Readsboro residents voted against closing their town’s only school on Wednesday in a 166–91 vote, according to official election results.

The election, conducted by Australian ballot, was scheduled after nearly 40 residents of the Bennington County town’s 600 registered voters signed a petition calling for the school’s closure. The number of people who signed the petition exceeded the 5% minimum of 30.85 voters needed for the town to call a special election.

In the petition, which was sent to the school board on April 4, people expressed doubts about the quality of education at Readsboro Central School, which has 39 students enrolled in pre-K through sixth grade. 

Petitioners also raised concerns about staffing, emphasizing one instance in which two teachers were responsible for teaching three grade levels in one classroom. Since then, another classroom teacher was hired, according to Principal Robyn Oyer, returning the school to its standard ratio of two grades per classroom.

In April, Larry Hopkins, a former Readsboro school board member who was among those who drafted and signed the petition, told VTDigger that he did not think the town would vote to close the school but felt the petition was a necessary means of making “people aware of what’s going on” at Readsboro. 

Ahead of the vote, Readsboro administrators, school board members and many other town residents expressed a desire to keep the school open.

Last month, residents wrote a letter to the editor at VTDigger arguing that closing Readsboro and sending local kids to other schools would have a negative impact on the young students’ senses of stability. 

“The feedback we have received from the schools (that Readsboro graduates attend) points to the fact that we are properly preparing students socially, emotionally and academically to move forward and do well in other area schools,” Oyer wrote in an email to VTDigger in April. Oyer said many Readsboro graduates have made the honor roll at their current schools.

Following the vote that determined that the school would remain open, Readsboro residents discussed the election results on their town’s public Facebook page. 

“Great turnout!” one resident wrote. “Hopefully this community can continue to support each other in a positive way.”

Tiffany Tan contributed reporting.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Readsboro voters choose to keep the town’s school open.

West Texas voters rejected three conservative Christian candidates who sought to infuse religious values into local politics. The campaign support the candidates received from local churches has prompted calls for state and federal probes.

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Around noon on an overcast April Election Day, dozens of canvassers returned to a second-floor conference room of the Greater Spring Hill Missionary Baptist Church on Milwaukee’s North Side.

They were dressed for the weather: Layers, winter hats and a few with ponchos. Within an hour, they would be back out in neighborhoods and knocking on doors. Walking a careful line between helpful resources and yet another person asking them to vote for the sixth time in less than 16 months.

The gathering of Black Leaders Organizing Communities represents a bulwark against an alarming trend in Wisconsin electoral politics: The state has transformed from one of the easiest places to cast a ballot 30 years ago to one of the most difficult. That trend is particularly pronounced among Black and Latino voters, according to recent research.

If BLOC’s canvassers were tired of talking about elections, executive director Angela Lang told them to imagine the fatigue voters felt.

“We had four elections just in 2022. Four,” she said. “The last one was in November. We slept for like a day, and we’re back at it. If we were doing all of this, imagine being a voter that’s not involved and engaged.”

There’s evidence the increased difficulty voters face compounds the election fatigue.

“If we believe in this experiment of democracy, one of the basic tenets of it … in our current iteration is that everyone who is a citizen at this point has the right to engage with the process,” said Andrea Benjamin, an African American studies professor at the University of Oklahoma who has researched and written about race and politics.

“And we shouldn’t be doing anything that makes that right harder to exercise.”

How it’s gotten more difficult to vote in Wisconsin 

For nearly 20 years, Wisconsin was a model for making the voting process easy, with the state’s same-day registration a major factor, according to the Cost of Voting Index. In 1996, Wisconsin ranked fourth among the 50 states.

In 2022, Wisconsin was among the most difficult places to register and vote, ranking 47th.

The Index, started by researchers at Northern Illinois University, ranks each state using 33 different variables, with registration deadlines carrying the most weight. As other states began to adopt measures already present in Wisconsin, such as same-day voter registration, Wisconsin’s ranking dipped slightly, but remained in the top 10.

Then Republicans took control of the Legislature and governor’s office after the 2010 election and implemented several measures that made voting more difficult. They extended residency requirements, shortened the time frame for early voting, increased residency requirements from 10 to 28 days and enacted the state’s voter ID law, which after several court challenges took effect in 2016.

