A conservative legal group is urging three left-wing places to stop “poll-location gerrymandering” with less than a fortnight to go before Wisconsin’s crucial Supreme Court election.
In individual words, the America First Policy Institute’s Center for Litigation asserts election officials in La Crosse, Madison, and Oshkosh are setting up in-person absentee ballot places in previously left-leaning sections of the places — , to the advantage of liberal individuals. According to Nicholas Wanic of the AFPI Litigation Center, the process is in violation of state laws.
Wisconsin law makes it clear that early-voting sites cannot be used to cherry-pick vote for a particular group, according to Wanic in a press release. ” The statistics shows leaders in these locations have disregarded the rules and are engaged in poll-location gerrymandering that gives a considerable benefit to Democrat prospects”.
The claims does not surprise you, especially in Madison. A leftist area in Wisconsin’s capital city has been the site of political election controversy and scandal. Most recently, Wisconsin’s election regulation launched an investigation into the town principal’s office after elections officials failed to qualify roughly 200 ballots in November’s presidential election.  ,
Madison and Oshkosh, two of the places that responded to The Federalist’s request for comment, insist that the first ballot locations chosen for Wisconsin’s April 1 vote were chosen with the rules and entry in thinking.  ,
However, according to AFPI, an examination revealed that many of the sites chosen are on or close to university campuses, “areas that have previously lean Democrat in comparison to the rest of their cities.”
According to the Litigation Center’s hit launch,” a large majority of the election districts that will host early election on April 1 have significantly overrepresented Democrat citizens in recent votes.”  ,
Intense Election Integrity Scrutiny  ,
Despite claims made by left-wing voting activists that early and absentee voting is a right, Wisconsin election law treats it as a privilege. AFPI notes the statute that states voting by absentee ballot must be carefully regulated” to prevent , potential for fraud or abuse, to prevent overzealous solicitation of absent electors who may prefer not to participate in an election, to prevent undue influence on an absent elector to vote for or against a candidate or to cast a particular vote in a referendum, or other similar abuses”.
The state Supreme Court debate in Wisconsin’s spring elections will determine whether the Badger State’s highest court is under the control of leftists or conservatives. The expensive campaign is expected to be the most expensive state judicial race in U.S. history, surpassing the$ 50 million-plus spent on Wisconsin’s 2023 Supreme Court election, which saw leftists take control of the court for the first time in 15 years, according to The Federalist.  ,
The far-left candidate in the election, far-left candidate Susan Crawford, has raked in millions of dollars in campaign money from socialist sugar daddies like George Soros and Illinois governor. J. B. Pritzker, while the conservative candidate, Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel, has generated support from a group backed by billionaire and President Trump ally Elon Musk. A left-led court is likely to make a decision regarding new congressional maps, which could give Democrats an edge over Republicans in districts where they are most likely to win seats. This will increase Dems ‘ chances of winning the House of Representatives the following year.
Wisconsin’s spring election, the first election with national implications since Trump’s convincing victories in November, has faced intense scrutiny. But conservative groups and the GOP have intensified their election integrity efforts since the rigged 2020 presidential election that saw battleground states like Wisconsin under fire for myriad election irregularities and election law violations. Former Trump advisors established the America First Policy Institute and its Center for Litigation to “restore the most fundamental rights of all Americans” following the 2020 election.
” Ample Opportunity”
Municipalities may designate sites other than the clerk’s office or board of election commissioners as an alternate location for eligible voters to cast in-person absentee ballots. However, Wisconsin election law dictates that the locations be” as close as practicable” as possible to the clerk’s or election board offices, and that” no location may be designated that gives an advantage to any political party.”
According to AFPI’s analysis of historical voting data, Madison’s use of absentee balloting locations “disproportionately favors Democrat candidates.” The litigation center notes 24 early voting sites.  ,
According to AFPI,” These wards consistently have a higher representation of Democrat voters compared to the citywide average.”  ,
According to Madison City Attorney Michael Haas, there is “ample opportunity” for voters to cast in-person absentee ballots in Madison, which provides “ample opportunity” for voters to do so than any other Wisconsin municipality. He claimed that the number of locations and the extended voting hours are a positive feedback for election officials.
