The Incredible Voting Rights Hypocrisy of Theo Lipscomb!

After filing a number of complaints and appeals to the Milwaukee County Election Commission and the Wisconsin Election Commission that resulted in the removal of two candidates from the ballot for Milwaukee County Executive, County Board Chair and County Exec candidate, Theo Lipscomb put out a press release about protecting voter rights.

County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb, Sr., is proposing that Milwaukee County supplement voter registration and education efforts in the wake of recent attempts to purge approximately 200,000 Wisconsin voters from election rolls.

“We must do everything we can to protect the right to vote, especially in the wake of ongoing voter suppression efforts in Wisconsin and Milwaukee County. By providing these funds we can help ensure that voters know their rights and are registered to vote,” said Lipscomb.

n advance of the 2020 elections, the Milwaukee County Clerk and the Election Commission plan to encourage voter participation and educate voters about registration requirements via advertisements on county buses and bus shelters, in movie theaters, local newspapers, and on broadcast radio.

The City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County are also collaborating on the placement of voter registration kiosks at public facilities throughout the county, which potential voters can use to print registration forms and receive instructions on how to submit the required documents.

Lipscomb’s resolution directs the County Clerk and Elections Commission (editor’s note: yes, that ^ election commission) to report to the Board of Supervisors in advance of the 2020 elections regarding additional efforts that could be made to improve voter registration and education.

Additional efforts could include direct mailings to potentially purged voters with instructions on how to update their voter status, additional voter registration kiosks, partnerships with voter outreach groups, and voter registration drives.

If Lipscomb’s proposal is adopted, $50,000 would be provided to boost these efforts.

The Finance and Audit Committee will consider Lipscomb’s proposal on January 30. The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the item on February 6.

Now considering that he ‘disenfranchised’ thousands of Milwaukee County voters with his actions it seems odd that he’d want to prevent voters from being purged. Now, yes, I realize that the two candidates were dropped because an election law was broken (more in another post later). And I realize that the state commission and the courts agree with that consensus. But the state commission is currently in violation of election laws because they haven’t purged the rolls yet…and that’s still playing out in the courts.

So what will it be, Mr. Lipscomb? Push for the enforcement of the law when it aids your campaign? Push for abandonment of the law when it may harm your campaign?

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