Are you still struggling to right yourself after the November 5 election knocked you down? I am. But I am taking to hear Vice President Harris when she said: "only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time, but for the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case. But here's the thing, America, if it is, let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant billion of stars. The light, the light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service." We all need some time to recover from from what seemed to be a grievous blow. But I'm here to tell you that it was, after all, only ONE election. And not the end of the Democratic Party or the world. You can probably tell I'm in the "buck up, buttercup" phase of my post-election journey.

In fact, democracy, both as an idea and as a sytem of governance, is asserting itself even as our own system seems under attack from within. I speak of the recent events in South Korea and the ongoing events in the country of Georgia. In South Korea, the president declared martial law at 23:00 (11:00pm local time) on December 3. Almost immediately, thousands of people gathered outside the National Assembly compound. Some 300 elite military personnel landed helicopters within the grounds of the National Assembly, apparently to prevent the Assembly from overturnting the martial law declaration. Meanwhile, 190 members of the National Assembly hurriedly broke into the National Assembly building — equivalent to our Capitol Building — some of them clambering over fences. At 1:00am, the National Assembly voted to overturn martial law. As 5:18am the South Korean Cabinet rescinded martial law. Although martial law has been rescinded, the crisis continues as protesters call for the president to resign. An impeachment process is taking place in the Assembly.

So, the high drama began at 11:00pm and in essence ended six hours and 18 minutes later when the Cabinet lifted the declaration of marital law. Wow: it came and went in a flash.The president's imposition of martial law came late at night: was he counting on having the remainder of the night to solidify power? People of all ages turned out in a cold night by the thousands. How did so many people know about the declaration so quickly? And why did they rush to the National Assembly quickly enough to help prevent the police and the military from seizing it before the Assembly members could reach the building and hold a vote? Whatever the answers to these questions are, the moral of the story is crystal clear: in democracies, power emanates from the people. (See AlJazeera, December 3, 2024. )

Although still unfolding, the story in Georgia (the country not the state) is similar in some ways but far more intense and existential. This small country was part of the United Soviet Socialist Republics. Yet now an overwhelming majority of its citizens — more than 80% according to "In Georgia’s capital, a new fury fuels street protests" (Washington Post, December 4, gifted) — want to move toward integration with Europe. The current leadership, however, decided to postpone negotiations with the EU until 2028. In the face of public disapproval, the Dream Party, the party of the head of government, is trying to strengthen relations with Russia. "The country’s president and figurehead for the opposition, Salome Zourabichvili, is calling it Georgia’s 'Maidan,' referring to the uprising in Ukraine in 2013 that spelled the end for the country’s pro-Russian leadership" (Deacon Herald, December 4, 2024). It's unclear what the outcome of the impeachment vote — now scheduled for 7:00pm Saturday, December 7 — but we can see some starts twinkling in the darkness. Like Ukraine's, the trajectory in Georgia seeks democracy and a strong relationship with the West.

I bring these somewhat obscure stories of events in other parts of the world to help us see our own situation in their light. People in these two countries, and in Ukraine, care deeply about their democracies and their futures. And they have turned out in the streets in huge numbers to demonstrate their profound disagreement with their government. It's unlikely, perhaps, that millions of Americans will rush into the streets to mount peaceful yet continuous protests as our own wannabe dictator makes his moves. Yet it is important to see that people joining together can exert their collective power. In that vein, I also recommend Malcom Nance's Five Steps To Resist The Coming Tyranny.

Vance speaks of resistance. And in some ways that may be necessary. But we want to be more that resisters. We will form an opposition — so that we can both defend (resist) and act to change the world around us. Unlike Korea or Georgia, we live in a federalist system, one that relies on states acting independently of federal government. The outcome of our last elections show the promise: while Wisconsin, by the narrowest of margins of course, awarded its 10 electoral college votes to Trump, on the same ballot we profoundly changed the make-up of the Assembly and the Wisconsin Senate. And we re-elected Senator Tammy Baldwin, Representative Gwen Moore, and Representative Mark Pocan. At the state and local level, we have shown our power, and we can do it again in 2025.

So let us begin: on Monday, December 9, the North Shore Fair Maps group is holding its monthly meeting — MASS DEPORTATION NOW! — online at 7pm. The presentation will briefly lay out plans for 2025, outline the work ahead on enshrining fair maps first as a statute and eventually as a constitutional amendment, and shine a spotlight on the immigration threats. North Shore Fair Maps friend and one of the thousands of Dreamers, Iuscely Flores, who is one of those Dreamers, will explain what it's like to live under threat of deportation and what we can do to resist and oppose. Plan to register now for the event on Monday.

What you can do: help DACA recipients renew their papers at December workshops. Help by spreading the word: Sign up link for Dreamers to attend a workshop. Also tax-deductible donations needed to fund this vital work (DACA renewal costs $555) will be accepted through the project’s fiscal agent The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Please write “For the Dreamers” in the memo line. Donate here.

The spring election is usually a pretty low-turnout election. And this one may be also. So every vote we can rustle up for a progressive on the ticket is vital. Here's what's at stake in this Supreme Court election. When we elected Justice Janet Protasiewicz, we reoriented the Wisconsin Supreme Court. And as the Court was better aligned with our values, it reversed a previous SCOWIS ruling on our voting maps to give us, finally, fair maps that would yield a legislature that actually represents the voters. And the new maps did just that. Justice Ann Walsh Bradley was part of the four member coalition that brought us our current maps but she has announced that she intends to retire in 2025. So it is imperative that we keep the current SCOWIS progressive orientation.

So start helping to elect a new Supreme Court Justice by downloading and circulating nomination papers for Judge Susan Crawford. Here's who you'd be supporting as a nominator and circulator: As a prosecutor, private-practice attorney, and now as a Judge, Susan Crawford has always believed in protecting the basic rights and freedoms of Wisconsinites. She has a deep understanding of our justice system and knows how important it is to have Supreme Court justices who understand how to keep communities safe, who are fair and impartial, and who will reject efforts to politicize the constitution to undermine our most basic rights. She’s running for Wisconsin Supreme Court to protect the progress we've made and ensure we have a progressive majority that won’t rubber-stamp an extreme right-wing agenda to take our state backward.

Judge Crawford's announced opponent is Brad Schimel, former Attorney General in the Scott Walker administration. His Wikipedia page asserts, "Schimel is a practicing Catholic and supports pro-life causes." After Attorney General Josh Kaul defeated him in 2018, lame duck Governor Walker appointed him to the Waukesha County Circuit Court. Schimel was subsequently "reprimanded by the chief judge of the 3rd Judicial District" for failing to obey a statewide stat court directive to wear a mask during in-person court proceedings. Finally the head of the Wisconsin state court system, Justice Patience Rogensack, "barred Schimel from presiding over cases in person due to his refusal to wear a face covering (or hold proceedings all remotely via videoconference). The ban was lifted after Schimel agreed to wear a face covering in court."

You should also know that Dr. Jill Underly is running for re-election as State Superintendent of Public Instruction. You can download her nomination papers and detailed instructions. At least one other progressive — Jeff Wright, Superintendent of the Sauk Prairie School District — is also planning to run. As of today, he does not have a working website and his LinkedIn site does not appear to offer a way to acquire his nomination papers. As soon as I can locate them, I will make sure to alert you. As you probably know, you cannot sign nomination papers for more than one candidate in each race for one seat.