“As soon as Wisconsin adopted that, it really caused the state to drop in accessibility,” said Michael Pomante, a Jacksonville University political science professor and co-author of the Index. He added that the drop suggested Wisconsin voters faced a “significantly” different landscape compared to other states.

More recently the state Supreme Court disallowed ballot drop boxes — even as some states expanded use — pushing Wisconsin even further down the list.

“It needs to be said or at least noted to Wisconsinites that their voting has become significantly more difficult for their voters over the years compared to other states,” Pomante said. “I mean, they are one of the states that has seen the most dramatic shift in the difficulty of voting over the last two decades.”

Republicans enacted the voter ID law and other restrictions in the name of election security. Then-Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, described the voter ID law specifically as making it “easier to vote and harder to cheat.”

There’s no evidence that the laws have significantly affected election fraud. 

From 2012 through 2022, there were 48 general, primary and special elections in Wisconsin. Prosecutors brought only 192 election fraud cases, or 0.0006% of all votes cast, Wisconsin Watch previously reported. And only 40 cases dealt with fraudulent actions like double voting or voting in the name of a dead person. The data didn’t show that the new laws had reduced the number of cases, the majority of which related to voting, often by mistake, by those on probation for a felony conviction.

And while it’s possible the laws make it harder to cheat in ways that elude prosecution, they also make it harder for many to vote.

Complicating matters over the past decade: changes to law or procedure coming right before an election, usually as the result of a lawsuit. That’s one of the biggest challenges for election administration, said Claire Woodall-Vogg, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission.

Those late changes, along with lack of voter education funding makes matters more difficult, she said, adding that groups like BLOC can help fill those gaps. 

Woodall-Vogg said she’s “cautiously optimistic” that things could improve after last month’s Supreme Court win by Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz, which ended 15 years of conservative control of the state’s high court.

“But I will also say it’s cautious,” she added, “because the length of time it takes to get a lawsuit there would again come right in the middle of a presidential election year.”

Additional barriers for Black and Hispanic voters

Barriers to voting disproportionately affect certain racial groups, according to research from UW-Madison journalism and mass communications professor Michael Wagner.

Black voters spent about 9 minutes getting to the polls during the 2018 midterm election, compared with about 6.5 minutes for non-Black voters, the research found. Researchers also found that Hispanic voters spent about 11 minutes in line, more than twice the wait for non-Hispanic voters.

Additionally, they found that Black and Hispanic voters were less likely to use early voting measures, which could ease those time burdens.

In researching the 2022 midterm election, Wagner’s team found Black voters spent 10.8 minutes getting to the polls and 15.6 minutes waiting in line. For white voters, those times were 6.8 minutes and 7.7 minutes.

“It’s really a tale of two states. On the one hand, Wisconsin has incredibly high voter turnout. We’re always in the top three,” Wagner said, adding that same-day registration and tradition of civic engagement help. “But things are clearly getting worse for Black, Hispanic and lower income voters.”

Closed polling locations and continued underfunding of elections could help explain growing times from 2018 to 2022, he said. 

The researchers who maintain the Cost of Voting Index have linked increased difficulty and a drop in voter participation, but impact varies between groups.

“It actually disenfranchises the undereducated and the lower socioeconomic populations more,” Pomante said. “But if we were to strip those things out and were just looking at racial features, when states have made voting more difficult, it actually spurs Black voters to come to the polls more.”

One reason for that might be the role of community organizers, Pomante said.

Benjamin, the University of Oklahoma researcher, agreed.

“I think that these local organizations … they're priceless,” she said. “I mean, it's just worth everything because they have the community's trust. They have a reputation. The community wants to earn those people's trust and show that they are also good stewards.”

Wisconsin’s increasingly divisive and contentious politics may also help turnout, Wagner said. 

“More people see it as valuable to have their voice heard on Election Day,” he said. “Even if it’s harder, many people still show up.”

Current proposals to address voting issues

Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, proposed a range of voting-related changes in his most recent budget proposal that would elevate the state’s Cost of Voting Index ranking.

Pomante said automatic voter registration has propelled many states toward top rankings. Evers has proposed that the Department of Transportation provide identifying information to the Wisconsin Elections Commission so it can automatically register eligible voters. The proposal also allows people to opt out.

