After losing his court battle to delay holding special elections for an open legislative seat and a senatorial seat THREE TIMES, Governor Scott Walker relented and called for the special elections. And the legislature called off passage of the special bill they were working on to change the rules around special elections.
But amid all of this brouhaha, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald pulled a particularly odd reason for avoiding the elections out of his sleeve:
He and Vos (House Speaker Robin Vos) said they were worried that the tight timeline of a special election might lead to the disenfranchisement of the federally protected voting rights of troops stationed overseas and other voters abroad.
I find no issue with trying to avoid disenfranchising voters. And certainly the logistics in these cases is always problematic but Wisconsin has done hundreds of these special elections over the years under very similar circumstances. I read somewhere else that there might be about 100 such voters who may be affected. But there was never any concern shown or voiced for the tens of thousands of voters disenfranchised by NOT holding the special elections…all of those Wisconsin residents who live in the affected districts. Those residents who don’t have representation.
And for the man who was directly involved with the district gerrymandering which is currently before the US Supreme Court…which certainly disenfranchises Democrats…who earn the majority of the popular vote in the state but don’t hold either house in the legislature.
Or the man directly involved in disenfranchising Wisconsin voters with laws that shorten and restrict early voting.
Or who was directly involved in disenfranchising Wisconsin voters by pushing through reprehensible voter ID laws.
Are we talking about the same Senator Fitzgerald? Why would NOW be the first time he seems to be demonstrably concerned about disenfranchising voters?
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