The Fight for Every American’s Vote to be Counted Continues.

By Amrit Chenyg, Communications Strategist, ACLU

Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union first met Ruthelle Frank in 2011, when the then-84-year-old was fed up with her home state of Wisconsin’s attempts to infringe upon her right to vote. This month, we received the sad news that Ruthelle had passed away at the age of 89.

Ruthelle cared deeply about community participation and leading by example. In fact, for 18 years she served as an elected trustee of the Village of Brokaw, Wisconsin, where she was born and would live her entire life. She was fond of saying “If you don't use it, you lose it,” and this rang especially true when it came to voting. Ruthelle voted in every election since 1948, the year in which President Truman signed the Marshall Plan and the minimum wage stood at just 40 cents.

But in 2011, Wisconsin enacted one of the harshest voter ID laws in the country. Ruthelle’s longstanding participation in America’s democracy was suddenly at stake.

The truth is that we can safeguard our elections and protect people’s right to vote, but Wisconsin’s law does neither.

Wisconsin’s law not only mandated a photo ID to vote, but it limited that ID to a few official kinds and mandated that residents had to go to the DMV for their “free” IDs. Many Wisconsinites — including hundreds of thousands of registered voters — did not have these official state IDs. And Wisconsin did not make it easy to obtain them.

For Ruthelle, the battle with state bureaucracy began when the DMV told her she needed a birth certificate to get the “free” ID. Ruthelle was born in her home in 1927, and she had never even seen her birth certificate. The state refused to accept her baptismal certificate, social security card, or marriage license as alternatives.

Ruthelle tried to get a birth certificate — which cost $20 — but officials told her that her maiden name was misspelled in state records. In order to correct the misspelling, Ruthelle would need to go through a legal proceeding that could cost combined fees upwards of $200. Even then, Ruthelle didn’t know if this would be the end of it.

More importantly, Ruthelle deeply disagreed with the principle of a state forcing a citizen to pay to participate in American democracy. Knowing it was a step in the wrong direction for her state, Ruthelle decided to fight back and become the lead plaintiff in our lawsuit against Wisconsin’s voter ID law.

Ruthelle was part of the long battle to keep Wisconsin from infringing on the voting rights of so many across the state. In December 2011, we filed our lawsuit challenging the law. In a major victory in 2014, a federal district court ruled that Wisconsin’s voter ID law was unconstitutional and struck it down entirely.

In September 2014, however, a setback occurred. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling and tried to put the law into effect immediately. Fortunately, we succeeded in convincing the U.S. Supreme Court to block the law from taking effect in the November 2014 midterm elections.

Even though the law then went into effect, our lawsuit — Ruthelle’s lawsuit — continued. Among other problems, we called attention to the fact that Wisconsin did not include Veterans’ Administration ID cards or 2-year technical college ID cards as among the forms of acceptable ID for voting. The state eventually backed off and agreed to accept these forms of IDs, but it took years of litigation to get there.

And in another victory, the district court in our case ruled in 2016 that voters who have trouble obtaining identification in Wisconsin can vote by affidavit. Unfortunately, Wisconsin appealed that decision to the court of appeals, and while it is pending, the court blocked the affidavit option.

Throughout every legal twist and turn, Ruthelle remained committed to the fight. Everyone has a stake in ensuring that our elections are honest, fair, and accessible. Ruthelle knew this, and she did her very best to fight back against misguided laws which confuse restricted access for a more secure process. The truth is that we can safeguard our elections and protect people’s right to vote, but Wisconsin’s law does neither.

By sharing her story, Ruthelle had an incredible impact on both our work and the people around her, including many who did not personally know her. Among the memories shared online in the guestbook of Ruthelle’s obituary was, “I did not personally know Ruthelle Frank but knew of her by newspaper accounts about her determination to vote. She is an example to us all especially those who sit out elections. Thank you, Ruthelle, for being a great patriot.”