The governor also proposed removing restrictions on how early a voter can return their absentee ballot and lowering the residency requirement from 28 days to 10 days. Evers’ budget also includes changes to the type of ID technical college or university students can use and would restore previous requirements that high schools be used for voter registration, something Republicans ended in 2011.

The budget proposal also includes additional funding for local election officials and would allow election workers to start processing absentee ballots before Election Day, a measure that would speed up ballot counting. Republicans plan to remove all those and hundreds of other measures from the budget bill during the first votes in the process Tuesday.

Last year, Evers vetoed a number of election-related bills passed by the Republican Legislature. They would have prevented a voter’s friend or family member from returning their absentee ballot, required clerks to verify voters are U.S. citizens, and given the Legislature control over guidance to clerks from the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

State Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville, said that if there are issues with the time it takes voters to cast ballots, those are “the fault of local municipalities failing to address the needs of their communities.”

“This trend of higher participation holds up across nationwide elections since passing Voter ID,” he said. “Wisconsin voters routinely rebut the premise of voter disenfranchisement through their actions.”

How BLOC and community organizers find solutions 

BLOC doesn’t plan to put politics on the shelf until the 2024 spring primary. Politics and voter education is baked into everything it does, Lang said.

“If we’re having conversations in the field about what does it look like for the Black community to thrive, nine times out of 10, those responses have a political connection, whether it’s the city budget that’s going to come out this fall or it’s the state budget,” she said weeks after the election. 

“And so there’s so many different ways that civics plays a role indirectly that people may not necessarily see, but every single aspect of our lives has been politicized.”

BLOC reaches voters by building trust. It intentionally set up its headquarters in the 53206 ZIP code, among the most-incarcerated places in the state. BLOC’s members grew up in the community and share the same experiences as the people whose doors they knock on.

They see voters walk into their polling place carrying BLOC literature handed out or placed in doors. 

But it wasn’t always like this, Lang said, recalling the group’s first election in November 2017 when residents viewed them like just another group dropping in. They could see through the “transactional electoral organizing” done time and time again by groups parachuting in for the runup to an election.

Attitudes toward the group changed once people saw that they didn’t leave.

“The team (here at BLOC) came up with this idea last year to do monthly neighborhood cleanups as a way to engage residents around other issues and do something that's beautifying the community,” Lang said. “I think by just having a constant presence allows us to be those trusted messengers.”

Three weeks after the April 4 election, BLOC’s second-floor conference room was once again filled with dozens of people, some of whom endured the rain to canvas on Election Day. But they weren’t there to talk about the next election or even voter registration.

The meeting was about plans for community wellness programs.

It may be the electoral offseason, but BLOC has plenty of work to do

The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

Voting has gotten harder in Wisconsin. Organizers have found ways to help 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.

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For years, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has been dogged by allegations that his family businesses haven’t paid their debts, including fines for environmental violations at their coal plants. One bank is even seeking to garnish his salary as governor to cover an unpaid personal guarantee of a business loan, court documents show.

But these disputes are likely to resurface in what will be one of the most hotly contested races for control of the U.S. Senate in 2024. Last week, Justice, who is immensely popular in the state, announced that he will challenge U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat who is often the swing vote on key legislation.

A review by ProPublica in 2020 found that, over three decades, Justice’s constellation of mining, farming and hospitality companies were involved in over 600 lawsuits in more than two dozen states. Many were filed by workers, vendors, business partners and government agencies, alleging they weren’t paid. Often, similar cases were filed in multiple jurisdictions, as lawyers for plaintiffs tried to chase down a Justice company’s assets to settle debts.

By late 2020, the total in judgments and settlements for Justice family businesses had reached $140 million, ProPublica and Mountain State Spotlight found.

Since then, his family business empire has faced more turmoil. Lenders are trying to hold him personally responsible for hundreds of millions in debt. Courts are ordering payment of long-standing environmental penalties.

Neither representatives for Justice nor the family’s businesses responded to a request for comment. In the past, Justice has said that he and his family companies always pay what they owe. The governor has said that his businesses don’t create any conflicts of interest and that he didn’t run for office to get anything for himself.

Justice inherited a coal fortune from his father and expanded it to an empire of agricultural companies and resort hotels, including The Greenbrier, a posh, historic resort located in a valley where southern West Virginia’s mountains meet western Virginia’s rolling hills.

