{"id":2249598,"date":"2024-05-21T14:55:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T18:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-sees-nothing-wrong-with-leftist-voter-drives-on-wisconsin-college-campus\/"},"modified":"2024-05-21T15:00:40","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T19:00:40","slug":"judge-sees-nothing-wrong-with-leftist-voter-drives-on-wisconsin-college-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-sees-nothing-wrong-with-leftist-voter-drives-on-wisconsin-college-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge approves liberal voter drives at Wisconsin college campus"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjudge-sees-nothing-wrong-with-leftist-voter-drives-on-wisconsin-college-campus%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2249598&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The \u2064University of Wisconsin-Parkside faces scrutiny \u2062for left-wing voter\u2064 drives on\u2064 campus, with Judge Eric Defort supporting the efforts. The Wisconsin\u200b Elections \u200bCommission is urged to back the university against claims of violating voter act regulations. The\u2064 complaint alleges discrimination in voter information use for Democrat\u2064 voter\u200d targeting, disputed by university officials and left-wing activists.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>The University of Wisconsin-Parkside is one of hundreds of taxpayer-funded institutions of higher education where leftist groups are pushing a targeted get-out-the-vote effort to help Democrats win. And Milwaukee Administrative Law Judge Eric Defort is just fine with that. <\/p>\n<p>In a three-page decision released Monday, Defort summarily recommends that the <a href=\"https:\/\/elections.wi.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wisconsin Elections Commission<\/a> side with the university in a complaint filed by election integrity advocate <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ronheuer?lang=en\">Ron Heuer<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/wisconsinvoteralliance.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wisconsin Voter Alliance<\/a>. The complaint alleges the Kenosha university is violating the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eac.gov\/about\/help_america_vote_act.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Help America Vote Act (HAVA) <\/a>\u201cby engaging in university-sponsored student get-out-the-vote and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-81-election-fraud-cases-brought-to-courts-30-active-cases\/\" title=\"Report: 81 election fraud cases brought to courts, 30 active cases\">voter registration drives<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1520183130\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-dabef86442ed722beb1d7b810b6dba79 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-dabef86442ed722beb1d7b810b6dba79\"><\/div>\n<p>WVA <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/03\/05\/wisconsin-complaint-exposes-leftist-led-vote-drives-on-college-campuses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">argues<\/a> that the voter act preempts government-sponsored GOTV and voter registration drives, affirmed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eac.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/document_library\/files\/FAO-08-005_EAC_1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">opinions<\/a> from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.\u00a0And the complaint alleges voter information pulled from the state\u2019s voter information system is discriminatorily being used to assist in the campus GOTV effort \u2014 at UW-Parkside and elsewhere. As the complaint states, the university has worked with the <a href=\"https:\/\/idhe.tufts.edu\/nslve\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement<\/a> (NSLVE) \u201cin a public-private exchange of student private data\u201d to support Parkside\u2019s \u201cengagement in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/analysis-america-grapples-with-plummeting-fertility-rates\/\" title=\"America faces a challenge with declining fertility rates.\">government-sponsored student<\/a> get-out-the-vote and voter registration drives.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s all in an effort to reach a traditionally faithful bloc of Democrat voters, while using state resources, the plaintiffs argue.<\/p>\n<p>UW-Parkside officials assert that they have not implemented a discriminatory <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republicans-democrats-h-r-1-is-a-power-grab-would-undermine-states-election-rules\/\" title=\"Republicans: Democrats\u2019 H.R. 1 Is a Power Grab, Would Undermine States\u2019 Election Rules\">voter registration list<\/a>, but that the campus is merely the site where the GOTV effort is being conducted \u2014 by left-wing activists. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-targets-elon-musks-spacex-for-allegedly-preferring-to-hire-u-s-citizens\/\" title=\"DOJ Targets Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX For Allegedly Preferring To Hire U.S. Citizens\">administrative law judge<\/a> agreed. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoreover, UW-Parkside submitted an affidavit attached to its pleadings which asserts that its activities consist of privately funded student-ambassadors working from a booth and providing any student that stops by that booth with the State\u2019s website address \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/myvote.wi.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">myvote.wi.gov<\/a>\u2018 so that the student can look themselves up to determine whether or not they are registered to vote,\u201d Defort wrote in his recommendation to the state elections commission. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-602a34ed13ea6daa41dffc615de9bebf fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-602a34ed13ea6daa41dffc615de9bebf\"><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Voting Ambassadors of the Left<\/h2>\n<p>An <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/144cMhk00Oi_bpsV4TSJ04DoG0lmlnrPJ\/view\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">affidavit<\/a> submitted by Scott Menke, the university\u2019s interim associate chancellor, insists that to his knowledge, the institution did not directly or indirectly receive HAVA funds. Instead, the university farms out GOTV efforts to the Andrew Goodman Foundation\u2019s Goodman Ambassadors, who supposedly \u201cengage in non-partisan voter education.