WI: Voting rights advocates push for removing Spindell (R) from elections commission
Controversy continues to swirl around Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Robert Spindell. On Tuesday, a gathering of voting rights advocates on Milwaukee’s predominantly African American North Side denounced Spindell as a danger to democracy and called for his resignation. The groups, including Black Leaders Organizing Communities (BLOC), Souls to the Polls, and other allied organizations, announced that they are circulating a petition in the community to show support for Spindell’s removal.
After the election of 2022, in which Democratic Gov. Tony Evers was reelected while his former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes was defeated by less than 1 percentage point in his effort to unseat incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, Spindell sent an email to members of the 4th Congressional District Republican Party celebrating a drop in turnout within minority communities.
“… we can be especially proud of the City of Milwaukee (80.2% Dem Vote) casting 37,000 less votes than cast in the 2019 election with the major reduction happening in the overwhelming Black and Hispanic Areas,” Spindell wrote in the email.
“We’ve been busy,” said Angela Lang, executive director of BLOC in Milwaukee, during the press conference Tuesday. BLOC knocks on doors year round and engages with citizens, giving members opportunities to take the temperature of community sentiment. “People are seeing what’s happening,” said Lang. “When we talk to voters, they are disappointed that there are people that continuously try to take away and provide obstacles for their ability to vote.”
https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2024/05/01/voting-rights-advocates-push-for-removing-spindell-from-elections-commission/