Take the next step to codify fair voting maps in state law. TELL YOUR LEGISLATORS TO PASS NONPARTISAN REDISTRICTING LEGISLATION. Sign the petition.

Finally, thanks to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, we have a preview of the spring 2025 races and potential candidates. Our 2025 Elections page provides an overview of all the races in the North Shore and in southern Ozaukee County, with links to specific communities and school boards. Nominations are not certified until after January 7, 2025, so we won't know for sure who is on the ballot or whether a primary will be necessary. Right now, we believe there will be primaries on February 18 for the Cedarburg School Board and the Mequon-Thiensville School Board. No other races currently will require a primary. But if a third candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction emerges, there will need to be a statewide primary for that race on everyone's ballot on February 18.

Let me start by thanking every one of our supporters who DID SOMETHING to try to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz: writing postcards, making phone calls, canvassing, handing out informational flyers on campuses, giving generously to candidates, putting out yard signs, even just urging like-minded family and friends to vote. Nationally, we fell well short of the goal; among the other battleground states we fell short, too. But Wisconsin came the closest of all the battleground states: Harris/Walz lost by a mere 1.5%. And while almost every county in the US shifted toward Republicans, our so-called WOW counties all shifted LEFT! Together we did vital work. So take some time to refresh and renew. We will need to go back to work in a big way after the New Year to elect Susan Crawford to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, thus preserving the liberal majority.

There's of course plenty to say about the national political scene. Every day, the news is full of Trump's activities. And his nominations for key government positions — like Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, and Secretary of Health and Human Services — are abominations. Amid questions about whether any House Republicans on the Ethics Committee will vote to release the Matt Gaetz report to the Senate Judiciary Committee or to the public, the New York Times and the Washington Post provide endless coverage of the president-elect's picks with scant critique. Left-leaning cable news hosts wring their hands. Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski traipse down to Mar-a-Lago to make nice and make up to Trump. I could spend the entire newsletter lamenting these events. But I won't.

It's just my view, but watching as each individual car is added to the train whose wreck we can easily foresee is mostly pointless and a waste of our collective breaths. Instead, I want to focus on the election results in Wisconsin where, in fact, the outcomes were fantastic. You already know that Democrats flipped 10 Assembly seats and four key state Senate seats, including the seat now to be held by Jodi Habush Sinykin. And Tammy Baldwin won re-election even if her opponent remains petulant and obstinent. What I have to add to the story is evidence that the work Grassroots North Shore (and the Democratic Party) collectively did has a visible outcome once you look at the data. A subset of the data is available on our website. (You can download the full spreadsheet here. )

Ninety-two percent of all US continues shifted red — toward Republicans. Although Harris lost Ozaukee County by about 10.40%, the "blue shift" in county was about 1.1%. Here's Ben Wikler's take:

Harris WON Cedarburg with 50% of the vote to Trump's 48% (the remaining 2% having gone to third party candidates or write-ins). She also won Thiensville, 50.21% to 49.79%. Tammy Baldwin lost Cedarburg by a mere 92 votes and Jodi Habush Sinykin by only 49 votes. In Mequon, Harris lost the city by 92 votes out of 17,268 ballots cast for the major party candidates for president. Hovde squeaked by Baldwin in Mequon by 1233 out of 16,675 votes for US Senator and Stroebel beat Habush Sinykin by just 341 votes out of 17,191 cast.

Democratic candidates — Kamala Harris, Tammy Baldwin, and Jodi Habush Sinykin — won big in all seven North Shore communities. Harris's margins ranged from a low of 57.60% in River Hills to a high of 84.15% in Shorewood. The same is true for Baldwin and Habush Sinykin. The numbers Habush Sinykin garnered from North Shore communities propelled her win. Turnout in these seven municipalities equalled or topped 90%!

The ballot question (Constitutional amendment) won with 70% of the vote statewide, but not in the North Shore. I want to dwell on this fact because the activities Grassroots North Shore was able to undertake focused on defeating that ballot question even though none of the Democratic literature our canvassers were distributing even mentioned the matter. The almost 9,000 phone calls we made to follow up on the postcards we had previously sent delivered strong messaging about the ballot question. Most impactful, several of the canvass staging locations in the North Shore provided volunteers with talking points and a bookmark-style handout for their routes. The result of these efforts is visible in the voting patterns. In the six communities where we delivered the VOTE NO bookmarks, four voted to defeat the ballot question: 53% to 47% in Bayside; 54% to 46% in Fox Point; 69% to 31% in Shorewood; and 55% to 45% in Whitefish Bay.

Glendale (49% NO and 51% YES) and River Hills (41% NO and 59% YES) bucked the trend. But even in these two communities, the percent of NO votes was much higher than the percent of NO votes state wide (30% NO and 70% YES).

We did not win Wisconsin this time. But our dedicated work was decidedly not in vain. Our North Shore communities' vote for Democrats by widening numbers. And the work Grassroots North Shore and the Democratic Party of Ozaukee County are doing in those communities is clearly paying off and building for greater impact in the future.

And let us not underestimate the new distribution of power in the legislature. The gerrymandered maps under which we labored for 14 years have given way to fair maps that reinstate many truly competitive districts, giving both parties opportunities to form a majority. Not only is that a fitting outcome for a state as purple as ours, it means that whichever party temporarily holds the gavel will increasingly have to work with the other party to move Wisconsin forward. BUT fair maps for the future are far from guaranteed!

We will need the legislature to pass and the governor to sign a law that protects the state from future gerrymanders, by either party. And ultimately Wisconsin will need to pass a constitutional amendment to ensure fair maps going forward.

Meanwhile there is more work to be done. And SOON. The technically non-partisan race for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat is already in full swing. Susan Crawford, a former prosecutor and current Circuit Court judge, is already running hard for the seat. She has been endorsed by the Democratic Party. More importantly, she has been endorsed by all four liberal justices: Ann Walsh Bradley (who is retiring and whose seat Susan Crawford is seeking), Rebecca Dallet, Jill Karofsky, and Janet Protaseiwicz. Electing her is a short-term guarantee of fair maps in 2026 and 2028.

Many of you gave your all in 2024. Take time to take care of yourselves, to support fellow progressives, to enjoy the company of friends and family through the holidays coming up. We may not be able to combat every pernicious policy the Trump administration pursues, but it's clear we can impact the lives of Wisconsinites in the communities where we live. So join us as we gear up to fight the next battle here in Wisconsin. What we can lose: the right to bodily autonomy, fair maps, protection from the devastations of climate change and a host of other critical issues. What we can gain: a fairer and less doctrinaire high court.

I apologize for failing to produce a newsletter last week — I was really busy trying to find and analyze the election data relevant to the work of Grassroots North Shore. And I plan to take Thanksgiving week off too. So expect the next newsletter as we begin December. Let the holidays commence!

I hardly know how to begin this belated newsletter. I apologize for failing to write it yesterday. The outcome of the election nationally was just too painful to confront. Today, though, I am picking myself up and finding the determination to plan for the future we did not want and to which we will not surrender. I am joining a Zoom call tonight, organized by MoveOn.org and 200 other progressive organizations, “to lay out concrete actions people can take this week, and share thoughts on the path forward.” I hope you will join me. The Post-Election Mass Call will begin at 7pm CST.

