None of the races listed here will involve a primary but ALL of them will be on the April 6 ballot.

On Friday, January 8, I encouraged everyone to get in touch with Senator Ron Johnson, U.S. Representative Scott Fitzgerald, and U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany — the three Republican elected officials from Wisconsin who either voted to accept the spurious objections raised to the electoral votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania or originally committed to doing so but thought better of it after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was put down. These three men should no longer be eligible to serve in the Congress, according to section 3 of the 14th amendment to the Constitution:

Here's the contact information you need. Make your voices heard and hold these men accountable:

U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald: (202) 225-5101
Email and office locations are not yet available.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany: (202) 225-3365
email
1719 Longworth HOB, Washington, DC 20515

Sen. Ron Johnson: (202) 224-5323
email
328 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510

We only have eight more days of the tRump administration to go. But there are plenty of pundits predicting new violence on January 17 and on Inauguration Day, both in DC and in every state capital. See "Americans across the political spectrum fear what the Capitol attack portends" in the Washington Post, "Drumpf supporters plan to surround the Capitol in 'chilling' insurrection plot" in Daily Kos, and "Right-wing violence will now be a regular feature of American politics" in the Plum Line blog. In Madison, "Tony Evers calls up National Guard to protect Capitol, boards up windows after FBI warning of 'armed protests'". Sadly, this seems to be the world we live in right now.

Still, the work of our organization proceeds apace. Dan O'Keefe, the leader of the Criminal Justice Reform Issue Team, invites interested Grassroots North Shore supporters to sign up. The Team is working on arranging a Zoom meeting with State Senator Alberta Darling and welcomes everyone to participate. Details of the meeting will be announced to those who sign up as soon as they are available.

There are going to be seven candidates on the ballot for the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Our page with links to candidate's campaign sites is now up so that you can find out something about each candidates' positions. You can also watch a forum with them, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Public Education Network and originally held on January 7, 20221.

And don't forget the People's Map Commission hearing on Thursday, January 14. You can participate by submitting comments or just registrating for the public hearing (required).

Two candidates have prevailed in the February 16 primary. Below you will find their names, links to the candidate statement they submitted to Grassroots North Shore, plus a link to their campaign websites and/or Facebook pages.

Grassroots North Shore will hold a candidate forum, moderated by Pablo Muirhead, Shorewood School Board member, on Sunday, March 14, on Zoom. Please RSVP to receive the link information.

This section of the Elections 2021 site includes information about the candidates in each of these categories. In many cases, the races are uncontested and may therefore not be included on the ballots for the primaries on February 16. Wherever possible, there will be links to online information provided by the candidates' campaigns.

• Candidates for Superintendent of Public Instruction
  
  
• Milwaukee County Municipal Candidates
  
  
• Milwaukee County Judicial Candidates
  
  
• Ozaukee County Municipal Candidates
  
  
• Ozaukee County Judicial Candidates
  
  
• School Board Candidates
  
  

Return to the presentation sign-up page.

Bill Holahan takes us through the most recent jobs report, for a Mythbusters segment on the economy. It's not good news for the country, or for Donald Trump. After explaining why, Bill goes into the remedy for this malaise, and that cure is electing Joe Biden. Bill has the numbers on that.

Where to Drop Off Your Ballot

State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Grassroots North Shore is pleased to endorse Dr. Jill Underly for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Dr. Underly has worked across many levels of education, as a high school and middle school social studies teacher, a University of Wisconsin College of Letters & Science academic advisor, 5 years as a Title I Consultant and assistant manager at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, an elementary principal and Director of Instruction, and most recently, as the Superintendent of the Pecatonica School District. Grassroots North Shore endorses her for Superintendent of Public Instruction for her breadth of experience, and for her opposition to the funding of private schools with public money, which diverts much-needed resources from already-underfunded public school systems.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Branch 3

Grassroots North Shore endorses Katie Kegel for Branch 3 of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court for her fierce defense of all those who come to her for help and her fresh approach to sentencing. Ms. Kegel's advocacy for sentencing innovation such as deferred prosecutions, restorative justice, treatment courts, and other alternatives that avoid destroying people even before they can come before the court, reflect the goals of Grassroots North Shore for a fairer, more supportive justice system.

Because we cannot be certain that voting in person on Election Day will be safe either for voters or for poll workers, we urge everyone to plan to vote by absentee ballot. (If it is safe, you don't have to use the absentee ballot so you can still vote in person if you prefer.) The dates of the elections are August 11 for the partisan primary and November 3 for the national general election. 

Requesting an absentee ballot online can be frustrating, but it does not have to be. The best way to accomplish the task is to use your smartphone or tablet. In the following illustration, a red arrow signifies a field you must complete. A blue arrow signifies the action to take when you have completed the screen.

