Reading Time: 6 minutes

Voters using Wisconsin’s newly legalized drop boxes may return only their own ballots, except in special cases, according to new guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission. That means even a voter dropping off a spouse’s ballot along with their own would be considered as having cast a ballot improperly.

The rule could be difficult for municipal clerks to enforce. But it leaves an opening for potential challenges from conservative election activists, who are already preparing to act on suspicions that Democratic voters will abuse the boxes to commit fraud. Allegations of drop box misuse could also spur legal challenges to election results, experts say. 

In the run-up to this year’s elections, local officials are dealing with heavy scrutiny from election observers seeking to challenge absentee ballots, and Republicans have sought to increase the number of people monitoring drop boxes. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde recently called for 24-hour drop box monitoring in Madison, The Washington Post reported.

Those calls came quickly after a Wisconsin Supreme Court majority on July 5 overturned a 2022 decision that banned drop boxes. Since the decision, clerks in cities like Madison, Milwaukee and other municipalities around the state have stated their intent to use drop boxes in the August primary.

Drop boxes became one of the most politicized election issues in Wisconsin after the 2020 presidential contest, leading to extensive misinformation, false allegations of widespread fraud, and “2,000 Mules,” a purported documentary about drop box misuse that has been roundly debunked. Their return in Wisconsin promises to revive the suspicions that fed those claims.

“People who don’t believe that the system has integrity are looking for places to prove that, and the drop box just becomes an easy place to go because it’s in public, and there are lots of voters interacting with those boxes as they deposit ballots,” said UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden, the founding director of the university’s Elections Research Center. “And so it’s a place where their suspicions can be tested.”

Already, on social media channels prominently featuring election conspiracy theorists, people are making plans to monitor drop boxes.

One person in a Telegram group called for people to “Sit by those boxes like flies on shit.” 

Another suggested what could be more menacing behavior, calling for drop box observers to follow voters home, “Make a note of their address then post it on Telegram.”

Even a perceived misuse of a drop box could be used to fuel concerns about election integrity, UW-Madison Law School associate professor Robert Yablon said. 

“It may mean that you have more observers that are going to camp out at drop boxes looking for something that they think is wrong, whether or not it is, and having a viral moment,” he said. “There often may well be innocent explanations, but nevertheless, the appearance will be something questionable enough for them to run with.”

The last time drop boxes were in use, there wasn’t a rule or guidance explicitly addressing whether voters had to return only their own ballots to drop boxes. When the Wisconsin Supreme Court banned them in 2022 following a challenge from conservatives, it said voters with absentee ballots had to mail them or deliver them in person to the clerk, but didn’t rule on whether a voter could mail other people’s ballots.

When the state Supreme Court, now with a liberal majority, overturned the drop box ban on July 5, it didn’t address whether people could return ballots besides their own to a drop box. But the election commission stepped in with its guidance, saying voters can return only their own ballots unless they’re helping somebody who’s disabled or hospitalized. 

Additionally, the guidance clarifies the court decision doesn’t require drop boxes to be staffed or require clerks to “ask any questions” of a voter returning a ballot to a drop box. 

People can watch drop boxes, as long as they don’t interfere with voting, the guidance says, and clerks should contact law enforcement if people impede the use of a drop box.

‘Vigilantes’ could get involved in monitoring drop boxes

Besides Wisconsin, 27 states explicitly allow drop boxes, while another six states have jurisdictions that use them.

States differ in their rules on who can return voters’ absentee ballots to a drop box or a clerk. In Georgia, which has drop boxes, voters’ absentee ballots can be returned by their family members, household members or caregivers. In Alabama, though, voters can return only their own ballots.

In Wisconsin, Burden said, the new WEC guidance draws “a brighter line” than the courts did on the issue of who can return a ballot. “So it might give some justification for these kinds of vigilantes who want to watch the drop boxes and look for wrongdoing.”

Burden cautioned, though, that there could be ambiguous situations where these people might incorrectly “jump to conclusions.”

For example, a voter could be putting three ballots into a drop box, two of them completed by  the voter’s disabled parents, which would be allowed, he said. But if an election observer captured that on video, such a moment could be misinterpreted, or deliberately misused, to spread suspicions of improper voting.

“It gets very easy for a misunderstanding to spin out of control,” Burden said, “and so it would be much better for election officials or courts — people who actually know what they’re doing — to be on top of this, rather than allow rogue individuals to inject themselves into the process.”

Burden warned that such vigilante behavior could escalate to a form of voter intimidation, as in Arizona in 2022, where a group of people wearing masks and carrying guns stood close to drop boxes until a judge ordered them to stand farther away.

Challenges to drop boxes could take many forms  

In Shorewood Hills, a 2,100-person village surrounded by Madison, village Clerk Julie Fitzgerald unlocked the village drop box the day the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that they were legal. 

Fitzgerald said having drop boxes available again for ballots is especially convenient because the village box is also used by residents to drop off their utility payments. When drop boxes were banned for voting purposes, Fitzgerald had to close them off during elections, requiring residents to return utility payments elsewhere.

Neither the court’s ruling nor the election commission’s guidance requires drop boxes to be staffed. Before the commission issued its guidance, Fitzgerald said she hoped it wouldn’t put the onus on clerks to monitor drop boxes. 

But clerks can still come under scrutiny if a voter returns multiple ballots. And they would face pressure to do something about it to preserve the integrity of the vote count.

“As a statutory matter, the rules concerning return of absentee ballots are mandatory. Improperly cast absentee votes are not to be counted,” said Rick Esenberg, president of the conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, which filed the lawsuit that led to the 2022 drop box ban.

There are a few different ways to handle a situation like that, Esenberg said. 

One option is a drawdown: That’s when election officials withdraw randomly selected ballots because of a numerical discrepancy and exclude them from the count. State law outlines a drawdown as a possible remedy when, during canvassing, the number of tabulated ballots is greater than the number of recorded voters. The idea is that if they can’t determine exactly which ballots should be invalidated, they might at least be able to determine the quantity of those ballots and randomly select that quantity to exclude from the count.

State law and the election commission’s manual don’t stipulate doing a drawdown for improperly returned absentee ballots, but plaintiffs could request such a remedy in a lawsuit. 

Other remedies can be considered, Esenberg added, pointing to a North Carolina case where the state ordered a new election after the Republican candidate’s campaign was accused of ballot tampering.

Post-election challenges have limitations, however, Esenberg said. 