On that same note but closer to home, North Shore Fair Maps is holding its next meeting at 7 PM CT Monday, November 11, when we will hear from Edgar Lin (Protect Democracy), who will discuss the decline of democracy in the US and abroad, as well as the authoritarian playbook. We will delve into what the journey from Election Day to Inauguration might look like, and give participants actions they can take right now. Register.

Democratic governments all over the world are under stress and have been since at least the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Apparently (I have not verified this), governing parties in developed countries who were facing elections this year all lost vote share. They were not all defeated but even when they were re-elected their share of the vote declined. We are not alone. And Wisconsin nearly escaped the trend. Read on.

I have not yet looked at the election data for the North Shore and Ozaukee Counties. But Ben Wikler has. And there are some bright spots for Wisconsin. On an X post, he writes, "The red wave hit this year: a ~6% national swing to Trump, from 2020 margins. In Wisconsin, thousands of heroes pulled the swing down to 1.5%. More D votes statewide & in 46 counties. Tammy Baldwin won. Huge wins in the state legislature." Later in the thread, he notes that "Kamala Harris won more votes than any other presidential candidate in Wisconsin history, with two exceptions: Barack Obama in 2008 (who won 9,221 more votes while winning a 14-point landslide), and Donald Trump in 2024." The margin of victory in the presidential race in Wisconsin was a tiny 0.87%. Wikler says it was the closest of any state in the nation and I believe him.

Fair(er) maps, and the hard work so many volunteers did, brought us a reformed legislature. The Democratic Party targeted four state senate seats and won them all, including of course our own Senate District 8 candidate, Jodi Habush Sinykin! We also flipped 10 Assembly districts from Red to Blue. In short, the down ballot races won, indicating to me that there must have been significant ticket-splitting. We can look forward to a legislature that more closely resembles the voters of Wisconsin. While Democrats did not win majorities in either house, the stranglehold Republicans have enjoyed for 14 years has been broken. Perhaps we can look forward to some bipartisanship on issues that we care about: Medicaid expansion, money for rural hospitals, PFA mitigation efforts, funding for public schools. I can dream!

In more grim news, Milwaukee Alderman Jonathan Brostoff took his own life on Monday. It seems he walked into a gun shop in West Allis, purchased one, and then shot himself in a Milwaukee park. A funeral service for him will take place at the Zelazo Center tomorrow from 9 to 11 AM. If only we had red flag laws, waiting periods for gun purchases, better mental health support. Maybe he would still be among us, making Milwaukee a better place to work, to play, and to live.

Finally, I want to provide a link to Vice President Harris's concession speech, in case you did not watch it. It's all of 15 minutes long, including energetic applause as she began. Although she concedes the race, she does not concede the fight for freedom. "The light of America's promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting."

As Kamala Harris entreats us, "Do not despair. This not a time to throw up our hands. This is the time to roll up our sleeves." Keep the faith, friends. Keep the faith.

other important links

Become a Member of Grassroots North Shore	Milwaukee County Democratic Party
Support Grassroots North Shore	Ozaukee County Democratic Party

A mere six days to go. If you have not yet seen Vice President Harris give her speech on the Elipse last night, you really should take half an hour out of your day to watch it. The speech manages to go hard after TFG while at the same time providing a warm and welcoming face with an insistance in every move that Kamala Harris is in this race, not for herself, but for us. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the video.

The last Marquette Law School Poll of this election is out today. It streamed live at 12:15pm and will be up on its website sometime this afternoon. You MAY be able to watch Charles Franklin's presentation for yourself, even though the live stream is over. (If it's not available, watch the latest Randy Rainbow song MAGADU instead.)

The poll's sample is 5% more Republican than it had been earlier in the year. (Ugh!) Franklin defends the ratio by saying that's he's just reporting what the polled sample of random registered voters is telling us. The margin of error is 4.4%. Harris has a small 1% lead in the head-to-head match-up and 2% when 3rd party candidates are included. Franklin says that the winner of the state is anyone's guess. The senate race is also quite tight.

Other reputable polls show a wider win for Harris: the Cooperative Election Study shows Harris with a 50% - 46% lead over Trump (sample size 1542 in Wisconsin); the CNN/SRSS poll shows Harris with 51% to 45% for Trump. In both of these polls, our wonder woman is over 50%! Which is why it's better to be us than them. Franklin cautions that polls don't predict and don't vote. As always, we are within the margin of effort.

So DO AT LEAST ONE THING in the remaining six days. Please get in touch with family and friends TODAY to make sure they have a plan to vote, early if possible. Early voting continues in most places until close-of-business on Friday, November 1. In Milwaukee, early voting continues on Saturday, November 2. You can find precise information for North Shore suburbs and many communities in Ozaukee County on our website. Information about early voting locations in Milwaukee is here.

Predicting electoral outcomes is a tricky business, apparently. (As if we didn't already know that.) Allan Lichtman, who does not poll but who uses a schema of 13 "keys" to analyze elections and who has correctly predicted every election save one since 1982, calls it for Harris. Dana Taylor, on The Excerpt podcast, asks Professor Lichtman "Who do you think will win in November?" Lichtman answers: "It's not who I think. It's who my system, the 13 keys to the White House, predicts, and according to the keys to the White House, we are going to have a new and pathbreaking American president. Kamala Harris will become the first woman President of the United States, at least cracking, if not shattering the glass ceiling, and she'll become the first American president of mixed African and East Asian descent, foreshadowing where our country is going. We are rapidly becoming a majority-minority country. Old white guys like me are on the decline."

But many people, my husband included, experience high levels of anxiety about what comes after a close election that Harris and Walz win. As a result, the procedures for counting and certifying the votes become very important. They came close to failing us in 2020. So I want to use most of the rest of this newsletter to provide a detailed account of the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA) of 2022. According to Cass Sunstein in the Wall Street Journal (unfortunately behind a paywall), "The Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022, which amended the Electoral Count Act of 1887, greatly reduces the risk of uncertainty and chaos after Americans vote." You can read an excerpt of Sunstein's article on the Election Law Blog.

Here's the detailed account that should lower anxiety about what those who would overthrow legitimate election results will face this time around. In 2020, we know that the Trump camp engaged in several attempts to subvert the election of President Biden and Vice President Harris. The efforts included law suits (still available to aggrieved parties in 2024); failed attempts not to certify election results at both local and state levels; failed attempts to persuade legislatures to certify a "corrected set of facts;" sending the votes of fraudulent electors to Congress; enlisting representatives and senators to object to the certified election results of several states; and of course an insurrection when the other efforts all failed. Many of those avenues have been closed by the ECRA. Here are some of its key provisions:

Of course, the ECRA cannot foreclose another attack at the US Capitol. But Trump is no longer president and lacks the power to summon a mob to DC without those who are in charge of security for January 6, 2025, as well as the period between that day and the inauguration, taking the proper precautions. President Biden will be in charge and we can count of him and his team to make sure that Congress is secure.

We are in the final days of this election. So I have added a special section on signing up to canvass in various area. The walk lists now contain the people we need to turn out to vote. The reports about conversations at the doors since the WisDems started the GOTV period have been pleasant and then some. Participating in the ground game is now the most important action you can take. And if you can't canvass yourself, recruit a friend who can and drive them through their list. Every one of us must dig deep and do the utmost that we can. I'm closing with an uplifting video from Amplify to spur you on.

