WASHINGTON, DC – In response to “accusations” by the Republican National Committee that voter registration drives in Milwaukee had employed former felons to help collect voter registration applications, Project Vote today sent a letter to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board seeking clarification of apparently conflicting legal guidelines regarding whether former felons are in fact allowed to help register voters.
As reported in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on October 2, Sean Cairncross, chief counsel for the Republican National Committee, attacked the community organization ACORN for employing “at least seven felons as voter registration workers” in Milwaukee during the course of ACORN and Project Vote’s joint voter registration effort, which succeeded in registering over 31,000 low-income and minority voters in that city.
ACORN confirms that it hired former felons to work part-time to collect voter registration applications, and says that under Wisconsin state law felons who have completed their sentences and the terms of their parole are eligible to vote, and that any eligible voter in the state is able to serve as “special registration deputies” empowered to collect voter registration applications. The City of Milwaukee elections office interprets the laws the same way, and state election materials provided to voter registration drives do not say former felons are banned from working on drives.
In an April 4 memorandum, however, the Government Accountability Board (GAB) of Wisconsin offered an opinion that it is unlawful for anyone who has ever been convicted of a felony to help register voters.
“Either their rights have been restored or they haven’t,” says Donald Wine II, election counsel for Project Vote. “Former felons who have paid their debt to society, and are attempting to reintegrate into the community and engage as responsible members in the democratic process, deserve the same rights as any other eligible voter in Wisconsin.”
In today’s letter to the Government Accountability Board in Wisconsin, Project Vote requests that the Board produce the legal justification for disenfranchising former felons who have had their voting rights restored from further taking part in the democratic process by registering voters. Project Vote intends to call on the Wisconsin GAB to end the enforcement of this questionable policy and allow eligible former felons to fully and freely register to serve as special registration deputies.
“It is unjust of the GAB to circumvent state law and arbitrarily implement a policy that precludes anyone ever convicted of a felony from registering voters,” says Wine. “To threaten charges against former felons just for taking part in a democratic process is not only disenfranchisement of these eligible voters, but it is also a sign that Wisconsin is not interested in helping former felons ever fully reintegrate into society.”