Judge Sees Nothing Wrong With Leftist Voter Drives On Wisconsin College Campus

One of the thousands of taxpayer-funded higher education institutions where leftist organizations are pushing a precise “get out-the-vote” campaign to help Democrats win is the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. And that’s okay with Milwaukee Administrative Law Judge Eric Defort. &nbsp,

In a three-page decision released on Monday, Defort quickly advises the Wisconsin Elections Commission to support the school in a problem brought by Wisconsin Voter Alliance and campaigner Ron Heuer. The Kenosha college is alleged to be violating the Help America Vote Act ( HAVA )” by participating in university-sponsored student obtain- out- the- ballot and voting registration drives.”

WVA contends that the vote work precludes GOTV and voter registration drives that were sponsored by the government, which is supported by views from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. And the problem makes the claim that the state’s voter information system is being used unfairly to support the campus GOTV campaign at UW-Parkside and elsewhere. As the complaint states, the school has worked with the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement ( NSLVE ) “in a public- private trade of student personal data” to help Parkside’s “engagement in authorities- sponsored student obtain- out- the- vote and voter registration drives” .&nbsp,

It’s all in an effort to achieve a typically honest alliance of Democrat citizens, while using state sources, the defendants argue.

The school is simply the location where the GOTV effort is being conducted — by left-wing activists, claim UW- Parkside officials, who claim that they have not implemented a biased voter registration list. The prosecutor of operational rules concured. &nbsp,

Additionally, UW- Parkside filed an oath with its pleadings, in which it claims its activities are based on the State’s site address “myvote” and are distributed to any student who walks by a booth. wis. In his advice to the state elections commission, Defort wrote,” to enable the student to appear themselves up to determine whether or not they are registered to vote.” &nbsp,

Voting Left-Left Voting Ambassadors

An affidavit submitted by Scott Menke, the school’s time associate president, insists that to his knowledge, the organization did not directly or indirectly obtain HAVA funds. Instead, the university farms out GOTV efforts to the Andrew Goodman Foundation’s Goodman Ambassadors, who supposedly “engage in non- partisan voter education”.

” These ambassadors use private funding for their activities. In its response to the complaint, UW-Parkside states that they teach other students about the value of voting. &nbsp,

The Goodman Ambassadors are part of the leftist, nonpartisan- in- name- only Andrew Goodman Foundation, which, according to InfluenceWatch, “runs the Vote Everywhere program, which promotes student voting on university campuses by training a network of students ( known as ambassadors ) who register voters”.

But there’s nothing to see here, according to the administrative law judge. &nbsp,

According to Defort,” I believe that the use of a website address to let someone know if they are registered to vote is clearly not implicated by the statute’s language because it does not constitute the implementation of a voter registration list.” ” Therefore, under the undisputed material facts, the Plaintiff’s claim cannot prevail against UW- Parkside’s motion – as a matter of law. Accordingly, UW- Parkside’s motion should be granted”.

Missing the Point

Erick Kaardal, attorney for the Wisconsin Voter Alliance, said the administrative law judge failed to analyze the core argument, that the” State” barred by federal law from discriminatory voter outreach includes” state agencies”. And since UW- Parkside is very much an agency of the state’s higher education system, discriminating “against non- students” by “targeting … students for its get- out- the- vote and voter registration drives” is against the law, the complaint charges.

The university’s 2022″ Action Plan” stated that one of its goals was to “increase the number of students who register and vote in the 2022 Midterm Election by 15 % over the previous midterms” .&nbsp,

Additionally, the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement has tapped into student voter information, as well as publicly available voting files, to compile reports on student voting rates at UW- Parkside. The complaint claims that using student voting data from the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s targeted GOTV campaign is against HAVA law. &nbsp,

Absurdly Discriminatory

The Wisconsin Voter Alliance’s attorneys will file objections to the administrative law judge’s decision next month, before presenting their arguments to the Wisconsin Election Commission. &nbsp,

We disagree with Kaardal’s contention that elite Wisconsin universities can run student-focused get-out-the-vote campaigns while non-elite students and technical colleges receive nothing from the federal law. &nbsp,

The complaint, according to The Federalist, has potential far-reaching effects for the numerous colleges and universities that, like UW-Parkside, collaborate with leftist organizations to increase student voting. One of the players attempting to tap into the millions of Wisconsin’s statistically left-leaning voters is Civic Nation’s ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.

” It’s really an absurdly discriminatory, elite university- targeted GOTV campaign Wisconsin has — violating the bipartisan Help American Vote Act”, Kaardal said. &nbsp,

Matt Kittle covers The Federalist’s senior elections coverage. An award- winning investigative reporter and 30- year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.

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