Key to Winning: Get Out the Vote

Canvassing

North Shore
    • Brown Deer
    • Fox Point
    • Glendale
    • Shorewood
    • Whitefish Bay
Ozaukee County
    • Grafton & Cedarburg
    • Mequon
    • Port Washington
Washington & Waukesha Counties
    • Germantown
    • Menomonee Falls

Canvassing on weekdays
    • Glendale, 2:00pm and 4:00pm
    • Whitefish Bay, 4:30pm

Phonebanking
    • Fox Point, Thursday October 31, 7:00 - 8:30pm.
    • Wauwatosa, Thursday October 31, 4:30 - 7:00pm.

Hurry up, please. It's time. We are within the penumbra of Election Day — really the final day of the election since all over the country millions of people have already cast their ballots. Including me. Early in person voting began yesterday in Wisconsin. If you need to know the schedule for your North Shore community, visit our early voting information page. For the city of Milwaukee, go here. So here's what you need to be doing to close strong.

First, VOTE EARLY. There was a report yesterday on Daily Kos that "so many people have shown up that the state system [in Wisconsin] has crashed." This is NOT A BAD THING! It just means that clerks' offices were unable to access the state system to record who had voted. But the votes themselves are securely in the hands of the clerks. "The system will record you as having voted early/absentee once the election workers can get in the system to update it."

Second, MULTIPLY YOUR VOTE by making sure family members and friends have made a specific plan to vote. Urge them to vote early too. Early voting has several advantages: 1) it removes the voter's name from the phone and canvass contact lists so that the Democrats can focus on less reliable voters; 2) it's more convenient for many people; 3) usually lines are shorter and therefore wait times are shorter; and 4) you never know what will happen on Election Day. A sudden illness, a family emergency, an accident: don't let those kinds of things derail you. VOTE EARLY.

Third, CANVASS. I know, I know: it's outside your comfort zone. Or you can no longer do that much walking or climbing steps to front doors. The solutions are to find someone to go with and either share the walk or drive someone through their list. Sure you're likely to talk to relatively few people. But remember, a winning number comes from an extra 3 or 4 votes in each ward. So be one of the people who can make that difference. To help you sign up, here is a list of events.

Get Out The Vote, generally 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm

North Shore
    • Brown Deer
    • Fox Point
    • Glendale
    • Shorewood
    • Whitefish Bay
Ozaukee County
    • Grafton & Cedarburg
    • Mequon
    • Port Washington
Washington & Waukesha Counties
    • Germantown
    • Menomonee Falls

New this week: opportunities to canvass on weekdays. 
    • Glendale, 2:00pm and 4:00pm
    • Whitefish Bay, 4:30pm

Phonebanking
    • Fox Point, Thursday October 24, and Thursday October 31, 7:00 - 8:30pm.
    • Wauwatosa, Thursday, October 24, 6:30 - 9:00pm, and Thursday October 31, 4:30 - 7:00pm.

YARD SIGNS: We have some Harris/Walz signs you can pick up from Cheryl Maranto (Glendale), Norma Gilson (Shorewood), Nancy Kaplan (Glendale), Andy Berger (Fox Point and Bayside), and Shirley Horowitz (Whitefish Bay). Please email them to make arrangements and get their addresses.

Now for some newsier news. Former Dolt 45's longest serving chief of staff, John Kelly calls Trumpelthinskin a fascist (New York Times, October 22, 2024, gift link). In three interviews with Michael Schmidt, "Mr. Kelly expanded on his previously expressed concerns and stressed that voters, in his view, should consider fitness and character when selecting a president, even more than a candidate’s stances on the issues." Robert Paxton, a leading historian of mid-20th century Europe, thought the label was overused. But now, apparently, he's rethought his views. Is It Fascism? A Leading Historian Changes His Mind (New York Times, October 23, 2024, gift link). It's not clear that any of this will matter. But at least Bret Stephens, opinion writer for the NY Times, admitted on Monday that he's going to vote for Harris. Small victories.

I am often asked how I'm feeling about the Wisconsin election outcome or the national election outcome. Like Simon Rosenberg, in his substack Hopium Chronicles always says, I'd rather be us than them. (Yesterday's Hopium headline "VP Harris Leads By 3 and 4 In New Polls.") But I don't have a crystal ball and no one I know does either. We are always within the margin of effort. Still, having said all those cautionary things, I have a view: we are winning and will win if we do the work in front of us.

EVENTS

Wednesday, October 23

Thursday, October 24

Friday, October 25

Saturday and Sunday, October 26 and 27; Saturday and Sunday, November 2 and 3; Monday, November 4; Tuesday, November 5

Get Out The Vote, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm

SAVE THE DATE

Monday, November 11

other important links

The end of election season — what we call Election Day — is a mere three weeks away. To make your effort to be an informed voter a bit easier, Grassroots North Shore has much of the information you need on our Elections 2024 pages:

• Presidential Election: side by side comparison of issue postions;
• Ballot Question (Constitutional Amendment);
• Project 2025;
• Early in-person voting for the North Shore and Ozaukee County;
• Drop box locations and early in-person voting for the City of Milwaukee.

As part of our ongoing efforts to find our voters and turn them out, we are beginning our outreach to students on campuses in the area. Volunteers are needed at UWM and MIAD (and maybe MSOE) to encourage students to vote during early in-person voting (Oct. 22-Nov. 1). Volunteers will be on the campuses these days with handouts that focus on the freedom messaging, a comparison and contrast between Harris and Trump, registration information and information about voting NO on the constitutional amendment. Shifts are 11-1 or 1-3. at UWM and 11-1 at MIAD, but you are welcome to go at other times that are more convenient for you. We identify high traffic locations around the perimeter of the campus and on Spaights Plaza to catch students as they dash by. Volunteers will definitely get lots of their steps in while trying to catch the students for a minute of conversation! Contact Norma Gilson if you are able to volunteer.

On the legal fronts — and there are many, there's big news out of Georgia where a rogue State Election Board has been fomenting chaos by changing voting rules and trying to make certification of elections at the county level less certain and more time-consuming. Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney ruled that "election superintendents in Georgia have a mandatory fixed obligation to certify election results" by the statutory deadline: November 12.

The same judge blocked an election rule "that would require a hand count of ballots on election night," writing that the State Election Board rule will not take effect before November’s contest. The hand-count rule would have gone into effect on October 22. In his opinion delivered on October 15, Judge McBurney said that "his decision was not final and would be further detailed at a later date, but not until after the election" (The Hill, October 15, 2024).

Both decisions thwarted MAGA cultists from carrying out their plans to delay and to cause sufficient upheaval to allow the campaign of Benedict DonOld to challenge the election results.

Meanwhile, in the Insurrection Case in D.C., Judge Chutkan ruled on October 10 that the appendix to Special Counsel Jack Smith's brief can be released in redacted form but stayed the ruling for seven days to give The Big Lie-bowski and his team time to consider how to respond. Time's up tomorrow!

The brief itself has already been released (you can read it here). In it, Jack Smith outlines why the actions Cheeto Benito took to overturn the election — the false electors plot, the attempted corruption of state officials, the effort to persuade Mike Pence in his capacity as President of the Senate to count the "alternate electors" or to send the "disputed" outcomes back to the states, and finally the creation of a mob to overrun the Capitol in hopes of disrupting the count of Electoral College votes — were the actions of a candidate (office seeker) and not those of a president (office holder) acting in his official capacity.