Last week, Justice used The Greenbrier as the backdrop for his announcement that he would seek the Republican nomination, facing U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney in the GOP primary. (Manchin has not announced a reelection bid yet, but in response to questions about Justice he said, “Make no mistake, I will win any race I enter.”)

As we documented, the resort has been at the heart of various conflicts of interest, as major trade associations that lobby state government for their industries have held meetings and conferences there.

And just two days before Justice’s Senate announcement, another of his resorts, Glade Springs, was the subject of state Supreme Court arguments in a case in which the resort homeowners’ association is seeking $6.6 million in property upkeep fees from one of Justice’s companies, which owns lots at the resort.

When he became governor in 2017, Justice said he was turning control of his family businesses over to his adult children. But our investigation found that, while governor, he continued to steer the empire.

In his political campaigns, Justice frequently touted his experience as a businessman and said that his long career in coal and other industries made him suited for the role of West Virginia’s chief executive.

Justice’s coal operations have also been repeatedly pressed to settle allegations of significant pollution problems in deals with regulators, yet the environmental violations have continued. Last month, a federal appeals court ruled that Justice companies must pay $2.5 million in environmental fines. Lawyers for the companies had argued the fines were the result of a misreading of an earlier settlement.

In December, an industrial plant owned by Justice’s family agreed to pay nearly $1 million in fines after releasing excessive air pollution into Black neighborhoods in Birmingham, Alabama. An attorney who works with the Justice family said the consent order would “provide the certainty that the company needs to complete its evaluation of the plant’s future.”

For years, Justice had been considered West Virginia’s richest man and listed by Forbes as a billionaire. But in 2021, Forbes removed that listing. The magazine cited a dispute over $850 million in debt to the now-defunct firm Greensill Capital.

The Justice companies settled that dispute with a payment plan. But last week a longtime banking partner of Justice’s, Carter Bank & Trust, filed documents seeking to collect on a separate $300 million debt. Justice’s son, Jay Justice, said in a statement that the bank had refused a reasonable repayment plan.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice runs for Senate amid stacks of unpaid bills appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

La Corte Suprema de Carolina del Norte, falló hoy a favor de los líderes republicanos de la Asamblea General en tres casos constitucionales del derecho al voto.

La entrada ¿Qué significa la revocación de la Corte Suprema de Carolina del Norte sobre los casos de derecho al voto? se publicó primero en Enlace Latino NC.

Koch groups, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, hospitals are some of the biggest lobbiers in the state.

By Peter Cameron, THE BADGER PROJECT

The Milwaukee Brewers quintupled their lobbying spending in the past decade, according to filings with the state.

The ballclub is just one of many organizations large and small that lobby in the state’s capital. Lobbying is the attempt to influence legislative or administrative action, according to the state.

Lobbyists must be registered with the state, and they must also report their hours and dollars spent lobbying to the state. Business associations, like the powerful Wisconsin Manufacturing & Commerce, and others spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year trying to shape, promote and block legislation. But by law, lobbyists or organizations who are lobbying are not allowed to give candidates or state officials anything of monetary value, like meals, transportation or lodging, unless that gift is also available to the public. Lobbyists or organizations who lobby can make a financial campaign donation to a candidate for office, but only between the start of a campaign and the election. The average person can make a campaign donation to a politician at any time.

Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, and the Republican-controlled Wisconsin State Legislature are currently in the process of crafting the state’s 2-year budget, which could top out at more than $100 billion, so interest groups and their lobbyists have shifted into high gear in a year the state has a record $7 billion surplus at its disposal.

Brewers: $693k, Bucks: 0

After reporting spending nothing on lobbying in the 2013-2014 session, the Brewers spent a total of $120,000 in the two sessions between 2015 and 2018, to $222,000 in the 2019-20 session and then $435,000 in the 2021-2022 session.

The Brewers are seeking hundreds of millions in state funding to renovate their stadium, now called American Family Field. The stadium is owned and operated by a local government unit called the Southeast Professional Baseball Park District, which represents Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Washington and Waukesha counties.