” There are several factors that go in to determining IPAV ( In-person absentee voting ) locations, including the availability of facilities and the concentration of population during daytime hours”, Haas said in an email to The Federalist. Voters can vote anywhere in the City using IPAV devices, and they frequently do so close to their homes, offices, or other convenient locations. Therefore, it is impossible to accurately assess the availability of voting options by only looking at voting trends in the neighborhoods where IPAV sites are located.
There’s no question that the wards surrounding the early voting locations cited by the city clerk’s office lean heavily Democrat, but Madison in general leans far left. Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris won 75 % of the vote in Dane County, which is where Madison County’s Madison is located, compared to Trump’s 23 percent. According to the Capital Times, Madison turnout exceeded the new record of 85 percent in 2020, reaching an incredible 91 percent, which is a record.  ,
There are wards that are less liberal than others, even in one of the country’s most left-leaning cities. In the city’s early voting site selection process, according to AFPI, those wards are underrepresented in the city.
‘ Conveniently Placed in the Dormitories ‘
In its letter of warning to the city clerk, AFPI claims that 10 of Madison’s designated alternate absentee balloting sites “exhibited a significantly skewed voter preference significantly skewed toward Democrat candidates” in November’s election. In the same way, 10 of these wards once again significantly overrepresented Democrat voters in the April 4, 2023 election, while only three favored Republicans.
Interestingly, many of the sites are located on or near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, a bastion of leftist political thought and activism. Due in large part to the large turnout on University of Wisconsin college campuses, particularly the flagship UW-Madison, liberal Judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated conservative Justice Dan Kelly in the Supreme Court election in 2023.  ,
” The dramatic increase in the use of mail-in and absentee voting in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed for far greater numbers of college students to more easily cast their ballots”, wrote DanO’Donnell, conservative talk show host and columnist for the MacIver Institute. Democrats and liberal special interest groups were able to hire a veritable army of get-out-the-vote activists to canvass dorms and apartments scrounging up every last student they could find and deliver them to early voting locations, which Madison’s Democratic city clerk conveniently placed in the dormitories, according to” w”.
Impractical to change
The city of La Crosse plans to operate three alternate absentee balloting sites, at a Cultural &, Community Agency, the Southside Neighborhood Center, and on the UW-LaCrosse campus. City hall will also host early voting. The AFPI’s warning letter to the city clerk states that” significantly overrepresented Democrat voters in the elections of April 4, 2023, and November 5, 2024″ will be conducted in two of the wards.  ,
Additionally, the 12th ward, one of the City’s planned early voting districts, was the only Democratic ward in the City at the April 4, 2023 election, according to AFPI.  ,
The La Crosse city clerk’s office did not return The Federalist’s request for comment.  ,
Oshkosh intends to run a separate absentee ballot site. The location, according to AFPI, is located near four voting wards that “dramatically overrepresented Democrat voters” during the 2023 Supreme Court election.  ,
According to the letter from the AFPI,” It is your responsibility as the responsible elections official to resolve these issues and provide alternate absentee balloting locations in areas where neither political party has an advantage,” according to the letter.  ,
The liberal cities don’t appear to have any plans to alter the early voting site layout.  ,
Oshkosh City Clerk Diane Bartlett sent The Federalist her response to AFPI. In it, Bartlett asserts that the location is within a 14-minute walk of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and that it complies with all statutory requirements. Additionally, the clerk claimed that notices and instructions have already been published and printed, making it “impractical to change the location at his time.”
” Our City is committed to ensuring that our election processes are equitable and impartial, providing no undue advantage to any political party”, Bartlett wrote.  ,
” Fair and Equal Access”
Wanic, the AFPI attorney, did not return The Federalist’s request for comment, so it’s not clear what actions the litigation center plans to take. He did issue a letter to Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe that was timely informing her of the legal issues involving the early voting poll locations.  ,
” The Commission has the statutory responsibility to administer Wisconsin’s elections laws and is required by law to investigate violations of such laws”, Wanic wrote. The Commission must work to ensure that all voters have access to fair and equal voting during the upcoming election on April 1st.
An official with the Elections Commission did not respond to requests for comment.  ,
Matt Kittle covers The Federalist’s senior elections coverage. Kittle, an award-winning investigative journalist and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, was Empower Wisconsin’s executive director before that position.