Boss Tweet and his lawyers continue to argue that Chutkan's recent judicial rulings amount to election interference. Judge Chutkan is not buying it, again. Assuming the defendant pursues an appeal to the Circuit Court, his lawyers can request a longer stay so that the matter can be heard. If the panel of the Circuit Court agrees, the parts of the four exhibits in Jack Smith's appendix to his filing will not be released until after then election. This case, often short-handed as the Jan. 6 case, grinds on, albeit slowly.

In the case of the purloined classified documents that Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed, Special Counsel Jack Smith filed an appeal in late August to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Dolt 45's team had 30 days to reply to the special counsel's brief. So far, crickets.

Now to the election at hand: DO NOT WATCH THE POLLS! They cannot tell you anything about the outcome of the election. You might as well be reading palms or tea leaves. The election is going to be close, in this state and in all the battleground states. If you're eaten up with anxiety, try watching some of Randy Rainbow's hilarious takes on the election. Two in particular have tickled my funny bone: The Lawyer or the Conman and Blank Space (Donald's Version). And if, after chuckling, you can't give up biting your nails, try reading Josh Marshal's TPM post, Some Deep Thoughts On Why Dems Are So Prone to Recurrent Freak Outs. Marshall may be able to talk you off the ledge.

The name of the game: the Ground Game is here in full force. There are lots of questions about the MAGA campaign apparatus and their Get Out the Vote effort. For a sense of where they are, have a look at the PBS News piece from September 23: Republican activists say little sign of door-knocking for Trump in swing states. On the other hand, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has been in the field for months and months, building its capacity to knock on doors. Now it is holding a big Weekend of Action on Saturday, October 19, and Sunday, October 20. I've listed a lot of the canvassing opportunities in the events list but it's so important, I'm going to include them here also. Some of us can no longer canvass, but most of us can drive, right? So if that describes you, sign up for a canvass and then take a canvasser in your car to make the work of knocking doors consume less time and energy. Here's a list:

So, as Rabbi Hillel the Elder is said to written, "If not now, when?"

PS: about yard signs: We have some you can pick up from Cheryl Maranto (Glendale), Norma Gilson (Shorewood), Nancy Kaplan (Glendale), Andy Berger (Fox Point and Bayside), and Shirley Horowitz (Whitefish Bay). Please email them to make arrangements and get their addresses.

Last week Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a brief in Judge Chutkin's court, laying out in greater detail the case against Benedict Donald and his plots to overturn the 2020 presidential election, using four distinct approaches: 1) the fraudulent electors scheme, 2) the pressure on state legislators, 3) the pressure on VP Pence, and 4) the insurrection. There was substantial media coverage of the 165+ pages, mostly teasing out nuggets of new information. For example, the New York Times introduced its post of the full brief with the headline Read the Special Counsel’s Newly Unsealed Evidence Against Trump. In their analysis, Alan Feuer and Charlie Savage focus on the new evidence even while acknowledging that the purpose of the filing is to argue that Dolt 45 is not immune from prosecution for these acts. The Washington Post also focused on the new evidence in the brief:

More interesting, to me at least, is an analysis by Stanford criminal law expert David Sklansky:

Sklansky gets right to the core of the matter. The new evidence in the filing "would be shocking and explosive," except that we already knew so much similar evidence that the new pieces don't really illuminate additional legal angles. The filing is significant, he says, because of what it reveals about the special counsel's approach. Sklansky argues that the case Smith is bringing is all about fraud. "It doesn’t charge Trump with insurrection, or with instigating the assault on the Capitol. Trump is charged with trying to take advantage of the January 6 riot, but not with provoking it. But the prosecutors’ filing makes clear that they intend to prove at trial that Trump did intentionally egg on the rioters."

Legal eagles will note that a fraud case depends heavily on the prosecutor's case that the fraudster knew what he was claiming — that he won the 2020 election — was false. Hence the avalanche of evidence in the brief. Sklansky considers "the evidence of Trump’s fraudulent intent — the evidence that he knew he was lying — is vastly stronger than in most [other fraud] cases. Fraud cases usually proceed, and often are successful, with significantly less evidence of fraudulent intent than Smith and his team have outlined in this case."

The Cowardly Lyin’ and his lawyers have until November 7 to respond to this brief and to try to claim that the acts Don the Con undertook and the evidence that he knew he was lying are all protected with the ersatz immunity the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) gifted to him. It will undoubtedly be a very long time before this case makes it into a courtroom, since whatever Judge Chutkin rules on the immunity question will be appealed, perhaps more than once, to SCOTUS. Also, of course, if Adolf Twitler is elected again, the case goes away forever.

Turning now to the election here, there is some confusion about the availability of drop boxes for those of us who vote by absentee ballot. While the Wisconsin Supreme Court reinstated municipalities' ability to use them for elections, the court left it to the clerks (some 1800 of them in Wisconsin) to decide whether they would be available. Some clerks have in fact chosen not to use one. So it's best if you call your municipal clerk to ask. Note: Absentee voters in the City of Milwaukee — Drop boxes will be operational by 10:30am on Monday, October 14, 2024 through Election Day, Tuesday November 5, 2024 until 6:00pm. You'll find a list of drop box locations and early voting places and schedules on our site.

Your Do Something List

Jodi Habush Sinykin: More Postcard Bags available for pickup!!!!!!
We have 60 more postcards bags for pickup... first come first served! The bags will live on my front doorstep in cardboard box... please stop by whenever suits you from now (Tuesday, Oct 8th), through this weekend (Sunday, October 13th). Address is 400 E Daphne Road, Fox Point WI, 53217. Limit of 2 bags per person. Please text or call 414-795-1433 with any questions. If you take a bag of postcards, PLEASE CONSIDER SIGNING UP FOR A CANVASSING SHIFT AS WELL!

Supermarket Legends
Help register students at UWM during a two-hour shift. We will have a table in the library on Tuesday, October 15, and Wednesday, October 16. Indicate whether you are available in the morning or afternoon. Contact Sue Schneidler to volunteer.

WisDems
WisDems have opened an office on the corner of E. North and Vel Phillips Ave. where they are preparing for a big push in the final weeks leading up to Election Day. This will be the staging area for canvassing and other activities. I am among volunteers supporting their work, and we are looking for help. Can you help support the cause? Here is what we need.
    • Bottled water for canvassers
    • Grab-and-go snacks for volunteers, including healthy options
    • Ready-to-eat meals for staff members, either purchased (e.g., sandwiches) or homemade (e.g., crock-pot chili or soup)
    • Coffee and tea supplies
We are looking to fill specific slots of time. We're still verifying the schedule, but we know for sure we'd need items on these days:
    • Sat. Oct. 19, Sun. Oct. 20, Sat. Oct. 26, Sun. Oct. 27
    • Sat. Nov. 2, Sun. Nov. 3, Mon. Nov. 4, Tues. Nov. 5
We will ask that items be both dropped off and, if needed, picked up (such as a crock pot or chafing dish). To volunteer to help, email Diane Bacha.

WisDems Voter Protection

1. Be a WisDems Poll Observer this November!
   Want to be an incredible in-person resource for Wisconsin voters on Election Day? Join our team as a poll observer! Poll observers are the eyes and ears of our team on Election Day and are stationed at polling locations across the state, ready to help voters with any issues they might face when casting their ballot. Without observers, we simply cannot protect the ballot on Election Day. You can sign up to be an observer with our team this November 5th by filling out this form: wisdems.org/novemberpollobserver. Additionally, feel free to share that link with friends or family that you think would be interested in joining our program! Sign up to be a poll observer now!
   
