Walker's Voter Suppression efforts to show up in Election Performance Rankings in the Future.

Just for the record, I’m posting this story about where Wisconsin ranks in electoral performance and voting. There is no doubt that our high ranking this time around will fall, but how fast and how far is anybody’s guess. Thank god Scott Walker is putting in place much needed stricter election laws. 

Election Performance Watch: Placing 3rd in election performance was a warning sign people were losing faith in the system, requiring a second round of Republican changes? Didn't think so.

jsonline: Wisconsin came in 3rd place in 2012 for its election performance, behind North Dakota and Minnesota. Four years earlier, the Dairy State came in second. Mississippi came in last place in 2008 and 2012, with a ranking of 44% in the latest report.

Wisconsin ranked in 2nd place for voter turnout in 2012, just behind Minnesota. Both states had turnouts of well over 70%.

Online Registration Watch: We’ll see how long it takes for Wisconsin to jump onboard the online registration bandwagon, since Republicans seem wary of letting too many people vote.

The report spoke positively of online voter registration, saying that practice can make voter rolls more accurate and save taxpayer money.

13 states had online voter registration in 2012, up from 2 states four years earlier. Last week, Nebraska became the 20th state to allow the practice. The Wisconsin Assembly approved a bill last year that would have allowed online voter registration, but the state Senate did not take it up.

Waiting Times Watch:

Wisconsin's average wait time for voting; 8.2 minutes in 2012, ranking it 19th in that category. Florida had the longest wait time in 2012 — 45 minutes, a more than 16-minute increase compared with 2008.

Get out the vote's "No-Shave November?"

I noticed this fun tweet that elicited from me, a quick double-take and smile:

Requiring a Landlord to pass out Voter Registration Form with Rental Agreement gets voter suppression columnists Veto.

Wisconsin State Journal columnist and conservative Chris Rickert looked the idiot a few days ago, when he came out against the idea of landlords passing out voter registration forms with their lease information and disclosures (as required by law). The harm? Rickert list a few that numbs the mind. 

Off his meds?

As a general rule … most college-age folks aren't quite as keen on voting, and I guess that's why we continue to see similarly nice, if misguided, get-out-the-youth-vote gestures such as the one from Madison Ald. Bridget Maniaci … (who) said increasing voter turnout would be one benefit of her proposal to require landlords to give tenants voter registration forms when they move in.

If you’re like me I had to read the above line over again, just to confirm Rickert really wrote what I thought he wrote. It’s now “misguided” to encourage the youth vote, because after all, they’re not "keen" on it. Assuming all new tenants are students is also pure lunacy.

But I found the next line the most telling, especially for someone like me who lived through a time when corporate citizenship and responsibility used to extend to their local communities in a big way.

Since when is it business' responsibility to make better citizens and government's responsibility to make better consumers? It should also be clear that members of officially nonpartisan city councils such as Madison's still can propose policies with very specific partisan overtones.

That’s right, city councils are all nonpartisan, devoid of politics. If that wasn’t bad enough, Rickert assumes everyone renting must be a liberal. 

And finally, maybe Rickert can correct me on this one too; I thought WE were the government, and helping US be better consumers really isn't such a bad outcome. Or should our new state slogan read, “Buyer Beware?”