Ruthelle did not seek any sort of special treatment. She simply wanted everyone to have the right to vote. We at the ACLU thank Ruthelle for fighting alongside us and for setting a true example of what it means to participate in our democracy.

Wisconsin Gerrymandering Case Going Before the U.S. Supreme Court

ACLU of Wisconsin filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing gerrymandering scheme is unconstitutional 

On Tuesday, October 3^rd the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether Wisconsin’s partisan system of drawing legislative district lines to entrench the political power of the incumbent party violates the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause.

In a case that is expected to have sweeping implications for American democracy, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Wisconsin filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that Wisconsin’s extreme partisan gerrymandering scheme violates the Constitution by manipulating the outcome of elections and entrenching the political power of the incumbent party against the will of the voters.

“This case is about whether politicians will continue to rig the maps and skew election results in their favor or whether Wisconsin voters will finally get a fair say in choosing their representatives,” said Chris Ott, the Executive Director of the ACLU of Wisconsin. “Gerrymandering happens on both sides of the aisle and in many states around the country, but politicians in Madison have taken it to the extreme – rigging the maps so aggressively that their legislative majority is virtually guaranteed before a single vote has been cast.”

“Wisconsin’s extreme partisan gerrymandering system thwarts the will of the voters, weakens our democracy, and violates the First Amendment,” said ACLU of Wisconsin board member James Hall, Jr. who was part of the group that conceived of and assembled the case before the high court.  “The ACLU of Wisconsin has long fought for free and fair elections and for the right of every eligible voter to cast a ballot that counts. Now the U.S. Supreme Court has a chance to restore the integrity of our elections and rein in a gerrymandering system that has spun out of control.”

Redistricting is the process of redrawing the lines of districts from which public officials are elected. Gerrymandering is when the lines are drawn to manipulate the boundaries to predetermine the outcome of elections, which hinders voters from voicing their interests through their votes.

In Wisconsin the redistricting processes has devolved into an anti-democratic procedure where politicians essentially decide who they want their voters to be. Using demographic models and projections of voting patterns calculated down to the neighborhood-level, districts can be drawn in such a way so as to virtually guarantee an electoral outcome. For example, in 2012 Democratic candidates for the state assembly won 53 percent of the vote, but won only 39 of the 99 seats.

Wisconsin Gerrymandering Case Going Before the U.S. Supreme Court

By Chris Ott

Last month Wisconsin legislative leaders suddenly demanded resignations from the widely respected administrators of the Wisconsin Elections Commission and the Wisconsin Ethics Commission.

That’s right: heading into an election year, partisan politicians are brazenly attempting to fire the independent watchdogs who help hold them accountable.

We have to fight this.

Michael Haas of the Wisconsin Elections Commission and Brian Bell of the Wisconsin Ethics Commission have faithfully enforced our ethics laws and protected the integrity of our elections – and they have bipartisan support from the commissioners they report to.

In the case of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, Michael Haas and his staff oversaw the Wisconsin recount of the 2016 presidential election and have successfully implemented measures such as online voter registration.

Yet in December, Wisconsin’s state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos demanded their resignations. And if they do not resign, Senator Fitzgerald claims the state senate has the authority to fire them.

As we head into a midterm election year, this looks alarmingly like a Trump-style political move to replace public servants who have acted as evenhanded referees. Wisconsinites deserve better.

Politicians who don’t want to follow the rules shouldn’t be able to fire the referees.

Wisconsin needs evenhanded public servants. We should let these bipartisan agencies do their jobs without interference from politicians trying to protect their own political interests.

That’s why we at the ACLU of Wisconsin, along with our thousands of supporters, members and volunteers are calling them out. 

Wisconsinites have had enough of partisan politicians trying to skirt the rules and rig the game in their favor. Everyday Americans are fighting back: calling their representatives, talking to their neighbors, and getting engaged in their communities in unprecedented numbers.

Elected officials who think they can act against the public interest and get away with it are in for a rude awakening. The people of Wisconsin are watching and ready to hold them accountable at the polls.