   
2. UPCOMING: Help recruit Poll Observers to defend democracy!
   Our team has phonebanks four times a week through mid October to recruit volunteer poll observers for the upcoming election. These calls are fun, easy, and incredibly rewarding – as you know, every poll observer we recruit is an additional resource to voters across the state. Poll observers are our biggest asset to protect the vote! Join a Recruitment Phonebank!
   
   
3. UPCOMING: Distributed Ballot Cure Trainings!
   Join the Cure team to directly help voters get their votes counted! In ballot cure calls, we call voters whose absentee ballots are in danger of rejection, and walk them through the steps to remedy it. It’s the most tangible way to defend democracy from the comfort of your own home. Once you’re trained, you can make calls on your own time. Sign up below! Sign up for a Distributed Cure Training!

One last thing before you hit the events list with its extensive opportunities to help the campaigns. Our founding father, Keith Schmitz, has posted an article — Happy Days Are Here Again — It’s Just That the GOP Is Refusing to Tell You That — on the Grassroots North Shore site. In it, he lays out solid evidence that, unlike Orange Julius, President Biden "strategically allocated funds to improve infrastructure, nurture a burgeoning green energy sector that promotes genuine energy independence, bring manufacturing back to the U.S., and fund research into technologies that will drive future innovation, along with job training to ensure the workforce can come along for the ride with these advancements." It's worth a read to shore up your own ability to explain why Bidenomics is, in fact, working.

So there was a debate between the candidates for Vice President. Who "won"? Does it matter? These are the questions foremost on the minds of political nerds. CNN ran an instant poll. The upshot: "No clear winner in VP debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance." Here's Politico's snap poll of likely voters: Dead even: POLITICO snap poll shows stark division on debate. "There was no decisive winner in the first-and-only vice presidential debate of the 2024 election."

There was a little bit of "fact-checking" by the moderators but the structure of many questions was already predicated on facts. Both the Washington Post and NPR have undertaken more comprehensive truth-telling investigations.The Washington Post checked 21 statements, 2/3rds of which were Vance's assertions, judged to be false or disingenuous or wrong or "a whitewash of Trump’s actions." Only three of the Walz statements were ruled "false." Two were said to be exaggerated. One was judged "true."

I counted 11 fact-checked statements in the NPR analysis. Ten were statements from JD Vance. Only one, the Tiananmen Square "issue" from 1989, was about Walz. That's a reach into the distant past: Vance was a young child then! Walz of course said he misspoke about being in China in June 1989. (He was there, but not until August that year.) And he was self-deprecating about it: "I've not been perfect, and I'm a knucklehead at times ... I got there that summer and misspoke on this." Surely that's enough said on what is after all a pretty trivial example of resumé fluffing.

In breaking news, the special counsel's last filing in the January 6 case is a "bombshell," according to abcNEWS.com. The New York Times article is a bit more restrained but the headline announces a key fact: "Judge Unseals New Evidence in Federal Election Case Against Trump." The filing was originally sealed. Judge Chutkin herself made its contents public. In response to the US Supreme Court ruling that presidents enjoy absolute immunity for "official acts," the special counsel argues that the acts included in the superseding indictment were "examples of Mr. Trump pursuing electioneering activity in his private role as a candidate for office, not as protected acts taken in his official capacity as president."

To poll junkies, I want to say "just don't!" But since they're going to seek out polls every day regardless, everyone ought to know that the Marquette Law School poll, overseen by Charles Franklin, was published today. The headline tells the top-line story: Presidential choices in Wisconsin hold steady in new Marquette Law School Poll results, with Harris at 52% and Trump at 48%. The 4-point margin is the same whether the responses are from registered voters or likely voters and also whether the test is head-to-head or includes third-party candidates. The margin of error is 4.4% for both registered and likely voters. So the news for Harris is pretty good in this state, but we're always within the "margin of effort.""

The poll also looked at the race for the Senate and found Baldwin besting Hovde 53% to 46% both among registered voters and among likely voters. Notably, "enthusiasm among Democrats is slightly higher than among Republicans in this poll, with 71% of Democrats saying they are very enthusiastic and 67% of Republicans also very enthusiastic." But the spread is wider if we consider the sum of those who are very and somewhat enthusiastic about the November election: 91% for Democrats and 84% for Republicans.

The final nuggets from the Marquette poll: of the 10 presidential candidates who will be listed on the Wisconsin ballot, only Tim Walz is viewed favorably! Harris is -3, Trump -11, Vance -13. Of the also-rans, Jill Stein comes in at -17 with RFK Jr a close -15. The preponderance of Wisconsin voters — 34% — consider themselves "moderate." Of those voters, 61% intend to vote for Harris! Voters for Trump include 94% of Republicans, 39% Independents, and 1% of Democrats (really?). But 99% of registered voters who consider themselves Democrats and 61% of those who consider themselves Independent say they are voting for Harris. As Simon Rosenberg (Hopium Chronicles) says, "I'd rather be us than them."

Voting everywhere, it seems, is more complicated than it needs to be. And Wisconsin seems to rate high on the list of places where it is often confusing. We do our best to bring you accurate and timely information about aspects of Wisconsin voting rules. Absentee voting is underway. You can request an absentee ballot at MyVote.WI.gov until October 16. In some places you can use a drop box to return the voted ballot. But in other places, like Glendale, you either have to put the certification envelope with your ballot inside into the US Mails or you have to return it in person to the clerk's office in your municipality. The same site can confirm your registration status, help you re-register if necessary, tell you how to contact your municipal clerk, and give you the location of your polling place.

Early in-person voting begins on Tuesday, October 22, and in most places ends on Friday, November 1. Visit our early voting page for specific information for your municipality. The City of Milwaukee has different locations, days and times for early voting. You'll find that information here.

The rest of the Elections 2024 pages provide some fabulous ads and other video content for the Kamala Harris and Tim Walz campaign. We also have a Side-by-Side Comparison of Key Campaign Issues. There's a little information about Project 2025 for you to read. (I plan to augment the page in the next week.) Perhaps the most important information for this election, though, is the Constitutional amendment on the November 5 ballot. Here's our page explaining what it is, why it's wrong for Wisconsin, and why you need to vote no. Once you've looked at it, please spread the word to family, friends and colleagues.

Here are some of the THINGS TO DO.