After the 2020 election, the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected a challenge by then-President Donald Trump that called for drawing down 220,000 votes from Dane and Milwaukee counties. The ruling said it was “unreasonable” for Trump to challenge the ballots after the election on the basis of laws and procedures that were in place well before the election.

Referring in part to that case, Yablon said, “Courts in Wisconsin and elsewhere do tend to hesitate before throwing out the votes of eligible voters.”

If the returned ballots are otherwise proper, he said, “the courts are going to be very reluctant to disenfranchise someone based on a deficiency in just how it was returned.”

Challenges to current drop box rules could also come from the other direction, in favor of expanding return options, Yablon said.

Groups that want to loosen the current guidance could ask the commission or a court for permission for them to collect and return multiple ballots, arguing that the Supreme Court’s latest ruling represents a broader preference for expanding return options, he said.

Safeguards against fraud are in place for ballots left in drop boxes

It’s possible under the current rules that an otherwise legitimate ballot can be returned improperly, leaving clerks or challengers to find a way to resolve that issue.

But election officials have safeguards in place to protect against the possibility of widespread fraud through drop boxes, like somebody filling out and returning multiple ballots to a drop box under fake names or in the name of somebody who has already voted.

Wisconsin clerks process absentee ballots from drop boxes just as they do any other absentee vote, including those sent through the mail or dropped off in person. With narrow exceptions for military voters, election officials send absentee ballots only to Wisconsin residents who have requested one and are confirmed to have registered to vote with a valid ID.

Before opening the ballot envelopes deposited in a drop box, election officials verify they have witness and voter signatures and a witness address. Then they open the envelope, verify that the person casting the ballot was qualified to vote and hadn’t already voted in the election, and record the person on the poll books as having returned an absentee ballot. Only then would they tabulate the vote.

In its guidance, the commission also issued best security practices for drop boxes, including making sure that drop boxes are in a well-lit area, that they have locks or seals to secure ballots and that they can’t be moved or tampered with.

Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.

Wisconsin’s new rules on ballot drop boxes create opportunity for election challenges, ‘vigilantes’ is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Click here to read highlights from the story

• Officials in Green Bay say Donald Trump’s campaign has refused to reimburse the city for more than $42,700 in public safety and operations costs from rallies in 2024 and 2016. 
• President Biden has not visited Green Bay this year, but the campaign has reimbursed the city for $7,000 in costs related to first lady Jill Biden’s visit.
• Green Bay says the campaigns of two Democrats still owe the city for costs stemming from events in 2016: Hillary Clinton (about $12,500) and Bernie Sanders (nearly $2,000).
• Officials in Eau Claire, which hosted Trump and Clinton in 2016, say the city is still owed nearly $47,000 and $7,000 from each visit respectively, but they are next expecting to be paid. 
• Madison, the site of a rally for President Biden on July 5, follows a long-standing practice of not billing campaigns for visits. It does not plan to invoice Biden’s campaign.

Editor’s note: This story was reported and written before the July 13 shooting at a rally for former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, which is being investigated as an assassination attempt.

With President Joe Biden and Donald Trump again eying Wisconsin as a crucial presidential election battleground, some cash-strapped municipalities hope their campaigns will pick up the tab for their expensive visits to the state.

Those include the cities of Green Bay and Eau Claire, where officials said they still haven’t been reimbursed for tens of thousands of dollars in costs related to public safety and operational support during campaign visits dating back to 2016. 

On a snowy Tuesday evening in April, Trump made his first visit in four years to Green Bay, delivering a roughly one-hour speech to hundreds of supporters gathered downtown at the KI Convention Center.

The city’s costs for the rally totaled nearly $33,400, officials said in a July 2 press release. The costs stemmed from operational, security and traffic coordination services — the biggest chunk coming in police overtime —  and preparing for the risks of welcoming a high-profile candidate, said Diana Ellenbecker, the city’s finance director. 

Trump’s arrival at 5 p.m. on a workday “created much more overtime and much more coordination for the bigger crowd,” Ellenbecker said. “There’s just hours and hours and hours involved administratively, besides all the operational needs, to make it a safe event.”

Trump campaign not willing to pay bills

The April rally was the most expensive presidential campaign event Green Bay has hosted without being reimbursed since 2016. Trump’s campaign has refused to reimburse the city for those costs or for nearly $9,400 in police expenses related to an August 2016 rally, city records show. 

“When we reached out to the Trump camp, they sent an email that they’re not responsible for paying this bill,” Ellenbecker said. 

Without reimbursement, the extra rally costs eat into the department reserve funds. 

“It does have an impact,” Ellenbecker said. “It makes departments look like they’re overspending their budgets because they’re incurring expenses that they didn’t have a revenue source for.” 

President Biden has not visited Green Bay this year, but first lady Jill Biden visited the Brown County Public Library in June to promote the president’s health care policies, prompting the city to invoice the Democrat’s campaign nearly $7,000 for police, fire, parking and related costs for an event that was smaller and easier to support than Trump’s rally. The city received a payment from Biden’s campaign days after its July press release listed the invoice as unpaid, and Ellenbecker called the campaign “proactive” in handling it. 

“We pay our bills, and Trump doesn’t,” Eliana Locke, regional spokesperson for the Biden campaign, told Wisconsin Watch. “He’s continued to stiff working people, and that includes places like Green Bay.”

Trump’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment, but it has previously denied responsibility for such costs. 

“It is the U.S. Secret Service, not the campaign, which coordinates with local law enforcement,” the Trump campaign told The Center for Public Integrity in April 2020, responding to the news outlet’s findings that the campaign refused to pay invoices from 14 local governments totaling $1.82 million. “The campaign itself does not contract with local governments for police involvement. All billing inquiries should go to the Secret Service.” 

At the Trump campaign’s suggestion, Green Bay shared its April invoice with the Secret Service, Ellenbecker said, only to be told “that’s not our responsibility to pay this bill.”

Green Bay officials said the campaigns of two Democrats still owe the city for costs stemming from events in 2016: Hillary Clinton (about $12,500) and Bernie Sanders (nearly $2,000). 

“Green Bay residents are frugal people who pay their bills, and they expect presidential candidates to do the same,” Mayor Eric Genrich said in the city’s press release. “It is a matter of fairness and fiscal responsibility — our residents should not bear the burden of these expenses.”

Oshkosh city manager: ‘Campaigns ignore municipalities’  

Green Bay isn’t the only city feeling stiffed by past presidential campaigns.   

Officials in Eau Claire, which hosted Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016, said the city is still owed nearly $47,000 and $7,000 from each visit respectively. 

