoming elections from what you heard in oral arguments?
Well, if the oral arguments are any indication about what the court might do, I am very positive
or have a very good positive feeling about what the outcome might be.
One thing it's important to note is that we have had drop boxes in Wisconsin for a number
of years.
And of course, most famously during 2020 in the pandemic, they were a means for many
thousands of Wisconsinites around the state to be able to return their absentee ballots
in a safe, secure way.
Rural voters, urban voters, young voters, old voters, people with disabilities, they're
a good thing.
And Wisconsin is now the only state in the upper Midwest, only non-deep red state that
doesn't allow the use of them.
So what the concern on the part of Republicans is that those boxes could result in fraud
with ballot harvesting and the unsecured nature of them.
What about that?
Well, those are the suspicions of election deniers and conspiracy theorists.
During the 2020 election, not a single incident of a drop box being tampered with or fraud
or any of these things.
This is the specter that is constantly raised to try to reduce the ability of Wisconsinites
to be able to vote safely by absentee ballots or sometimes even at polling places.
So there's nothing behind those fears and they ought to be available, and hopefully
will be for 2024 so that we can have more voices and more people's votes counted rather
than fewer.
So interestingly, the state GOP is now pushing early voting as we express to its chair.
That's a sea change for Republicans.
But now they're trying to figure out how they'll promote or dissuade the use of drop
boxes depending what the Supreme Court does here.
It seems like this could be kind of complicated messaging.
Well, it will be, although, you know, early voting, both early voting and absentee voting,
which is the same, is it benefits voters of all persuasions, not just liberals or Democrats.
By being able to cast their vote when it's convenient for them to do so.
And so I think the Republican Party, and it sounds like they're wising up even on the
drop boxes, is that they will urge their voters to utilize those drop boxes.
They may continue to also raise the specter that there could be fraud in case their side
doesn't win.
That's often what happens.
But I am confident that this will result in safe, secure voting for people all over
the state.
And it will have more voices and more votes that will be able to be counted after the
November election than fewer.
We might be counting our chickens before their hatch, because the Supreme Court has
not yet ruled on this.
But this is the sense of people like yourself and others involved in the case and following
it closely, that that was what looked like the persuasion out of the oral argument.
Yeah, you never want to predict for sure what the Court will do.
But one thing we know about the Wisconsin Supreme Court now is that it's a little easier
to predict how they're going to rule on any given issue than it used to be.
So also this week, a near meltdown in the state Senate chambers during override votes
on Governor Evers' vetoes.
So Governor Chippin, not Rico, no more.
Senator, you are out of order.
You're required to sit.
You shall care.
You're out of order.
You shall care.
The Senate has the Republican votes to override vetoes, but the Assembly, if close, does
not.
In your mind, Jay, given that, why the dramatic effort to override this week?
Well, first of all, what a complete and utter waste of the taxpayers, the voters of Wisconsin's
time and resources, for the majority and the Republican majority to come in and decide
that they were once again going to try to override vetoes that have previously been
sustained and put Wisconsin through this exercise.
Yes, they had the votes in the state Senate, and yes, they were able to vote to override
five of the Governor's bills, but they knew that the Assembly didn't have the votes to
do this.
So it was just an exercise in political theater.
It was designed to message to their base that they're concerned about issues and their
conservatives, and they're going to fight for this stuff, but it did nothing to solve
the problems that Wisconsin needs to have addressed.
And it's again a reason, I call it the last gasp of the hyper-partisan gerrymandered legislature.
Hopefully after the November elections, we'll have a legislature that more accurately reflects
what Wisconsin really looks like.
And that would include more bipartisan cooperation in actually working on things Wisconsinites
care about them, that kind of political theatrics.
All right, Jay Heck, thanks very much.
Thanks for having me.
Well, I had a few years of experience doing this.
Indeed.
Yeah, no, it's fun.
So you're going to have Wickler on, too?
Oh, in June.
Oh, I see.
To preview the party.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Who else is on tonight?
Well, Brian Schimming.
Oh, okay.