Leftist WI Cities Warned To Stop ‘Poll-Location Gerrymandering’

With less than a month to go before Wisconsin’s pivotal Supreme Court election, a conservative legal organization is warning three left-led cities to put an end to “poll-location gerrymandering.”

In separate letters, the America First Policy Institute’s Center for Litigation asserts election officials in La Crosse, Madison, and Oshkosh are setting up in-person absentee voting sites in historically left-leaning parts of the cities —  to the advantage of liberal candidates. The practice, according to AFPI Litigation Center’s Nicholas Wanic, violates state law.

“Wisconsin law is clear: Early-voting locations cannot be used to cherry-pick votes for a particular party,” Wanic said in a press release. “The data shows officials in these cities have disregarded the law and are engaged in poll-location gerrymandering that gives a significant advantage to Democrat candidates.”

The allegations may not come as a surprise, particularly in Madison. Wisconsin’s capital city, a leftist enclave, has been a hive of partisan election controversy and scandal. Most recently, Wisconsin’s election regulator launched an investigation into the city clerk’s office after elections officials failed to count nearly 200 ballots in November’s presidential election. 

Officials from two of the cities responding to The Federalist’s request for comment  — Madison and Oshkosh — insist that their early voting sites selected in advance of Wisconsin’s April 1 election were chosen with the law and access in mind. 

But AFPI says it has conducted an analysis showing many of the sites selected are on or near college campuses, “areas that have historically leaned Democrat relative to the rest of their cities.” 

“Among the voting districts that will host early voting on April 1, a large majority have significantly overrepresented Democrat voters in recent elections,” the Litigation Center’s press release states. 

Intense Election Integrity Scrutiny 

Despite left-wing voting activists’ assertions that absentee/early voting is a right, it is considered a privilege under Wisconsin election law. AFPI notes the statute that states voting by absentee ballot must be carefully regulated “to prevent  potential for fraud or abuse; to prevent overzealous solicitation of absent electors who may prefer not to participate in an election; to prevent undue influence on an absent elector to vote for or against a candidate or to cast a particular vote in a referendum; or other similar abuses.”

Wisconsin’s spring elections include the nationally-watched state Supreme Court contest that will determine whether the Badger State’s highest court is controlled by conservatives or leftists. As The Federalist has reported, the costly campaign is expected to be the most expensive state judicial race in U.S. history, surpassing the $50 million-plus spent on Wisconsin’s 2023 Supreme Court election that saw leftists take control of the court for the first time in 15 years. 

Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, the far-left candidate in the contest, has raked in millions in campaign cash from socialist sugar daddies like George Soros and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, while the conservative candidate, Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel, has generated support from a group backed by billionaire and President Trump ally Elon Musk. A left-led court is likely to decide on new congressional maps, which could give Democrats an electoral advantage in districts represented by Republicans, increasing Dems’ chances of taking back the House of Representatives next year.

So the scrutiny has been intense on Wisconsin’s spring election, the first electoral test with national implications since Trump won convincing victories in November. But conservative groups and the GOP have intensified their election integrity efforts since the rigged 2020 presidential election that saw battleground states like Wisconsin under fire for myriad election irregularities and election law violations. The America First Policy Institute and its Center for Litigation were launched by former Trump advisors following the 2020 election to “restore the most fundamental rights of all Americans.” 

‘Ample Opportunity’

Municipalities may designate sites other than the clerk’s office or board of election commissioners as an alternate location for eligible voters to cast in-person absentee ballots. But Wisconsin election law requires the sites be located “as near as practicable” to the clerk’s or election board offices “and no site may be designated that affords an advantage to any political party.” 

AFPI says its review of historical voting data found Madison’s placement of the absentee balloting sites “disproportionately benefits Democrat candidates.” The litigation center notes 24 early voting sites. 

“These wards have consistently shown a higher representation of Democrat voters compared to the citywide average,” AFPI reports. 

Madison City Attorney Michael Haas told The Federalist that Madison offers more early voting locations than any other Wisconsin municipality, providing “ample opportunity” for voters to cast in-person absentee ballots. He said election officials receive positive feedback about the number of locations and the extended hours for voting.