“We have not been paid, and we do not expect to be paid, and there’s no recourse for us to be paid from them,” Regi Akan, who works in the office of City Manager Stephanie Hirsch, told Wisconsin Watch. 

The city of Oshkosh incurred costs related to a 2020 Trump rally and a campaign visit from Chelsea Clinton in 2016, but the city hasn’t aggressively sought reimbursement due to historic challenges in doing so, said City Manager Mark Rohloff in an interview.

Rohloff, who worked decades ago in California local government, said the problem isn’t new. He recalls trying to bill former President Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign to no avail.   

“Campaigns ignore municipalities, thinking that they should be happy that a presidential candidate chooses to come and visit their town,” Rohloff said. “Unless the campaigns are going to publicly commit and be held accountable for paying or not paying their bills, it’s going to be very difficult.”

Trump’s campaign did reimburse at least one Wisconsin city for a campaign stop. In a document acquired by Business Insider in 2020, Trump’s campaign treasurer at the time approved a $5,574 payment to the city of La Crosse for costs related to a September 2020 rally. The payment arrived several weeks late, and it was also 10 cents short of the invoice’s requested amount, Business Insider reported. The Trump campaign at the time, however, had not paid the city for a 2016 event. 

Past proposal would allow upfront invoicing 

Responding to complaints about unpaid invoices, Democrats in the Legislature have previously proposed legislation to allow local governments to require advance payments from visiting presidential or vice presidential candidates.

The “Recovery of Unsettled Municipal Payments Act” failed to advance after being introduced in the 2019-2020 and 2023-2024 legislative sessions.

“Before President Trump or any of the other presidential campaigns come to Wisconsin, they should pay their bills if they expect to hold events for voters,” said the bill’s most recent co-sponsorship memo, authored by Sens. Jeff Smith of Brunswick and Chris Larson of Milwaukee, along with Reps. Kristina Shelton of Green Bay and Jodi Emerson of Eau Claire.

Such legislation is a “nice gesture,” Rohloff said, but enforcement would prove difficult because municipalities can’t reasonably deny services aimed at protecting the public.

“We have to assist our federal and state law enforcement partners to ensure public safety,” Rohloff said.  “So we’re kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place because we’re not going to say no, and (campaigns) know it.” 

Shouldering extra costs of campaign visits is necessary, regardless of whether campaigns chip in, said Dylan Brogan, spokesperson for the city of Madison. Madison, the site of a rally for President Biden on July 5, follows a long-standing practice of not billing campaigns for visits, regardless of party.  It does not plan to invoice Biden’s campaign. 

The only exception to this practice, Brogan said, was a 2019 visit from Sanders during his presidential campaign run. His campaign “specifically asked the city for an invoice so he could pay them back, and his campaign did,” Brogan said.

But gestures like Sanders’ are rare, Brogan said.

“There’s only so much the city can do except to be welcoming and making sure that everyone is safe.”

Wisconsin cities want presidential candidates to pay for pricey campaign stops is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

La Corte Suprema revirtió la prohibición que regía desde el 2022 luego de una demanda que instauró el grupo progresista Priorities USA

Los comicios presidenciales se llevarán a cabo el próximo 5 de noviembre y desde ya se conocen varios aspectos nuevos que podrían cambiar el resultado final. La novedad más reciente es la relacionada con el fallo de la Corte Suprema que revirtió la prohibición de los buzones en el estado indeciso presidencial.

Esto quiere decir que aquellas personas que quieren votar, lo podrán hacer en urnas especialmente designadas para ese propósito, sin tener que enviarlas por correo o entregarlas personalmente en la oficina del secretario municipal, “en el corazón mismo de nuestra democracia está la libertad fundamental de votar, y la votación mediante buzón es una forma segura de ayudar a garantizar que todos los habitantes de Wisconsin elegibles puedan emitir su voto”, manifestó el gobernador Tony Evers.

Dicha decisión hace parte de toda una campaña que buscaba revocar la norma que regía desde hace dos años. El Gobernador Evers instó a la Corte a considerar la decisión, argumentando que en épocas pasadas era posible entregar las papeletas asegurando el resguardo y protección de las votaciones.

La decisión del Alto Tribunal es un paso que facilita el proceso de votación para aquellos que quieren participar democráticamente, pero evitan acercarse a los puntos o enfrentar fallas en el envío del voto vía servicio postal, “esta es una victoria para nuestra democracia y vamos a seguir luchando para garantizar que todos los votantes elegibles puedan emitir su voto de manera segura y tan fácil como sea posible para asegurarnos de que sus voces sean escuchadas”, aseguró el Gobernador.

Por su parte, David Fox, abogado del grupo progresista Priorities USA, afirmó que la decisión aprueba una medida conveniente y confiable “si envías la papeleta por correo, no sabes cuándo llegará y los votantes se preocupan de si llegará a tiempo y si se contará, pero si la colocas en un buzón antes de la fecha límite, sabes que irá directamente a los funcionarios electorales y se contará”.

 FUENTE: 

 

The post Wisconsin vuelve a tener buzones de votación en ausencia appeared first on MIWISCONSIN: Conectando los latinos en español | News in spanish.

Damakant Jayshi

Wausau might not see any immediate change in its approach to homelessness after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed cities to impose criminal penalties on people sleeping in public places.

That is because the city has already imposed some restrictions on people without permanent homes. An ordinance bans camping in public places and the police have been aggressively enforcing it, like the one under the Scott Street Bridge. But the Supreme Court decision could lead to louder calls for a stricter approach to homelessness in the city.

Delivering its decision on June 28 regarding homelessness in Grants Pass, a small city in Oregon that wanted to ban sleeping in public places, the Supreme Court said the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment that bans cruel and unusual punishment was not applicable even when cities do not offer them alternative places to sleep.

The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision along ideological lines came in response to Grants Pass v. Johnson and allows cities to ban homeless people from sleeping in public places, like parks and sidewalks, even when they have nowhere else to go. Advocates fear that such a ban will only exacerbate the problem and criminalize homelessness. The apex court’s majority opinion, however, has said that people who sleep outside in public places can cite that as a “necessity defense” if they are booked for violating bans on sleeping outdoors.

Leaders in some cities like San Francisco and Portland have welcomed the decision, but others like the mayor of Los Angeles and the mayor of Knoxville, Tenn. have criticized it. While those in support say the decision allows city leaders more leverage to deal with homelessness in a compassionate way, opponents say it will criminalize poverty.

The Wisconsin affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, which submitted a friend-of-the-court submission urging the Supreme Court to enshrine protections for homeless residents, criticized the decision.

