By Canadian Press

Green Party demands Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling on access

Sep 14, 2020 | 4:12 PM

MADISON, Wis. — The Green Party’s candidates for president and vice-president are demanding that the Wisconsin Supreme Court rule Monday that they be placed on the state’s ballot.

The state’s highest court on Thursday ordered a halt to the mailing of all absentee ballots while it considers a legal challenge brought by Green presidential candidate Howie Hawkins and his running mate Angela Walker. The Wisconsin Elections Commission deadlocked twice on whether they should be placed on the ballot, resulting in them not being added.

Three Republican election commission members said Hawkins should be on the ballot while three Democratic members said Walker listed an incorrect address on thousands of nominating signatures and therefore didn’t qualify.

In a separate case, rapper Kanye West is also suing to be put on the Wisconsin ballot. A Brown County judge late Friday rejected the lawsuit, agreeing with the elections commission that West narrowly missed the 5 p.m. filing deadline. That case was expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court as early as Monday.

Hawkins said in a statement Monday that the Supreme Court should have acted by now.

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“We want a decision today to put us on the ballot,” Hawkins said. “We want the absentee ballot process to proceed without further delay.”

The Supreme Court voted 4-3 last week to halt the mailing of absentee ballots pending the Hawkins challenge. All four of the court’s conservative justices voted to halt the mailing of ballots, something Hawkins noted Monday.

“The Republican-majority court has all the information it needs to place us on the ballot and let the absentee voting process move forward,” Hawkins said. “The Democrats have all the information they need to know their case is baseless and drop it. It’s time for both parties to stop this partisan jockeying at the expense of Wisconsin voters.”

The court’s ruling last week put on hold the mailing of absentee ballots to more than 1 million registered voters who had already requested one. More than 1,850 local election officials said they were worried about the cost and time involved in reprinting ballots and distributing them if the court orders changes.

Thursday is the deadline in state law for absentee ballots to be mailed to everyone who had requested one by then. There is also a federal deadline of Saturday to send ballots to military and overseas voters.

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AP’s Advance Voting guide brings you the facts about voting early, by mail or absentee from each state: https://interactives.ap.org/advance-voting-2020/

Scott Bauer, The Associated Press