Step 1: use an up-to-date browser (older ones are not well supported) and go to myvote.wi.gov.

Step 2: Choose "Vote Absentee" from the menu. The screen should look something like this illustration but it may be formatted differently depending on the device you are using:

Step 3: On the next screen, enter your name and date of birth. The system will then check to make sure you are a registered voter.

Step 4: Assuming you are a registered voter, you will next need to verify your name and address:

Step 5: Select the address you want your absentee ballot sent to. In most instances, you will choose your home address, but college students might well choose an address that is not the one they use when they're at school:

Step 6: On this screen you will choose the election(s) for which you want to vote with an absentee ballot. At this point in the year, you are required to request an absentee ballot for BOTH the August and the November elections. But remember that you can decide not to use the absentee ballot you receive in the mail. You can instead, if you choose, vote in person on election day.

Step 7: You will now be asked to upload a photo ID, usually your drivers license – but NOT A SELFIE!. (Here's a list of acceptable photo IDs.) If you have already done this before, you probably will not have to do it again. But some people have reported that they have needed to complete this step a second time, even though they used the system to request an absentee ballot in the past. Also, if you are using a computer with this system, you will need to take a photo of your ID, send it to yourself (sharing it and emailing it to yourself is usually the simplest method). Then save the photo from your email inbox. At that point, you can use the "Add Files +" button (see below) to upload your picture. If you are having trouble with the photo ID part of the process, please contact the Voter Protection Hotline at 608-336-3232.

If you are using a smart phone or tablet, the screen should look something like this:

After you click the button, the screen should display the following: 

Using the camera in your device, take a picture of your photo ID and then click on "Use Photo."

Step 8: Congratulations! You're done.

Here's a video from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin that shows the steps on a smartphone. For some reason, the sound doesn't play for me (your results may vary) but the dynamic pictures of the screens are very clear. And here's another video, from Citizen Action of Wisconsin. It was made for the April 7 election, but the steps remain the same for every election. Just remember to choose "all elections this calendar year" rather than the April 7 election which is, of course, over and done with!

If you'd prefer to use another method, you can

• Download and print a form, print a copy of your photo ID, and mail both documents to your municipal clerk. You can look up the clerk's name and address on myvote.wi.gov or find it on your municipality's website. Instead of putting your request form in the US mail, you can use a secure dropbox at your village or city hall to turn the documents in.
  
  
• Call, email or fax your municipal clerk. You can find contact information on your municipality's website or on myvote.wi.gov.

Our Spring 2020 Endorsements page is now up. On it you will see that we have endorsed Judge Jill Karofsky for Wisconsin State Supreme Court. We also have endorsed in two races for Circuit Court Judge in Milwaukee County. And we recommend voting YES on the Milwaukee County advisory referendum promoting a nonpartisan process for drawing new electoral maps in 2021. We have made no recommendation on the statewide, binding referendum on criminal justice reform.

We also have links to information about the two candidates for Milwaukee County Executive.

Check it out!

Know something about the two candidates running in the April 7 election to be Milwaukee County Executive. State Representative David Crowley and State Senator Chris Larson have both completed answers to a short questionnaire we have sent them. You can read them on our site.

Grassroots North Shore encourages everyone to stay safe and vote by mail. To do this, use your smartphone (a cell phone that has a camera and an internet connection) to access myvote.wi.gov. Once on the site, choose Vote Absentee. The site will walk you through the application process and will send the request form and your photo ID to the clerk of your municipality. But don't dither. The absentee ballot must be received by the municipal clerk by 8pm on April 7!

Revised: 3/26/2020 at 3:15 pm. Please note that it is now likely that there will be no open polling places on Election Day, April 7, 2020, at least in the City of Milwaukee. The only sure way to vote is to vote by mail with an absentee ballot. The rules for acquiring an absentee ballot have changed slightly to make it somewhat easier to obtain.

The coronavirus has disrupted most things, but our April 7 election remains on the schedule. You can of course show up at the polls on election day to cast your ballot (you can see a sample ballot and find your polling place at myvote.wi.gov) but you would be doing poll workers and yourself a huge favor if instead you vote by mail, using an absentee ballot.  

There are TWO steps you have to perform:

1. Request that your municipal clerk send you an absentee ballot.
2. Fill out and mail the ballot back so that it arrives by 8pm on April 7 (otherwise your vote will not count).

To request an absentee ballot, you have to fill out a form. There are two routes you can take. The first is online.