“The ACLU of Wisconsin is deeply troubled by the decision in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson et al,” ACLU-WI staff attorney-researcher, Emma Shakeshaft told Wausau Pilot & Review. “In effect, this decision supports the criminalization of poverty by targeting people who do not have access to housing or indoor shelter. The decision upholds a two-tiered system of justice, one for people who have economic resources and one for those who don’t.”

Shakeshaft said “making it a crime for people to sleep outside in public does not address the root causes and systemic failures that give rise to housing instability.” She said ordinance enforcement and citations, like the ones at issue in Grants Pass, result in disproportionate and perpetual police and legal system contacts that often result in fines, fees and possible incarceration, make it even more difficult for people to secure stable housing.

Similarly, Legal Action of Wisconsin found the court’s decision troubling.

In a news release, Legal Action of Wisconsin said the organization is deeply disappointed by the decision.

“Punishing homeless people for being homeless does not solve the crisis of homelessness,” Legal Action’s Housing Priority Coordinator Carmen Ayers said. “No solution will be effective unless it centers on the dignity of people experiencing housing instability.” 

The organization, like others that work to prevent homelessness, has called for increasing access to safe and affordable housing and preventing evictions as a more effective approach to what has become a growing problem nationwide.

Officials: No immediate change in Wausau

According to the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service, over 400 people live without permanent housing in the Wausau area.

In its 2023 report about community discussion on homelessness, the research organization said the actual number of unhoused people might be higher. “It is not known how many additional homeless individuals live in Marathon County beyond Wausau because there are no means to count them,” the report said.

City authorities said it is too early to understand the impact of the decision.

Mayor Doug Diny declined to say how he plans to address homelessness in the city and pointed the question to the City Council.

“Designated a Wausau City Council priority at their formation meeting, a series of Committee of the Whole meetings about homelessness (is) on the horizon,” he told Wausau Pilot & Review. “The specific Supreme Court decision you cite is a data point for their potential consideration on July 15th.”

Wausau’s population is similar to Grant Pass’s 40,000. City leaders are unclear whether the decision will direct any immediate changes to Wausau’s policy. The city, though, has hardened its position on the unhoused population at the urging of the Wausau Police Department, which has said it has been flooded with complaints from downtown businesses, public library officials and residents about homeless people who congregate in the area.

Wausau Police say they have collected videos that show criminal acts, including public defecation, drug use and vandalism in downtown parking ramps. Some people have had sex in public, while others have brandished weapons, alarming workers in the downtown area, police say. Some alders are urging the public to watch those videos to help them understand the scale of the problem.

“Given the ruling has just been published, city staff have not had the opportunity to discuss it,” Wausau Police Chief Matthew Barnes told this newspaper. “As a result, it would be premature to comment on how, or if this recent ruling will impact policy or enforcement.  I do not expect any immediate changes in our practices.”

Barnes said Wausau officers currently enforce an ordinance that prohibits camping in city parks, but follow a legal process that includes multiple notices, attempts to funnel offenders to resources, safeguarding personal property and cleanup efforts.

Marathon County District Attorney Theresa Wetzsteon told Wausau Pilot that the DA’s Office will continue to collaborate with local law enforcement and community stakeholders to attempt to assess and address homelessness in the community. “This will continue to include programming facilitated through our Office that enhances public safety through interventions targeting the needs of individuals struggling with substance use and mental health disorders that may co-occur with being unhoused.” 

City Attorney Anne Jacobson did not respond to questions about how the decision would impact the city’s ordinances.

How many homeless residents wind up in jail?

While talk about removing encampments and implementing relevant ordinances have been long considered, those efforts picked up steam early last year. Police removed encampments beneath the Scott Street Bridge last April.

Between Jan. 1, 2023 and July 2, 2024, the Wausau Police Department issued 34 citations for being in a park after hours. Capt. Nathan Cihlar said the department issued 132 citations for trespassing or loitering in parking ramps in roughly the same time frame.

As for arrest records of residents with no permanent address, between Jan. 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024 police in Wausau made 272 custodial arrests and 55 charging referrals for new crimes, along with 115 arrests for probation violations. An additional 133 citations or summonses have also been issued for new crimes, city officials said.

Community Outreach Specialist Tracy Rieger’s monthly report on homelessness also shows some people in Marathon County jail are homeless.

The city has some daytime and nighttime shelters but critics say they are not adequate. Some shelters have strict rules of admission and deny shelter to those who do not comply with specific rules. In her May report, Rieger said 188 people lived in shelters, but said that number could be inflated since an individual might have lived in two different shelters in a single month.

Also in her report: About 20 percent of unhoused residents were living outdoors or in places “not meant for human habitation.” These are the people most likely to be punished in the wake of the Supreme Court decision, if the city chooses to act.

Homeless in U.S., Wisconsin on the rise

Nationwide, communities experienced a dramatic 12% increase in homelessness to its highest reported level as soaring rents and a decline in coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for more Americans, according to a federal report issued in December.

As of December, about 653,000 people in the U.S. were homeless, the most since the country began using the yearly point-in-time survey in 2007, the Associated Press reported. The total represents an increase of about 70,650 from a year earlier, the news agency said.

What’s more: people of color and the elderly are more likely to be homeless.

“People who identify as Black make up about 13% of the U.S. population but comprised 37% of all people experiencing homelessness,” the federal report states. “People who identify as Hispanic or Latino make up about 19% of the population but comprised about 33% of those experiencing homelessness. Also, more than a quarter of the adults experiencing homelessness were over age 54.”

Similarly, in Wisconsin, local agencies reported in April the state has 4,861 homeless individuals, an increase of 1.8 percent.

City officials will hold a Committee of the Whole meeting on July 15 to discuss Wausau’s approach to homelessness. The meeting is set for 6 p.m. at City Hall, 407 Grant St., Wausau.

Reading Time: 12 minutes

Click here to read highlights from the story

• At least 1 in 4 Wisconsin school districts received inquiries or requests to remove books from their shelves between Jan. 1, 2020, and Oct. 13, 2023.
• Wisconsin Watch was able to identify 667 instances in which a book was removed or restricted, which is 114 more than the list maintained by PEN America. That includes books that were temporarily removed pending a review, or moved from an elementary school library to a middle or high school library.
• “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, an autobiographical exploration of gender and sexuality that includes sexually explicit graphics, drew the most challenges and concerns. The vast majority of titles dealt with LGBTQ+ themes, gender, sexual development and race.
• Conservative groups, right-wing media and politicians made up a large portion of the requesters. Eleven “super requesters” who inquired about more than 15 books accounted for nearly three-quarters of the books that were challenged or questioned.