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese ambassadors use private funding for their activities. They teach other students about the importance of voting,\u201d UW-Parkside declares in its response to the complaint. <\/p>\n<p>The Goodman Ambassadors are part of the leftist, nonpartisan-in-name-only Andrew Goodman Foundation, which, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/andrew-goodman-foundation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">InfluenceWatch,<\/a> \u201cruns the Vote Everywhere program, which promotes student voting on university campuses by training a network of students (known as ambassadors) who register voters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s nothing to see here, according to the administrative law judge. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-d33664f937eccf7e07cdce03dfa351c0 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-d33664f937eccf7e07cdce03dfa351c0\"><\/div>\n<p>\u201cI find that the act of sharing a website address so a person can verify whether they are registered to vote is plainly not implicated by the language of the statute because that does not constitute the implementation of a voter registration list,\u201d Defort wrote. \u201cTherefore, under the undisputed material facts, the Plaintiff\u2019s claim cannot prevail against UW-Parkside\u2019s motion \u2013 as a matter of law. Accordingly, UW-Parkside\u2019s motion should be granted.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Missing the Point<\/h2>\n<p>Erick Kaardal, attorney for the Wisconsin Voter Alliance, said the administrative law judge failed to analyze the core argument, that the \u201cState\u201d barred by federal law from discriminatory voter outreach includes \u201cstate agencies.\u201d And since UW-Parkside is very much an agency of the state\u2019s higher education system, discriminating \u201cagainst non-students\u201d by \u201ctargeting \u2026 students for its get-out-the-vote and voter registration drives\u201d is against the law, the complaint charges.<\/p>\n<p>The university\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uwp.edu\/explore\/news\/2022-all-in-highly-established-action-plan-seal.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2022 \u201cAction Plan\u201d<\/a> stated that one of its <a href=\"https:\/\/allinchallenge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/University-of-Wisconsin-Parkside-Action-Plan-2022-November.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">goals<\/a> was to \u201cincrease the number of students who register and vote in the 2022 Midterm Election by 15% over the previous midterms.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement has tapped into student voter information, as well as publicly available voting files, to compile reports on student voting rates at UW-Parkside.\u00a0Mining student voting data from the Wisconsin Elections Commission\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ohio-moves-to-clean-voter-rolls-after-finding-137-foreigners-registered-to-vote\/\" title=\"Ohio Takes Action to Purge Voter Rolls: 137 Foreign Registrations Detected\">statewide voter registration database<\/a> in a targeted GOTV campaign violates HAVA law, the complaint alleges. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Absurdly Discriminatory\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Attorneys for the Wisconsin Voter Alliance will be filing objections to the administrative law judge\u2019s ruling and then make their case before the Wisconsin Elections Commission next month. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe disagree that the federal law allows elite Wisconsin universities to run student-targeted get-out-the-vote campaigns while students at non-elite universities and technical colleges get nothing,\u201d Kaardal said. <\/p>\n<p>As The Federalist has <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/03\/05\/wisconsin-complaint-exposes-leftist-led-vote-drives-on-college-campuses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported,<\/a> the complaint could have far-reaching implications for the hundreds of colleges and universities that, like UW-Parkside, work with leftist groups to boost voting among students. <a href=\"https:\/\/allinchallenge.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Civic Nation\u2019s ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge<\/a> is one of the players attempting to tap into <a href=\"https:\/\/civicnation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/College-Student-Voting-Fact-Sheet-1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">millions<\/a> of statistically left-leaning voters at institutions of higher education <a href=\"https:\/\/allinchallenge.org\/participating-campuses\/\">across Wisconsin<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really an absurdly discriminatory, elite university-targeted GOTV campaign Wisconsin has \u2014 violating the bipartisan Help American Vote Act,\u201d Kaardal said. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-0cb685ba5f9b625def117b55bb482178 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-0cb685ba5f9b625def117b55bb482178\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, taxpayer-funded leftist groups are conducting targeted voter drives to support Democrats. Judge Eric Defort from Milwaukee approves of this effort, recommending the Wisconsin Elections Commission to support it in a recent three-page decision<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":656,"featured_media":2249599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-21-at-11.38.41-AM-1024x528.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2249598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-21-at-11.38.41-AM-1024x528.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2249598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2249599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2249598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2249598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2249598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}