Voces de la Frontera (Wisconsin’s largest Latino/immigrant rights organization) joined six other groups in a federal lawsuit to force Wisconsin to postpone its April 7, 2020 election. The case is # 3:20-cv-00284 in the Western District Court of Wisconsin.
This is a comment from Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director, Voces de la Frontera:
“Sticking with an April 7, 2020, Wisconsin election would deprive hundreds of thousands of people of the right to vote. This includes those who can’t go safely to vote in person or who don’t have the online access to obtain an absentee ballot.
That’s why Voces de la Frontera has joined with others in legal action to postpone the election.
In-person voting would violate all reasonable health mandates regarding the need to physically isolate. Conducting it solely as a mail-in vote would disproportionately prevent voting among those groups with limited access to the digital world, especially Latinos, African-Americans and the elderly.
There are over 150,000 Latino eligible voters in Wisconsin. Most rely on same-day voter registration to cast their ballot. A decision to go ahead with this election will discourage people from voting.
We demand the election be postponed. June 2 is a date that other states have settled on as workable.
Absentee balloting must be made more accessible by extending the deadlines both for online registration and requesting of absentee ballots.
We cannot let partisan politics or a virus deprive so many people of their opportunity to participate in the democratic process.”