More than 100 Wisconsin school districts — 1 in 4 — fielded inquiries about books or formal requests to remove them since 2020, according to a Wisconsin Watch review of records obtained from all but two of the state’s 421 public school districts.

Many requests came from organized conservative groups and politicians rather than organic requests from parents concerned about required reading. In several cases, the school district didn’t even own the books someone wanted to remove.

Requesters involved with school board or state-level politics filed nearly half of the challenges and concerns. Book ban requests in one district sometimes rippled into nearby districts, fanned by viral social media posts and conservative media personalities. 

Records revealed a culture of hostility and division surrounding book-banning efforts and added stress for district administrators and library specialists who faced personal threats and saw their job responsibilities expand in unexpected ways. In some cases, school board members resigned following requests for book removals, citing resulting division and harm. Schools walked a tightrope in trying to appease upset parents while ensuring diversity and free speech standards for students.

A handful of “super requesters” seeking to remove more than 15 books made up nearly three-quarters of removal requests and concerns, often using information from right-wing media and lists compiled by national groups to formulate requests.

Requesters targeted books with LGBTQ+, sexually explicit and racial content, repeatedly alleging liberal bias and anti-Christian values. “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, an autobiographical exploration of gender and sexuality that includes sexually explicit graphics, drew the most challenges and concerns in the state. Ellen Hopkins, whose young adult novels featuring drugs and sexual themes frequently top national book ban lists, was the top author.

Wisconsin Watch’s findings are the most comprehensive look at attempts to ban books in the state since the pandemic, when remote learning gave some parents a closer look at what their students were being taught in public schools.

Experts say Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan — among the most competitive battlegrounds in national politics — are particular hotbeds of book challenges as partisan actors use such tactics to energize their base. Tasslyn Magnusson, a Wisconsin-based program consultant with Freedom to Read at PEN America, called Wisconsin “one of the most dangerous states for book bans.”

“They are tipping point states in the election, which means we’re going to get so much money poured in here,” Magnusson said. “The governor can veto some of this crisis legislation, but then what happens is these groups and these efforts then change policy at the local level.”

Nearly 200 instances of book removals and restrictions revealed 

The records from every corner of the state showed 165 unique requesters raised questions about or formally sought to remove 1,617 books across 106 Wisconsin school districts between Jan. 1, 2020, and Oct. 13, 2023. That includes 625 formal challenges.

There were 679 titles, including classics such as “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “The Bluest Eye” and “The Handmaid’s Tale”; bestsellers such as “A Game of Thrones,” “The Kite Runner” and “Fifty Shades of Grey”; and in one case someone inquired about 12 books including Hillary Clinton’s “It Takes a Village” and Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl.” But the most frequent requests were for books about sex and LGBTQ+ themes such as “I am Jazz,” “It’s Perfectly Normal,” “Queer: The Ultimate LGBTQ Guide for Teens,” “Sex Is A Funny Word” and “This Book is Gay.”

Districts removed books or restricted them to older grades or parental permission in 190 instances, involving 127 titles. Most removals took place in southeast Wisconsin districts, particularly Waukesha, Kenosha, West Allis, Oak Creek-Franklin and Elmbrook.

The books “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” a memoir by George Johnson of growing up a queer Black man, and “Lucky,” a memoir by Alice Sebold involving a traumatic sexual assault, were either restricted or removed six times each, followed by “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky and “Tricks” by Hopkins at five each.

After Wisconsin Watch filed its requests, Elkhorn and Menomonee Falls removed or restricted pending an investigation an additional 477 books. Adding those to the Wisconsin Watch total, Wisconsin schools removed or restricted at least 667 books. That’s 114 more than the list PEN America maintains.

PEN America, the leading institution tracking book challenges, counts any content-based action taken against a book that leads to removals or restrictions, for any period of time, overriding the original choices of school boards, administrators and teachers. The count includes some situations in which schools later returned restricted books to shelves.

PEN America requires publicly available data to confirm book bans, such as school board minutes and local news reporting. Magnusson said far more efforts likely go untracked in rural Wisconsin, where many local newspapers no longer routinely report on school board actions.

Several districts initially charged a fee for Wisconsin Watch’s records request, but later agreed to provide the records without a charge. Two — the Superior and Oshkosh Area districts — refused to waive the charge.

Conservative groups and ‘super requesters’ lead the list 

Members of organized conservative groups facilitated removal requests in at least 14 districts, and many more districts received challenges from requesters who used lists of books compiled by national political groups. The largest groups involved were Moms for Liberty, No Left Turn in Education, Mass Resistance and Parents’ Rights in Education.

In many cases, independent citizen requesters relied on lists compiled by larger national groups like booklooks.org and ratedbooks.org.

Eleven “super requesters” — those who raised concerns about or challenged 15 or more titles at a time — accounted for 73% of the targeted books. They often referred to lists of books originating in other districts or from online forums. Some had no children in the district. In nearly 60 cases, the school district didn’t own the book the requester sought to remove.

In addition to lists on national websites, super requesters used lists compiled by parents in other states. Two parents who collectively lodged a concern about 86 books in the Watertown Unified School District used IowaMamaBears.com and an anonymous list they called Parents List of Sexually Explicit Content.

The largest request from the period Wisconsin Watch requested records came from Lisa Anne Krueger in the Manitowoc School District, who on Oct. 10, 2023, inquired about 310 “aberrant obscene inappropriate pro-abortion and anti-Christian” books from a list, but did not follow through with a formal request. Krueger in February unsuccessfully ran for election to the Manitowoc School Board. She was the only requester in the district.

After Wisconsin Watch made its open records request in October, Melissa Bollinger in the Elkhorn Area School District challenged 444 books on Nov. 30, 2023, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

A district policy prompted the temporary removal of the books, and following review, administrators placed or maintained restrictions on 135 books. Prior to her challenge, the district had only received two removal requests, both resulting in removals.

Requesters often involved in politics

At least 849 inquiries and formal challenges to books — more than half compiled by Wisconsin Watch — came from a school board member or candidate, another local politician, or someone otherwise heavily involved in local conservative activism.

The most prominent such lawmaker was Sen. Jesse James, R-Altoona, who in March 2022 asked 12 districts if they possessed a list of 51 books, according to his staff. The list was compiled by an Eau Claire parent who previously spoke out against COVID-19 masking efforts and equity training materials. The books addressed gender, sexual and racial identity, and some contained sexually explicit or graphic content. Only eight of the districts provided records showing James’ requests, so only those 408 were included in the Wisconsin Watch count.