The ballclub is negotiating with Evers, a Democrat and vocal Brewers fan, and Republicans who control the state legislature. The state wants a commitment from the Brewers to stay in Milwaukee for a number of years in exchange for renovation funding. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the top Republican in the state, recently said his party does not support a subsidy to the team.

The Brewers did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Similarly, the Milwaukee Bucks reported spending nearly $700,000 in lobbying in the 2015-2016 legislative session, as the team was trying to secure funding for its new arena, the Fiserv Forum, which ultimately began construction in 2016. The Bucks eventually got $250 million in funds from the state and Milwaukee County to build the stadium. The NBA team has not reported any lobbying since then.

Realtors double their lobbying

The Wisconsin Realtors Association, which bills itself as lobbying on behalf of homeowners and property owners, has dramatically and steadily increased its lobbying efforts in the past ten years, from nearly $500,000 in the 2013-2014 session to nearly $1.2 million in the 2021-2022 session, making it one of the top lobbiers in the state.

Asked about the large increase, Joe Murray, political and governmental affairs director for the association, said in an email that the association has many lobbying interests, and noted lobbying expenses were lower when Republicans had full control of state government. But Evers’ election in 2018 means the association now needs to lobby both sides, he said.

“Divided government requires more time to get agreement on difficult issues,” he said. “This is not cheap.”

Other big spenders, from business to farming

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s chamber of commerce, is regularly the biggest lobbier in the state, spending about $1.4 million per 2-year legislative session. The Wisconsin Hospital Association is often second, spending about $1.3 million per legislative session. The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation regularly spends more than $1 million per legislative session. The Wisconsin Insurance Alliance regularly spends more than $500,000 per session.

Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood had spent relatively little in recent sessions, but increased that to more than $400,000 in the last legislative session, during which Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. That made Wisconsin’s 1849 ban on abortion relevant again.

Lobbying for Libations

The Tavern League of Wisconsin, which represents the state’s thousands of bars, generally spends about $230,000 per session on lobbying, regularly outside the top 50 lobbying spenders. The Wisconsin Beer Distributors Association spent between $80,000 and $380,000 per legislative session in the last decade. Molson Coors, which acquired full ownership of Miller Brewing in Milwaukee in 2016, started lobbying in the state after the purchase, and spent an average of about $275,000 in each of the past two legislative sessions. Wisconsin Wine and Spirit Institute, which represents wholesalers, reported spending about $275,000 in each of the past two legislative sessions.

The Koch Network

The Koch Network’s organization Americans For Prosperity, which advocates for free market policies, lower taxes and limited government, are one of the top lobbiers in Wisconsin, spending more than $700,000 last session.

Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC, which lobbies more specifically for Koch Industries on issues like the environment, energy, taxation, and business policy, consistently spends more than $300,000 every legislative session.

AT&T Wisconsin

AT&T Wisconsin has drastically cut its lobbying in the past decade, dropping from more than $700,000 in the 2013-2014 session down to about $33,000 in the 2021-2022 session. Since Evers, a Democrat, was elected governor in 2018, the state has been much less friendly to large phone and internet companies, as his administration has favored smaller, local co-ops when awarding state grants for rural high-speed internet expansion. AT&T did not respond to a request for comment.

Kwik Trip

The popular LaCrosse-based convenience store/gas station chain has steadily increased its lobbying in recent years, from about $265,000 in the 2015-2016 legislative session to about $376,000 in the 2021-2022 session.

Asked about the reasons behind that increase, John McHugh, Kwik Trip’s director of public relations, wrote in an email “We are not interested in participating in this story.”

With hundreds of stores in Wisconsin, Kwik Trip lobbies on many bills, including in favor of a pending bill that allows “persons to charge fees for the use of electric vehicle charging stations.”

Governmental advocacy groups

The Wisconsin Counties Association, the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County regularly spend six figures per legislative session, pushing for funding and favorable legislation for their municipalities.

The top lobbiers in Wisconsin for the 2021-2022 legislative session

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

The post LOBBYING IN WISCONSIN: Seeking hundreds of millions in stadium funding, Milwaukee Brewers have boosted lobbying spending in recent years appeared first on The Badger Project.

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LOBBYING IN WISCONSIN: Seeking hundreds of millions in stadium funding, Milwaukee Brewers have boosted lobbying spending in recent years was first posted on April 18, 2023 at 7:00 am.