Voter Suppression

Scott Walker Has Seen Enough Voting

Scott Walker at GOP Convention

Wisconsin has the second highest voter turnout rate in the nation, second only to its neighbor Minnesota.

To you or I this an impressive feat that local residents and public officials should be proud of, but Governor Scott Walker clearly thinks high turnout is a problem.

In 2016, the role of Florida — with its six hour voting lines in 2012 — could be played by Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) state of Wisconsin. That’s because of a bill Walker signed on Thursday eliminating early voting in Wisconsin on weekends. This is the second time Walker signed a restriction on early voting into law. In 2011, he signed a bill reducing early voting from three weeks to two, and limiting it to just one weekend.

The bill will also prohibit you from casting an absentee ballot later than 7 p.m. on a weekday while eliminating weekend voting.

High turnout is not something anyone should take for granted and it certainly isn’t something that should be viewed as a problem. The consequences of low voter turnout can be severe; installing madmen into office.

The upside is that restricting voting appears to have backfired in many cases, but that doesn’t mean it should be overlooked or given a pass and there’s no guarantee it will continue to backfire in the future.