One Person, No Vote (YA edition): How Not All Voters Are Treated Equally

by Carol Anderson

This was no one-off. In a series of April 6, 2011, emails where Republicans were concerned that their candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Judge David Prosser, just might lose, GOP operatives, as one outlet reported, began plotting: Steve Baas, a lobbyist for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce and former Republican legislative staffer, floated an idea on the email thread: “Do we need to start messaging ‘widespread reports of election fraud’ so we are positively set up for the recount regardless of the final number? I obviously think we should.” Scott Jensen—the former GOP Assembly Speaker turned lobbyist for American Federation for Children, a private school voucher advocacy group—quickly responded: “Yes. Anything fishy should be highlighted. Stories should be solicited by talk radio hosts.” In another email, Jensen writes that [ Judge] Prosser “needs to be on talk radio in the morning saying he is confident he won and talk radio needs to scream the Dems are trying to steal the race.”