 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
Did you hear us on the radio this morning? Have more questions? Click these links for information on who can vote in Wisconsin in both English and Spanish.Who May Vote in Wisconsin?¿QUIEN PUEDE VOTAR EN WISCONSIN?For more information go to The Wisconsin State Elections Board website or call 414-286-VOTE (8683) in the Greater Milwaukee area. Another great resource for Voter information in Wisconsin is Wisconsin Public Radio's voter resource website http://www.wisconsinvote.org
The ACLU of Wisconsin State Legislative AgendaClick here to view ACLU of Wisconsin positions on individual legislation in the State of Wisconsin legislature. Search by Organization and enter ACLU of Wisconsin.
Update your Membership Information and Join our Wisconsin Action Alert List Here! -------------------- General Guidelines for Filing a Complaint with Public Schools. -------------------------Find out more about the ACLU of Wisconsin's activities in the Greater Madison Area!Madison Area Office | UW Milwaukee Student Election Resembles a ShamACLU Student Alliance to send Poll Watchers
April 16, 2008
MILWAUKEE – The American Civil Liberties Union Student Alliance (ACLUSA) at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee (UWM) announced that it will continue to advocate for meaningful student elections at UWM. It will send student poll watchers to monitor the elections being held April 17th and 18th. The ACLUSA believes this is an appropriate response to the controversial decision of the “Independent Election Commissioner” to remove one party from the ballot. The commissioner’s decision was based apparently on a nonsensical interpretation of flawed election rules. Without proof the commissioner presumed that some anonymous statements should be held against the competing parties. Furthermore, the IEC in an email to the ACLUSA threatened to have university police remove its poll watchers.
ACLUSA President, Angela Lang, a Global Studies major, made the following statement:
“Students deserve a better introduction to democracy than what we’re seeing at UWM. The ACLU Student Alliance is non-partisan and doesn’t endorse or work for any candidates. We look upon our mission as raising awareness of civil liberties and civil rights on campus. Free speech, particularly political speech is fundamental. Due process, or the right to a fair hearing, is essential. The Independent Election Commissioner apparently doesn’t appreciate either free speech or due process. We will be at the polls to watchdog the balloting in order to record allegations of fraud or other irregularities.”
ACLU of Wisconsin’s Executive Director, Chris Ahmuty, made the following statement of support:
“The UWM Independent Election Commission rules, Article VI Section 8 (a), anticipate that students have a legitimate role in witnessing and reporting voter fraud. The ACLUSA’s trained observers are especially able to fulfill that role because they are non-partisan. Therefore, the ACLU of Wisconsin is providing support to the ACLUSA’s efforts.”
In 2007 a diverse group of UWM students formed the ACLU Student Alliance, which has become a recognized student Club. Its primary goal is to raise awareness of civil liberties issues, and to safeguard those civil liberties both on and off campus.
The ACLU of Wisconsin is a membership organization that defends the civil liberties and civil rights of all Wisconsin residents. There are nearly 8,500 ACLU members in Wisconsin. For more information, please visit www.aclu-wi.org.
To view this article in .pdf click here. For more on this story see the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article here.
Governor Doyle’s Response to Report on Safeguarding Sensitive Information A Good First Step
ACLU Says “Data Creep” Threatens State Information
April 15, 2008
MILWAUKEE – The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin praised Governor Doyle’s initial response to a set of recommendations regarding the state’s information security practices. However, it cautioned that neither the Governor nor the report considered whether or not sensitive information is compromised when it is collected, stored, and used for unintended purposes.
Metavante Corporation of Milwaukee also should be commended for preparing a high level overall assessment of the State’s practices for safeguarding sensitive information at Governor Doyle request without charge.
“Metavante’s assessment deals with security issues for the most part. As far as it goes it suggests several recommendations that are worth pursuing, such as a privacy officer in each state agency. However, it is misleading to call it a privacy assessment, which would properly evaluate if sensitive information is gathered and used correctly,” said Chris Ahmuty, Executive Director of the ACLU of Wisconsin.
“While the report recommends establishing a global data classification program, it does not ask if the State is making security more difficult and expensive by collecting and using too much personally identifiable information. The ACLU of Wisconsin recognizes that the State gathers vast amounts of data legitimately, but history has shown that legitimately collected data is often used for secondary and tertiary uses that were unintended originally, much less consented. Data creep makes large databases, such as fishing or drivers’ licenses, less secure,” Ahmuty contended.
Metavante issued its report on April 15, 2008. The Governor’s request followed two security breaches in January, when a state contractor, EDS Corp. and a state agency, the Department of Revenue sent out mailings to over 260,000 residents in which Social Security Numbers were visible on the address label or through the address window.
“The ACLU of Wisconsin intends to monitor the implementation of these recommendations and to press for consideration of data privacy principles as programs and policies are developed for the State and its agencies,” Ahmuty concluded.