• North Shore Fair Maps, Monday October 4, 7:00pm (CT): "We'll Be Ready!"
  This virtual meeting will feature Alice Herman (The Guardian), Scott Thompson (Law Forward) and Alex Dubinsky (WisDems Voter Protection). The best way to prepare for the 2024 election season is to understand it. At our final pre-election meeting we go behind the curtain to see the Trump/MAGA and Democrat ground game (what Alice Herman sees and hears from voters); learn what lawyers are doing to be ready for controversy (Law Forward is gearing up); hear how voter protection experts will insure a free and fair election (the WisDems VoPro team is hard at work); and find out what WE can to do to help. We will also get a Fair Maps update from our own Carlene Bechen. SPECIAL NOTES: THIS MEETING IS CLOSED TO THE PRESS: NO RECORDING OF THIS MEETING WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE. Register.
• Souls to the Polls.
  Souls To The Polls (STP) is planning to drop flyers at homes in the neighborhoods surrounding several early vote sites. We really need volunteers to help in this important effort. The Early vote begins Tuesday October 22 and ends Sunday November 3rd. We have set two dates for door hanging the Souls to the Polls flyers. We plan to meet at the parking lot in front of the Police Station at 2333 N 49th St Milwaukee, WI 53210 on Saturday Oct. 19th at 10 am and Sunday Oct. 20th at 1 pm. We will get the flyers and maps to the volunteers and go over the details to get people started with the distribution in that neighborhood. The flyers include a phone number to call Souls to the Polls if someone needs a ride to go vote and information about early voting. This will be putting lit in doors. No door knocking. If you can volunteer, please e-mail Leanne Wied or call her at 262-366-5356.
• Republicans for Harris/Walz Weekly Phone Banks, Every Wednesday at 6:00pm Online.
  This election is about ensuring a better future for our country. We all know what's at stake, and your voice can help elect Kamala Harris and defeat Donald Trump in November. By connecting with Republican and Independent voters, we can build bridges and bring more people into this movement for change. Whether you've volunteered before or are new to phone banking, we welcome everyone. Your participation is crucial in reaching out to voters, having meaningful conversations, and getting them ready to cast their ballots for Kamala Harris. Sign up.

The events listed below are full of canvassing opportunities. If you can canvass, please sign up for at least one shift. We're in the penumbra of the election. Some of us have already voted! And there's no time to lose. If you can't canvass, please sign up with me (Nancy Kaplan) to phone likely Democratic women who recently received a post card encouraging them to vote for Democratic candidates. These follow-up phone calls focus on the Constitutional amendment almost no one seems to know about. They also encourage people to vote early if at all possible. It's important that we beat the MAGA Republicans. But it is also important that we defeat the proposed amendment.

We are also preparing handouts for students on the UWM and MIAD campuses. We could use more volunteers to help talk to students about voting. On UWM's campas, the Zelazo Center will be open for early in-person voting. And the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center will be a polling place for people in wards 123 and 126 in Milwaukee. If you'd like to sign up to hand out flyers, contact Norma Gilson.

YARD SIGNS! While they last, of course. You can pick one up at Cheryl Maranto's: email or text (414-429-1583 ) her to make arrangements. Mark Gennis has some as well. Again, contact him by email .

Before we get to the all important opportunities for you to DO SOMETHING to elect Democrats to all the offices on your November 5 ballot, I want to start with a recently passed national election law that could mitigate the effects of, for example, the dozens of changes the Georgia Election Board has just made to election procedures, most of which are designed to gum up the works. Other states are also rushing to make changes even as the election draws near and early voting has already begun in many states. (Note: absentee ballots have already started to be mailed in Wisconsin. I voted and returned mine yesterday! You can still request yours online until October 16.) The media have been covering these new election rules with a slightly breathless and panicky air. But help is at hand.

So, a lot of pixels and ink have been devoted to divining the state of the presidential race. Poll after poll after poll keeps telling us that it's going to be a nail biter. Yet almost no reporting has looked at what happens between the day all the votes have been cast and the certification of the election on January 6, 2025. That period between early November and January 6, 2021, is where the Barbecued Brutus campaign did most of its consequential mischief after all. It is really worth our while, then, to learn about the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA). Knowing how much ECRA has clarified and changed the numerous activities that take place once the polls close might lower your anxiety level about what destructive activities the MAGAs could try. So here is the Campaign Legal Center's explanation of the law.

Watch the program.

Especially important, it seems to me, is the provision that any state failing to certify its results by the specified deadline will simply be subtracted from the total electoral votes cast. So, for example, if Georgia misses the deadline for certifying because, say, some county officials refuse to certify the vote in their jurisdictions, the total number of electoral votes cast will be reduced by 16, the number of electoral votes allocated to that state. As a result, the new majority number needed to win will also be reduced, from 270 to 262.

Equally important, before ECRA, challenges to Electoral College votes needed just one representative and one senator to send the House and the Senate to their respective chambers to debate the objection. ECRA now requires that challenges to Electoral College votes come from 20% of EACH house of Congress. The threshold is not, of course, insurmountable but it is much more difficult to achieve.

An article in the September 24 issue of Urban Milwaukee — Can Wisconsin Handle Election Deniers This Time? — provides a good look at the myriad conspiracy theories in Wisconsin after the 2020 election and then notes that "despite the hold that election conspiracy theories have on a subset of Wisconsin Republicans, elections experts say the state is prepared for 2024 and unlikely to see a repeat of the 2020 effort to overturn results."

So ECRA and the preventive plans already laid in place might calm some fears, but the issues in this election definitely amp them up. On September 8, Grassroots North Shore held a program to elucidate what future the MAGAites have planned for us and what we have done and can do to defeat it. In the spirit of forewarned is forearmed, you should see it: the video. Attorney General Josh Kaul, the lead-off speaker (beginning at about 6 minutes and 25), reminds us of how much Democrats and progressives have won in Wisconsin over the last seven years. He's followed by Kathleen Schluter, who lays out what White Christian nationalists are trying to achieve. The final speaker, Joe Zepecki, a seasoned political manager, pumped us all up. Please, share it widely. Also have a look at the video, Once Democracy is Gone on YouTube.

As we rush headlong into getting all of our supporters to vote, you should be aware that there is more on the ballot than the candidates. We face yet another ballot question that directly addresses our voting rights. The League of Women Voters has been a leader on the Vote No campaign to defeat the ballot question/constitutional amendment: make sure you read the Vote No November landing page and watch a recording of their recent webinar on the topic. And then talk to your family, friends, and neighbors about voting NO on this ballot question.

As a key part of Grassroots North Shore's efforts to inform voters and to get like-minded people to the polls, we are beginning to phone the women in the North Shore and in the entire 8th Senate District to whom we sent post cards. While the cards promoted voting for key candidates, the calls focus on the ballot question and on absentee and early voting. It's quite a large number for us to try to accomplish. Some of you have already volunteered to make these calls, but we need many more. If you can take a call list, please contact Nancy Kaplan, [email protected].

Now here are some of the things you could and should be doing (in addition to all the canvassing opportunities you will find in the events listing):

Coming right up: the VEEP debate on Tuesday, October 1. You won't want to miss the chance to watch seasoned Governor Tim Walz waltz all over the least popular VP pick in forever. He's no hillbilly. More like a starched shirt: wrinkle free but really unpleasant to wear. The festivities are being held at the Bavarian Bierhaus, 700 W Lexington Blvd, Glendale, from 6:30 - 10:00pm. The show is free! So Sign up.

The events list includes numerous campaign opportunities, especially canvassing, the gold standard for turnout elections like this one. Although it's happening nearly every day from now until November 5, the listings focus on weekend canvassing. I cannot stress enough how important it is to help. A lot of us, myself included, cannot manage the physical stamina it takes to walk a turf. If that describes you, then sign up to make calls instead, even if you have to move outside your comfort zone. Do not leave this work to others. It will take all of us to win.

Another election — another constitutional amendment ballot question. Unlike the two ballot questions we defeated in August, this one undermines our right to vote. On the surface it seems unusually meaningless. The current language reads: "Every United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district in this state is a qualified elector of that district who may vote in an election for national, state, or local office or at a statewide or local referendum." The text of the ballot question reads: "Shall section 1 of article III of the constitution, which deals with suffrage, be amended to provide that only a United States citizen age 18 or older who resides in an election district may vote in an election for national, state, or local office or at a statewide or local referendum?" In other words, the amendment would change "every United States citizen" to "only a United States citizen." See Ballotpedia for the full text.