1. Use a computer or a smartphone and a browser to go to myvote.wi.gov.
2. Click "Vote Absentee". 
3. Fill in your name and date of birth in the online application to check your registration status. 
4. Click the button "Request an Absentee Ballot" on the screen that displays your name, address, and registration status. 
5. Fill in the form requesting an absentee ballot. You can choose to request an absentee ballot for the April 7, 2020 election only or you can choose to request an absentee ballot for the August 11 election and the November 3 election as well. The request form may require you to upload a picture of your photo ID. Try to comply. If you cannot, go to the next step.
6. Choose the box that says that you are "indefinitely confined." The coronavirus has rendered that statement true for everyone but do upload a picture of your photo ID if you are able to do so. If you are not able to upload a photo, choosing the box for indefinitely confined means that you will no longer need to provide a photo ID with your request form.
7. The site will automatically send the request to your municipal clerk.

The second route is to print a copy of the form yourself. Once you have a copy, fill it out, and choose the box that says you're indefinitely confined if you are having a problem photographing and or printing a photo of your photo ID. Then mail the form to your municipal clerk. You can find a pdf of the request form on the site of the Wisconsin Election Commission. When you are filling out the form, we suggest that you request an absentee ballot for all elections for the remainder of 2020. You'll find that selection in box 6 of the form. You can find the mail address for your municipal clerk at myvote.wi.gov. Choose "Find My Polling Place". On the lefthand side of the screen you will see the name and some contact information for your municipal clerk. Clicking on the "More Information" button will bring up the mailing address.

As of March 19, Bayside and Whitefish Bay are sending forms to request an absentee ballot to every registered voter! Some other communities may be doing the same. And if Wisconsin takes steps now to have all votes by mail, we can heave a sigh of relief and avoid the risk of being contaminated at the polls or spreading the virus to others there. Wouldn't that be a good thing?

You can read the text of Milwaukee County Clerk George Christianson's memo:

Grassroots North Shore is proud to announce its 

Endorsement of Judge Jill Karofsky for Wisconsin Supreme Court

The nonpartisan general election of 2020 is April 7. Early voting in most North Shore communities will begin by March 23 (in a few communities it will begin earlier -- check with your village or city administration. It will end on April 3 at 5pm. Before you go to the polls -- either for early voting or on election day -- be sure to check your registration, polling place and sample ballot: myvote.wi.gov.

The only statewide race on your ballot will be the one for Wisconsin State Supreme Court. The candidates are Dan Kelly (incumbent and Walker appointee), and Jill Karofsky, judge on the Circuit Court of Wisconsin. You can read our endorsement of Judge Karofsky and her answers to our Grassroots North Shore Questionnaire. You can also visit the the website and Facebook page for Karofsky's campaign. We urge our supporters to vote for Karofsky. She is the only progressive in this race.

Our Elections 2020 page provides some information about early voting in many North Shore communities, including phone numbers to reach your community's administration. It would be prudent to call to make sure, but most early voting for the nonpartisan election on April 7, 2020, will take place at the city or village hall. So please vote in this election and in all subsequent elections this year!

In addition to the April 7 election, Wisconsin will hold two more: the partisan primary on August 11 and the general election on November 3. Mark your calendars for subsequent dates now so that you don't forget to vote. (If you know you are going to be out of town or otherwise unable to vote early in person or go to the polls on election day, you can always request a mail-in ballot at myvote.wi.gov.)

Early Voting Information*

If you have a Wisconsin Driver License, you can register online before the April election until March 25, 2021. You can also register at the polls, whether you use in-person absentee processes or you go to the polls on election day. Information about what documents you need to register and what you need to vote are available here. You can check and update your registration, find your polling place, see a sample ballot for your location, and request an absentee ballot at myvote.wi.gov. We urge you to do so well ahead of election day!

To request an absentee ballot for the February 16 primary, you should allow at plenty of time to receive and return your ballot — so make your request by February 2 if you plan to put your completed ballot in the mail. If you plan to use a drop box to return your ballot, the deadline for making an absentee ballot request is about February 8. In any case, absentee ballots must be received at the municipality by the time the polls close on election day (February 16 for the primary, April 6 for the general election).

Be sure to fill out your absentee ballot correctly. See a quick video showing you how.

* Early voting (aka in-person absentee voting) takes place for no more than two weeks prior to the week of the election, ending on the Friday before election day. For spring 2021 elections, the period during which voters can use the in-person absentee process can vary by municipality. This page will provide whatever information about early voting in each community as the information becomes available.

* In this uncertain time, we are encouraging everyone to request an absentee ballot and to return it via a drop box supplied by each municipality. Dropping off your vote is both safe and secure. 

The days, dates and times in the chart below provide information for early in-person voting for the April 6  election.