“Nothing more came out of the request besides simple information gathering,” a James spokeswoman said. “We did NOT follow up with the schools after the fact about removing the books, and we did NOT pursue any legislation or oversight after the request was fulfilled. … James really just wanted to know what age groups the books were available for, if they were available at all.”

In the Mequon-Thiensville district, supporters of an unsuccessful fall 2021 effort to recall school board members requested the removal of “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie from libraries on Sept. 30, 2021, saying it included “pornography” and “racist” content. Requesters Curt and Torri Woda and Dennis Becker, along with Moms for Liberty’s Scarlett Johnson and Amber Schroeder, who helped support the request, also took part in the recall movement based on concerns over pandemic restrictions and what members called critical race theory. 

The request became part of the recall conversation after incumbent candidate Akram Kahn told a Fox News reporter that “the goal post has been moving since last August, it's been masks, open the schools, and now we are talking about banning books in the district.” His comment prompted Curt Woda to accuse board members of citing the complaint for political gain and to “discredit the Restore MTSD movement.”

“To characterize the concern from my family about this specific book as being a part of the recall movement is completely false, but now you have made it such,” Woda wrote in an Oct. 25 email to Kahn and other board members.

Conservative media fuel book ban fever

Conservative media played a role in requests for removal in at least 12 districts.

A July 20, 2023, Libs of TikTok post received more than 875,000 views after it claimed the Kimberly Area School District offered “This Book is Gay” to students. Kimberly Superintendent Bob Mayfield told the Post Crescent he found out about the social media post after state Rep. Ron Tusler, R-Harrison, sought an explanation. In addition to three requests sent to the district and two media inquiries, he received hundreds of messages on Twitter in the following days, mostly from outside the community, he told the Post Crescent.

But the district owned no physical copies of the book. A district official said the Wisconsin School District Library Consortium, composed of 250 school districts, offered an online version of the book, but no Kimberly student had ever checked it out. All e-books in grades 7-12 are protected by age restrictions, though a synopsis of all e-book titles is available if searched.

A similar, more aggressive scenario played out in the Kenosha School District.

After a Sept. 3, 2023, Libs of TikTok article on the district described concerns about several books, social media spurred waves of removal requests throughout nearby districts.

Kevin Mathewson of the far-right blog Kenosha County Eye sent emails on Sept. 11, 2023, to two district administrators, noting that book removal requests put Kenosha in national headlines. He asked whether the district planned to remove four titles critics had flagged. 

Bristol School District #1 Administrator Jack Musha responded that the district had “a few of the titles” in its library and has a “very specific policy in regards to book reviews.” In his response, Mathewson asked: “Do you think liberals like you have a mental disorder or really believe in the ideals of the democratic party?” He then asked Musha to provide a photo of himself, adding, “When I write about you liking kids to watch porn, people will want a face to go with your pedophile-like behavior.”

Michelle Garven, Trevor-Wilmot Consolidated Grade School District administrator, told Mathewson none of the books were available to check out at district libraries, but families could search for titles through the Wisconsin School District Library Consortium.

Mathewson vowed to write “a story about not only how you allow pornography in your district, but that you don't want the public to know about it.” He later wrote he was “very eager to publish a story about your sexual deviance” and added, “Don't make me sue you and embarrass you further because when I write my article people are going to be wondering why you want kids to be exposed to pornography.”

His emails and reporting prompted Garven to send a cease and desist letter to Mathewson.

Books with LGBTQ+, sexually explicit content targeted

Most books targeted for removal in Wisconsin explored themes related to identity or coming of age, with a particular focus on LGBTQ+ and racial storylines. Many also dealt with abuse, mental health or grief, Wisconsin Watch found. Data from PEN America show that restriction efforts nationally overwhelmingly targeted books about people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.

“Gender Queer,” the state’s most targeted book according to the Wisconsin Watch analysis, also topped the American Library Association’s national list of challenged books in 2023 and was fifth on PEN’s list of challenges during the 2022-23 school year.

The book drew at least 41 formal challenges and six additional instances in which people expressed concerns. The Baraboo School District in early October 2023 fielded 32 challenges to the book. District officials said they were not sure what prompted the brief surge of restriction requests.

Requesters claimed the book aimed to “indoctrinate,” “corrupt,” “pervert” and “deceive” children, “promote pedophilia and sexuality,” “tell children they can be queer” and teach kids “to become pedophiles” and “sex offenders.” One requester cited Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 as justification for the book’s removal, adding that “the Bible calls this lifestyle sinful.” Another said, “In God’s eyes this is so wrong.” Requesters said the district should burn the book. One parent called for jailing whoever put the book in the library.

Baraboo district officials, however, said they couldn’t find the book in their inventory. Two other districts — Kenosha and the Sheboygan Area — removed the book.

Magnusson said critics of “Gender Queer” tend to focus on short excerpts and discuss them out of context. 

The novel’s most explicit section, frequently cited in requests, shows two characters using a sex toy to perform oral sex. The scene is “about consent and choosing not to have sex,” Magnusson noted.

“When we evaluate books just by what seems the most outrageous, we're missing that point,” Magnusson said. “The story is about saying no and saying, ‘I don't want to do that, that is not for me,’ and it's actually a very valuable, caring story about learning that you can say those things in your life.”

Opponents of “Gender Queer” and other books targeted in Wisconsin expressed concerns that sexually explicit scenes, regardless of how little of a storyline they make up, could expose their children to sensitive topics before they’re ready. Many book restriction advocates said they would prefer that parents instead discuss such issues with children.

Two sets of parents in the Silver Lake J1 School District complained after a fourth-grade teacher added the book “Love Makes a Family” by Sophie Beer to her Amazon wishlist.

“The question almost inevitably will come up in the classroom of why two daddies are in the bed and both my husband and I absolutely do not feel like it is the place of the teacher to be explaining this to our child,” one parent wrote, referring to an illustration of a same-sex couple. She added that she feels like “political views, religion, and how we raise our own families need to stay out of schools.”

Supporters of the targeted books applaud their affirming storylines that help teenagers navigate their identity. Jennifer Handrick, a Chippewa Falls art educator and Cadott School District parent, wrote in support of keeping four challenged LGBTQ+ books in the school district.

“I understand that many of these books are for young children, and that makes people uncomfortable, but creating exposure to LBGTQ+ journeys at the ages where kids start to feel ‘different’ not only creates a level of normalcy being around members of the LBGTQ+ community, it tells those who feel ‘different’ that there is nothing wrong with them,” Handrick wrote. “Most importantly, the books might give them the courage to talk to a trusted adult and begin to build the critical support system they need.”

