Facing accusations of electioneering, officials in an eastern Wisconsin city say they have removed from voting booths what voters described as copies of a Yahoo.com news article on two constitutional amendment ballot questions.
Election law experts say it’s a win for election integrity but another glaring example of the “maternalistic arrogance of a clerk” who believes it her duty to explain to voters how they should vote.
‘It Is Not Your Job to Explain’
The Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) on Wednesday sent a warning letter to Neenah City Clerk Char Nagel after receiving multiple reports about the news article being placed within each voting booth.
Wisconsin voters are in the midst of early voting ahead of next Tuesday’s statewide primary elections. The ballot includes two related referendum questions asking voters whether the Wisconsin Constitution should bar the state legislature from ceding its “sole power to determine how moneys shall be appropriated” and prevent the governor from having broad discretion on spending significant federal funds granted to the state. The issue came to the foreground when leftist Gov. Tony Evers unilaterally made spending decisions on billions of dollars in federal pandemic relief, paying for a host of liberal, big government initiatives. Nothing in the law stopped him from doing so, even as he was accused of effectively buying votes with federal taxpayer dollars.
The article, according to WILL, “characterizes the question as partisan, pitting Republicans and ‘conservative groups’ against the Governor, Democrats, ‘and liberal groups.’”
While