So why is this change so pernicious? For one thing, it's unnecessary. It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote. For another thing, it's vanishingly rare for someone who is not eligible to try to vote. Since 2019, only three people who were not eligible nevertheless tried to vote in Wisconsin! For a third thing, the amendment process circumvents the governor. The legislature originally passed this language as a bill but Governor Evers vetoed it.The GOP-gerrymandered legislature could not muster the votes to override the veto and so is trying to amend the constitution instead because the Governor cannot veto a proposed constitutional amendment.

More importantly, the change opens the door to unwarranted challenges to voter registration and participation by allowing election officials, poll observers, and others to challenge voters to prove their citizenship with a birth certificate, naturalization papers, or a passport, documents to which as many as one in 10 Americans lack easy access. So we urge you to VOTE NO and to encourage your family and friends to so the same. In the section of the newsletter with details about how you can DO SOMETHING, you can sign up to write postcards about this amendment to other Wisconsin voters.

On the state of the presidential race since the debate, Simon Rosenberg has some cheery news for us in yesterday's Hopium Chronicles. All the polls cited can be found on 538. Here's a sampling:

• Harris 51-43 (+8) Big Village (new this am, +4 pts from before debate)
• Harris 51-45 (+6) Morning Consult (new this am, +3 since last Monday)
• Harris 52-46 (+6) Ipsos/ABC
• Harris 49-44 (+5) Monmouth
• Harris 47-42 (+5) Ipsos/Reuters
• Harris 51-47 (+4) RMG
• Harris 50-46 (+4) Data For Progress

The latest Marquette Law School Poll, in the field before the debate but after the Democratic National Convention, showed that Harris has a 4 point lead over the Butternut Berlusconi, still within the 4.6 margin of error but 3 points better than the previous poll. You can find a discussion of the results on Marquette University Law School website. The poll includes results for the US Senate race between Tammy Baldwin and Eric Hovde. It is also the subject of WisEye's Rewind. The conversation is full of caveats. And I'll add mine: polls have not been our best friends in the last two presidential elections. Best not to put too much weight on them. Instead, remember that we are always inside the margin of effort.

In RFK Jr news, a district court has ruled that his name must remain on the Wisconsin ballot. For a nerdy legal treat, you can view Judge Ehlke eviscerating Kennedy's case. Kennedy has now appealed. Whether his name remains on the ballot matters because in the latest Marquette poll, he stands at 6%. If he were pulling more votes away from the Harris/Walz ticket, he would want to remain on the ballot. The fact that he is trying so hard to be removed speaks volumes about who his campaign (or Adolf Twitler's) thinks voters for him would be harming.

In fact, ballots have already been sent to Americans abroad and will soon be mailed to those who have already requested absentee ballots. In its filing for the 2nd District Court of Appeals, the Wisconsin Department of Justice writes that "what Petitioner cannot do is require his name to be removed from the ballot: Wis. Stat. § 8.35(1) prohibits candidates from withdrawing once they have qualified." The brief goes on to note that at this late date, removing Kennedy's name from the ballot would force "county and municipal elections officials to miss state and federal deadlines for providing ballots to absentee voters, including military and overseas voters. The timing barrier here is just as acute as in Hawkins, where the Wisconsin Supreme Court held it was too late for a change to the general election ballot. That harm far outweighs Petitioner’s desire to convey to voters his support for another candidate through his absence from Wisconsin ballots."

As part of his argument for removing his name from the ballot, Kennedy's lawyers apparently proposed placing a sticker on every one of the millions of ballots needed for the presidential election. The task would be "herculean." Plus, stickers might actually gum up the works. "The voting equipment to be used for the upcoming election has not been tested with stickers applied to ballots. The stickers could peel off, get jammed or stuck in the voting tabulator, or stick to and rip other ballots, to name a few possible likelihoods." Anyway, the filing states, "placing stickers on ballots is not legal."

This drama serves to remind us of just how harmful third party candidates can be in elections that are as close as those in Wisconsin have typically been. The Marquette poll cited above has the total of all third party votes at 10% of likely voters. Emilee Fannon on Rewind reports that Charles Franklin, the director of the poll, apparently expects the third party vote to dwindle by Election Day. It was about 3% in the 2020 election. But even that smaller proportion of the votes could affect the outcome here.

In a brief discussion, JR Ross, editor of Rewind, drills down on the race between Baldwin and Hovde to note that a major Republican super pac is not buying ad time in Wisconsin, possibly because Hovde is so wealthy that he may not need their funds but also possibly because Baldwin has just been so strong, winning by nearly 11% when she was last re-elected in 2018. Also notable is that the poll finds her with 52% of the vote. For those of us who are math-challenged that means more than half the respondents chose Baldwin in the most recent poll.

Before I turn you loose on the things you can be doing in the next couple of weeks, I want to make a case for voting early, either by absentee ballot or in-person. Voting early "banks" your vote, leaving you free on Election Day to do good work by driving people to the polls (sign up with Souls to the Polls), by doing some last minute canvassing to turn out the last votes, by being a poll observer (volunteer with the Wisconsin Democratic Party), or even by volunteering with your local municipal clerk to be an election inspector (i.e., a poll worker). Elections run on the labor of ordinary citizens as well as with paid election administrators. So working to make our elections free and fair is a wonderful way to be a proud participant on Election Day. Also, as Yogi Berra once said, “It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” You never know when you will be ill or called out of town or have a car accident that prevents you from voting on November 5!

Absentee ballots are a little fiddly — because the certification envelope needs the signature and address of a witness — but they are secure and not, as some would have it, rife with corruption. They can now be returned three ways: in the US Mail, in a drop box, or in your municipal clerk's office. The ballots already requested will start to be mailed to you tomorrow. So you'll have plenty of time to look up key positions of the candidates: you can start by visiting our web page for the November 5 election. And you can have your ballot right next to the device you're using to do your research! You can get a sample of the ballot for your area at MyVote.WI.gov and you can also use that site to request an absentee ballot.

Voting early in person is actually just a different method for voting with an absentee ballot. The main difference is that you do it live and in person, typically in your municipal clerk's office. You can find out when and where to use this method on our Early Voting Information page for the North Shore and Ozaukee communities and on our page for the City of Milwaukee. Of course, you won't have the convenience of leisurely research as you would with an absentee ballot. So you'll need to use a smart phone to look up information about candidates as you vote in person. As you will, of course, if you vote on Election Day.

Now here are some SOMETHINGS you can DO:

• Write postcards for Jodi Habush Sinykin. The Jodi team has been assembling postcard bags — each bag has 60 postcards, 60 stamps, 60 addresses, and a Directions Sheet. The campaign has 100 bags ready to go. You can pick up a Postcard Baggie on Sunday, September 22, from 2:00pm to 5:00pm at 400 E Daphne Road, Milwaukee, WI 53217. Call or text Talia at 414-795-1433 with any questions.
  
  
• Write postcards for the VOTE NO campaign to defeat the Wisconsin Constitutional Amendment on the November 5 ballot. Part of the message reads: "This amendment addresses a problem that doesn't exist and lays the groundwork to assault the voting rights of eligible voters (e.g., elderly, students, women) who might have trouble proving citizenship at the voting booth." You can request the postcards in lots of 50.