Books exploring race also targeted 

Wisconsin is home to some of the nation’s starkest disparities between white and Black residents in education, public health, housing, criminal justice and income. But book challengers also objected to a range of books that explore issues surrounding race. Those include "The Bluest Eye" and "Beloved" by Toni Morrison and “Stamped (for Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You,” an adaptation of Ibram X. Kendi’s history of racism.

The Wautoma Area School District removed student access to “An American Story” by Kwame Alexander in October of 2023 following a challenge that called the book “very racially charged and frightening for elementary school kids” and said it “depicts Americans as being monsters to Africans.” In the decision letter, District Administrator Jewel Mucklin wrote that “not all students have the emotional or intellectual awareness to process and understand some of the images in the book or the content of the story.”

The novel tells the story of American slavery through the journey of a child navigating the complexities of identity amid racial tension in contemporary America.

The Muskego-Norway School Board in July 2022 blocked the recommendation “When the Emperor Was Divine" by Julie Otsuka, a novel on the internment of Japanese Americans, from being taught in a 10th-grade accelerated English class. The decision prompted criticism from the Japanese American Citizens League, the Asian American and Pacific Islanders Coalition of Wisconsin and Otsuka herself, as well as a petition calling for the book’s approval, which was signed by 362 people, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Others started a community book club and made the novel its first read.​​

Emotional toll beyond count

An increasing part of library specialists' and district administrators’ jobs has become dealing with requests. Records showed hundreds of internal emails related to scheduling reconsideration meetings and addressing parent concerns. Administrators oversee books across numerous buildings and are struggling with the balancing act of appeasing parent concerns while maintaining appropriate grade interest levels for thousands of other students. 

Districts’ criteria took into account a book’s alignment with curriculum and state standards, the readability and appeal of texts to diverse students, the grade-level appropriateness, the significance and reputation of a book’s author, popular appeal and reviews from sites such as Scholastic and Common Sense Media.

“I think there's no librarian in America right now that isn't having some amount of emotional distress over what's going on,” said EveryLibrary Associate Director Peter Bromberg, who has tracked bills around the country targeting librarians. 

Bromberg said more teachers and librarians are leaving the profession early as a result. 

“There's an emotional toll to this that doesn't show up on a … spreadsheet of how many books are being banned,” Bromberg said.

Over 100 Wisconsin school districts fielded inquiries, challenges to books is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

A youth development manager focused on improving schools faces a career telecommunications professional prioritizing broadband expansion in the Madison-area 47th Assembly District Democratic primary on Aug. 13.

The contest between Joe Maldonado, a current Fitchburg alderman elected in 2020, and Randy Udell, a former alderman who served from 2020 to 2024, will determine who will represent the district come January 2025. No Republicans registered to run in the overwhelmingly Democratic district, which encompasses Fitchburg, Stoughton and part of McFarland in Dane County.

It’s one of 13 Assembly districts statewide without a Republican candidate in the fall election, six of which are in increasingly Democratic Dane County. The others are in Milwaukee, Beloit and Racine.

While they were colleagues on the city council, Maldonado and Udell are running two distinct campaigns.

Maldonado is billing himself as the candidate who has firsthand knowledge of the challenges facing the state’s public schools and Wisconsin students. 

Maldonado’s experience in youth work for almost 20 years and role as a member of the Verona Area School District Supertintendents’ Parent Advisory Committee grounds his campaign in educational needs, he said. He also said one of his top priorities as a policymaker is keeping residents “well informed.”

“Folks really want to ensure that kids have what they need,” he told Wisconsin Watch, expressing concerns about student mental health. He also said the state should legalize cannabis to use its revenue to financially support school districts.

Udell is billing himself as a policymaker with real world experience working on what he said is one of the district’s biggest needs: broadband expansion.

“Even in the rural areas that have farmers, they run a business, it’s a big business and they all need (the) internet,” Udell, who also serves on the Dane County Board and worked as an engineer with AT&T for almost 30 years, told Wisconsin Watch. “And I hear this over and over again, they want broadband.”

Broadband in Stoughton comes down to affordability, Stoughton Mayor Tom Swadley said. While many people have access, they often grapple over choosing health care or day care over broadband because of the high cost. 

“When you get out in the rural (areas), there are some real challenges, and many of the students that go to our school district live in the rural (areas), and for them to be able to access broadband is really important for our education system and for business owners as well,” he said. 

Swadley said in an interview the state funding formula is not a “sustainable” model for school districts to be able to recruit and retain talent, he said. Swadley is favoring Udell in the race, but said “both would be great candidates.”

“Certainly the education has been underfunded. Under Gov. Evers, there’s been some significant improvements, but we’re still not where we need to be,” Swadley said. “The public school system has really been under attack, and I think both the candidates will work to try to address that issue.”

Udell said his experience as chair of Fitchburg’s finance committee sets him apart from Maldonado, who serves on the bicycle and personnel committees. He also has managed multimillion-dollar budgets since being elected treasurer of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin in 2015. 

“When it comes to finance, budgeting is crucial. And I’m able to do that,” he said.

But as colleagues for four years Maldonado said he disagreed with some of Udell’s spending preferences.

“When our city was considering our proposed police facility in Fitchburg, it came $15 million over budget,” Maldonado said. “I not only advocated for better informing our residents about the process through mailers and through community engagement events or informational sessions, I also voted against the budget amendment because it had not been fleshed out.” 

Ultimately, the race could be determined by who connects better with communities in the district, Swadley said.

“We’ve always had representation that was visible and active in our community, whether it was the Assembly or the Senate,” the mayor said. “To me, that’s really the most important thing is to have representatives that are engaged and responsive.”

In Democratic primary, candidates emphasize broadband, education is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Many Republicans attacked the justice system after a jury convicted Donald Trump in his hush-money trial. But Van Orden’s comments, one expert said, were “unhinged.”

By Peter Cameron, THE BADGER PROJECT

U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden is not hesitant to use strong or insulting language on social media.

But even for him, his response to the 34 felony convictions of former President Donald Trump on Thursday was noteworthy.

In a string of nonsensical posts on X (formerly Twitter), the Republican and former Navy SEAL from western Wisconsin compared the judge presiding over Trump’s hush-money fraud trial to an obscure Nazi judge, called him “Communist Scum,” posted a U.S. flag adorned with the Soviet hammer and sickle, and equated President Joe Biden to murderous dictators like Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and Adolf Hitler.