“There are several factors that go in to determining IPAV (In-person absentee voting) locations, including the availability of facilities and the concentration of population during daytime hours,” Haas said in an email to The Federalist. “Voters can use any IPAV location in the City and often vote closer to their place of work or schools or other convenient locations. Therefore looking solely at voting trends in the wards where IPAV sites are located does not provide a complete picture of the availability of voting options.”

There’s no question that the wards surrounding the early voting locations cited by the city clerk’s office lean heavily Democrat, but Madison in general leans far left. In Dane County, home to county seat Madison, Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris received 75 percent of the vote compared to Trump’s 23 percent. Madison turnout hit an unbelievable 91 percent, a new record, outpacing the 85 percent turnout rate in 2020, according to the Capital Times. 

But even in one of the most left-leaning cities in America, there are wards that are less liberal than others. AFPI believes those wards are underrepresented in the city’s early voting site selection process.

‘Conveniently Placed in the Dormitories’

In November’s election, 10 of Madison’s designated alternate absentee balloting sites “exhibited a voter preference significantly skewed toward Democrat candidates,” AFPI asserts in its warning letter to the city clerk. “Similarly, in the April 4, 2023, election, 10 of these wards again significantly overrepresented Democrat voters, while just three favored Republicans.”

Interestingly, many of the sites are located on or near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, a bastion of leftist political thought and activism. In the 2023 Supreme Court election, liberal Judge Janet Protasiewicz crushed former conservative Justice Dan Kelly thanks in no small part to massive turnout on University of Wisconsin college campuses, particularly the flagship UW-Madison. 

“The dramatic increase in the use of mail-in and absentee voting in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed for far greater numbers of college students to more easily cast their ballots,” wrote Dan O’Donnell, conservative talk show host and columnist for the MacIver Institute. “(W)ith Democrats’ and liberal special interest groups’ huge cash haul, they were able to hire a veritable army of get-out-the-vote activists to canvass dorms and apartments scrounging up every last student they could find and bring them to early voting locations, which of course Madison’s Democratic city clerk conveniently placed in the dormitories.”

‘Impractical to Change’

The city of La Crosse plans to operate three alternate absentee balloting sites, at a Cultural & Community Agency, the Southside Neighborhood Center, and on the UW-LaCrosse campus. Early voting will also take place at city hall. Two of the wards where the early voting sites will operate “significantly overrepresented Democrat voters in the elections of April 4, 2023, and November 5, 2024,” the AFPI’s warning letter to the city clerk states. 

“Additionally, the 12th ward, one of the wards where the City intends to hold early voting, was the single most Democratic ward in the City during the April 4, 2023 election,” AFPI notes. 

The La Crosse city clerk’s office did not return The Federalist’s request for comment. 

Oshkosh plans to operate one alternate absentee ballot site. The location, according to AFPI, is located near four voting wards that “dramatically overrepresented Democrat voters” during the 2023 Supreme Court election. 

“It is your duty as the responsible elections official to remedy these issues and provide alternate absentee balloting sites in locations that do not afford an ‘advantage’ to either political party,” AFPI’s letter advises. 

It doesn’t appear the liberal cities have any plans to change their early voting site plans. 

Oshkosh City Clerk Diane Bartlett sent The Federalist her response to AFPI. In it, Bartlett asserts the location meets all statutory requirements, that it’s closer to the county Republican Party headquarters than the Democratic Party offices, and is a 14-minute walk to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Besides, the clerk said, notices and instructions already have been published and printed, so it would be “impractical to change the location at his time.” 

“Our City is committed to ensuring that our election processes are equitable and impartial, providing no undue advantage to any political party,” Bartlett wrote.  

‘Fair and Equal Access’

Wanic, the AFPI attorney, did not return The Federalist’s request for comment, so it’s not clear what actions the litigation center plans to take. He did send an accompanying letter to Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe, alerting her to the legal concerns surrounding the early voting poll sites.  

“The Commission has the statutory responsibility to administer Wisconsin’s elections laws and is required by law to investigate violations of such laws,” Wanic wrote. “Therefore, the Commission must work to ensure that alternate absentee balloting provides fair and equal access to all voters during the upcoming election on April 1.”

An Elections Commission official did not return requests for comment. 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.