The ACLU of Wisconsin is a membership organization dedicated to defending the civil liberties and civil rights of all Wisconsin residents. It has nearly 8,500 members statewide. For this article in .pdf click here. For more information see article in The Wisconsin State Journal. ACLU of WI/WIF Recent Press Releases
|
Coalition Calls for Major WI Election Law Reform on Heels of Overwhelming Public SupportSay Wisconsin’s Disfranchisement Laws are Outdated, Un-American and UnfairApril 7th, 2008
MILWAUKEE: In last week’s general election in Wisconsin, over 40,000 people who live, work, attend school, pay taxes and raise families in our community were prohibited from voting.
Today the Restore the Vote WI Coalition announced its formal launch. ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation led the effort to form the coalition to advance grassroots public education on felon enfranchisement in the Wisconsin community.
In October 2007 civic, faith-based and social service organizations both statewide and in the greater Milwaukee and Madison areas began to discuss the issue of felon disfranchisement in Wisconsin. Since then the number of organizations in Wisconsin and nationally joining the coalition is nearly 40 and growing weekly.
The coalition believes that felons who have served their time in prison should be allowed to vote immediately upon release into their communities as they do in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and 12 other states around the country.
Milwaukee County residents overwhelmingly agree. In a poll taken last fall on this issue, the results showed a mandate for the legislature to act on this issue.
“A diverse array of organizations, representing tens of thousands of Wisconsinites statewide, has come together for this issue. This is a testament to the importance of repealing this voting barrier in Wisconsin,” said Andrea Kaminski, Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin.
Organizations that have joined the coalition include: ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation, ACLU Racial Justice Project, 9 to 5 National Association of Working Women, NAACP – Milwaukee Branch, NAACP – Wisconsin State Office, Citizen Action of Milwaukee, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, Campaign Against Violence, Grassroots Northshore, Wisconsin Women’s Network-Women in Prison Task Force, ACORN-Wisconsin, SEIU-AFRAM and Voces de la Frontera, Liberty Tree Foundation, Veterans for Peace-local 102 (Cudahy), League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, Faith Community Workers for Justice (a project of the WI AFL-CIO), Citizen Action of Milwaukee – Faith-based Caucus, WI-CURE (WI-Citizens United to Rehabilitate Errants), Institute for One Wisconsin, Voices Beyond Bars a project of Madison area Urban Ministries, Project Return, Racine Dominican Justice and Rights Commission, The Sentencing Project, National Black Police Association, Urban Underground, Milwaukee LGBT Community Center, National Lawyers Guild-Milwaukee Chapter, Vessels of God, American Associate of Probation and Parole Officers, Community Connections, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, Peace Education Project of Peace Action-Wisconsin and WISDOM.
According to Kaminski, restoring the vote to felons will also make election administration more efficient. “If you can walk in the door at the polling place, you are not disqualified because of a felony. This will clarify eligibility requirements for election officials, who have a lot of responsibility and pressure in a high-turnout election,” she said.
Current Wisconsin law provides that felons who have been released from prison and those whose crimes were not serious enough to even warrant prison must wait their entire term of probation or parole before their right to vote is restored. “People could be rebuilding their lives for 1, 5, 10, or even 30 years and not be able to for example choose the school board member who will make critical decisions about their child’s education.”, said Renee Crawford, Associate Director of the ACLU of Wisconsin.
Crawford concluded, “People work and pay taxes and yet do not have representation in their own government. Taxation without representation is fundamentally un-American. Our country was founded on the basic principle that a system of government without the voices of all of its citizens is fundamentally unfair and flawed. It’s time Wisconsin’s Jim Crow voting ban be lifted.”
The ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation is a non-profit non-partisan civil liberties and civil rights organization working to protect the rights of Wisconsinites. For more information and this press release in .pdf go to our website: http://www.aclu-wi.org
ACLU of Wisconsin flyer on felon enfranchisement - 30-
1The poll was conducted by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin and Associates, an Opinion research and public policy analysis firm in Madison, WI in a phone survey done October 13- 22, 2007 . Those polled included, which was weighted to reflect population of Milwaukee County, registered voters throughout Milwaukee County interviewed, including: 527 interviews conducted in the City of Milwaukee, with an over sample of: 149 Latino voters and 152 African-American voters. 217 interviews were conducted in Suburban Milwaukee County. Margin of error for the entire sample is +/- 3.7%.
ACLU of Wisconsin FoundationYouth and Civil Liberties CouncilReleasePublic Service Announcement on You Tube!Goal is to educate Milwaukee area youth on the new confusing and unnecessary City of Milwaukee so-called Anti-Gang Loitering ordinance
|
||||
|
About Us | WI
News | Get Involved | Legal
| Youth | Español
This is the Web site of the ACLU of Wisconsin and the ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation. |
RSS NEWSFEEDS  Get the latest ACLU news and action alerts. |
![[ACLU Execution Watch Counter]](http://www.aclu.org/graphics/dpcounter.gif)