He also used the words “coward” and “jackass” to describe prominent Republicans who urged conservative voters to move on from Trump.

Many Republicans attacked the criminal justice system after Trump was convicted on May 30 of falsifying business records to obscure a sexual liaison with a porn star, but Van Orden’s reactions “seem all the more unhinged,” considering Trump is unlikely to face jail time for the convictions, said Joseph Heim, a UW-La Crosse political science professor emeritus.

Many experts think the former president — the first in history to be convicted of a felony — will instead receive probation. Trump, 77,  has no previous criminal record.

Van Orden’s campaign did not respond to a message seeking comment.

A first-term congressman likely to face a tough reelection in his swing district, albeit one Trump won twice, Van Orden has been a fierce defender of the former president.

He attended Trump’s rally in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, that led to the assault on the U.S. Capitol, but said he departed when the protest became a mob.

In defending Trump in the days after the conviction, Van Orden repeatedly insulted Judge Juan Merchan on X. Merchan has overseen several related cases, including the Trump Organization’s tax fraud trial, after which he sentenced the organization’s CFO Allen Weisselberg to prison for his role in the scheme. Merchan also is presiding over the criminal fraud case against prominent Trump ally Steve Bannon. That trial is set to start in September.

Van Orden never mentioned in his social media comments the 12-person jury, agreed to by Trump’s lawyers, that found the former president guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged plan to cover up a hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.

“Van Orden doesn’t know much about judges,” said Ed Miller, a UW-Stevens Point political science professor emeritus.

Miller noted that Merchan affirmed many of the defense attorneys’ requests to the court and that Trump’s lawyers agreed to the judge’s instructions to the jury before their deliberations, all of which aligned with New York law and procedures.

“Van Orden is following Republicans and he is also doing this to obtain Republican campaign funds,” Miller said of the congressman’s social media posts. “If he didn’t, he would be cut off.”

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER AND NEVER MISS A STORY

Email Address

Submit

But Heim indicated that following the GOP’s prevailing sentiment about the jury verdict might be problematic for Van Orden in the general election.

“Running in a western Wisconsin swing district would suggest a more controlled response would be better for re-election purposes,” Heim said.

National Democratic organizations, viewing the district as deeply Republican in 2022, stayed away from substantial support for campaigns against Van Orden, then were surprised when Democrat and state Sen. Brad Pfaff nearly beat him that year.

After that strong showing, national Democratic groups this year are more inclined to spend huge sums to dislodge Van Orden in November.

In short, he will likely need a lot of cash to win.

The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.

---

LIKE OUR WORK? SUPPORT US SO WE CAN DO MORE: CLICK HERE TO DONATE

The post Western Wisconsin congressman compares judge in Trump case to Nazi, calls him “Communist Scum” after jury convicts on all counts appeared first on The Badger Project.

---

Western Wisconsin congressman compares judge in Trump case to Nazi, calls him “Communist Scum” after jury convicts on all counts was first posted on June 3, 2024 at 6:18 pm.

Along with co-plaintiff the Invisible Insitute, The Badger Project is seeking the records to continue its work on wandering officers.

By Peter Cameron, THE BADGER PROJECT

The Badger Project filed a lawsuit against the Wisconsin Department of Justice Thursday after it again refused to release a list of all certified law enforcement officers in the state.

The suit was filed jointly with the Invisible Institute, a nonprofit public accountability journalism organization based in Chicago.

The state DOJ had already rejected a similar open records request from the Invisible Insitute earlier in 2023. In November, along with The Badger Project, it again requested the records. Five months later, the state DOJ responded with a letter denying the request for the full list of officers and their working histories.

More than 30 states — including Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa — have released the full list of their officers to a nationwide reporting project, which includes the Invisible Institute and The Badger Project.

The lawsuit is being funded by The National Freedom of Information Coalition, through a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and from the Society of Professional Journalists, through a grant from its Legal Defense Fund.

In his denial letter, state DOJ attorney Paul Ferguson argued that releasing the full list could “endanger” undercover officers. The state DOJ is not able to identify those officers and redact them, he wrote.

Ferguson also wrote that even for non-undercover officers, releasing their identities and employers “would have an adverse effect on the safety and privacy interests of the officers and their families.”

The Wisconsin Transparency Project, a law firm dedicated to strict enforcement of the state’s Open Records laws, and the University of Illinois First Amendment Clinic filed the suit on behalf of the plaintiffs.

“The state of Wisconsin does not and should not have secret police, and it should not require a lawsuit to establish that.”

“Courts have ruled time and time again that speculative fears of harm do not justify withholding government records from the public,” Tom Kamenick, president of the Wisconsin Transparency Project and the lead attorney in this case, said in a statement.

“Government officials must do more than merely claim that, hypothetically, something bad might happen if the records are released,” he continued. “Rather, they must show that harm is likely to occur and sufficiently serious to overcome the presumption of access to government records.”

Kamenick has represented The Badger Project in other public records lawsuits.

In responding to the records request, the state DOJ did release its list of “flagged officers,” those who lost their jobs due to termination, resignation in lieu of termination, or resignation prior to completion of an internal investigation.

But that list only consists of law enforcement officers from within the state, which The Badger Project has used to report on wandering officers. That list does not include those who were fired or forced out from law enforcement jobs out of state and then came to Wisconsin.

Officers from at least one neighboring state have been moving to jobs in Wisconsin. After Illinois passed some law enforcement reform measures in 2021, some police started transferring to agencies in “more conservative states,” including Wisconsin, Kenny Winslow, executive director of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, told the Washington Post last year.

The Invisible Institute and The Badger Project are asking the court to force the release of the full list of law enforcement officers in the state as well as their work histories. When judges rule that public agencies have illegally refused to release records, that agency is forced to pay the requester’s legal fees, according to state law.

“The state of Wisconsin does not and should not have secret police,” Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, wrote in an email. “And it should not require a lawsuit to establish that.”

DISCLOSURE NOTE: As president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, Bill Lueders supported the plaintiffs’ grant application to the national NFOIC. The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council also contributed financially to the lawsuit.

Sam Stecklow of the Invisible Institute contributed to this story.

The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.

---

LIKE OUR WORK? SUPPORT US SO WE CAN DO MORE: CLICK HERE TO DONATE

The post ‘Wisconsin does not, and should not, have secret police’ – The Badger Project sues state DOJ for full list of law enforcement officers appeared first on The Badger Project.

---

‘Wisconsin does not, and should not, have secret police’ – The Badger Project sues state DOJ for full list of law enforcement officers was first posted on May 24, 2024 at 6:13 am.