WORLD NEWS | GOP’s electoral strategy comes as no surprise to black voters in Wisconsin

MILWAUKEE, Feb. 12 (AP) — Recent revelations about Republican electoral tactics targeting minority communities in Wisconsin’s largest city came as no surprise to many black voters.

A Wisconsin election commissioner has boasted of low turnout in predominantly black and Latino communities in last year’s election. Weeks later, a recording surfaced showing then-President Donald Trump’s Wisconsin campaign laughing behind closed doors, talking about efforts to reach black voters in 2020.

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Many who voted in the state’s primary last week said they had long felt targeted by Republicans. The difference now is that the tactics on public display are at best ignoring the priorities of black voters and at worst actively seeking to prevent them from voting.

“It’s a plan they crafted and executed with great precision,” said Dewayne Walls, 63, a Milwaukee resident. “As long as they have power in Madison” — the state capital.

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Walls and other black voters say they are tired of the myriad barriers that disproportionately try to keep them from being heard at the ballot box. Voters say their experience with the Republican Party has been one of silence rather than support.

“The Republicans need to do a lot of work. All of them need to really stand up for us, go out into our communities, do our jobs, do what we do every day, and understand what they’re doing after what they’ve been through. feel,” said Valeria Gray, 59.

She described Milwaukee’s relationship with much of the rest of the state as one that varies by race.

“It doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere,” she said.

For years, voting rights advocates have accused Wisconsin Republicans of pursuing policies that suppress voters of color and low-income voters. Many of these policies are centered in Democratic stronghold Milwaukee, home to nearly 70 percent black Wisconsin.

Bob Spindell, a Republican member of the Wisconsin Board of Elections, sent an email to about 1,700 people in December that further corroborated those claims. Milwaukee, a Democratic city, has seen Republicans “particularly proud” of low midterm voter turnout in predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods, he said.

Spindell later said his email was intended to convey steps Republicans were taking to counter Democrats’ messaging in the city.

The Associated Press later obtained a recording of a meeting in which the head of Trump’s 2020 Wisconsin campaign spoke with staff about their efforts to reach black voters: “Have we talked to black people before? I don’t think so, ’ the campaign official said with a laugh.

Dwayne Morgan, 59, called it the “old way” of the Milwaukee Republican Party. “They’re trying to keep us from voting. They’re trying to erase history,” he said.

The Republican-drawn legislative map passed last year has weakened Milwaukee’s influence and all but guaranteed a Republican majority in the legislature. That’s despite the fact that statewide races are usually decided by narrow margins, and Democrats have won key statewide positions, including governor, attorney general and secretary of state.

The Republican-controlled Legislature enacted strict voter ID laws in 2011 under then-Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Since his first term began in 2019, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed more than a dozen Republican-backed bills that would have made voting harder. These include identification requirements for older and disabled voters who are barred indefinitely, restrictions on when and where absentee ballots can be collected, and a ban on election officials filling in missing voter information.

Still, Republicans prevailed in court, using lawsuits to outlaw ballot drop boxes and strip election workers of the ability to fill in missing information on envelopes containing mail-in ballots. The conservative majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court is at risk in this year’s election, with corresponding voting decisions typically ruling in favor of Republicans.

This adds to the list of reasons black voters in Milwaukee increasingly feel their vote doesn’t matter. The city has some of the worst racial disparities in the nation in health care, education, wealth and incarceration.

Low-income residents who are disproportionately black are already struggling to meet basic needs. Voting was further hampered by confusion about the new election rules or limited options for when and where they could vote, said the Rev. Greg Lewis, founder of Souls to the Polls Milwaukee.

“The crackdown is not just a few things,” he said. “It’s not just, you can’t vote without an ID. It’s not just, you can’t get your ballot to the drop box. It’s not just the language barrier. It’s all coming together.”

For Barbara Bryant, 76, “all the extra steps” were the biggest hurdle to voting. But she won’t be prevented from running in this month’s primary. A poll worker helped her out of her car and into an early voting location during a snowstorm last week.

Bryant said she has preferred early voting in recent years so poll workers have time to explain any new rules, but she has seen inaccessible voting sites and removal of drop boxes deter other seniors from voting.

Wisconsin Republicans told The Associated Press they have been trying to reach Milwaukee’s black and Latino voters for a decade.

The state party opened its first office in downtown Milwaukee in 2019 with the specific goal of reaching black voters. Mark Jefferson, executive director of the state Republican Party, said the focus is on engaging them in the conversation rather than meeting typical campaign metrics, such as knocking on a certain number of doors.

He said the party was not out to suppress votes, but to weaken support for Democrats in those communities.

“People are listening when they weren’t listening before,” Jefferson said. “I think we’ve learned a lot. I think we’re cutting margins for the Democratic Party, even though it’s faster in Latino communities and Hispanic communities right now. But we’re also cutting margins on the north side of Milwaukee. That’s because we’re cutting margins faster than we were before more intimate.”

Angela Long, executive director of the Milwaukee-based Community of Black Leadership Organization, isn’t worried about Republicans gaining a foothold among black voters. GOP priorities are fundamentally at odds with what Milwaukee’s majority of black voters want, she said.

But Long said she worries that Republicans could set a precedent by talking so openly about tactics to lower turnout.

“It’s very dangerous because once it starts, people feel more empowered,” she said.

Several black voters interviewed at the poll said they saw little Republican activity in the city and described Republican outreach centers as showpieces for the party.

Voter Damario Wright, 36, said: “I don’t think they’re going to come here at all and try to reach us. I mean, you hardly see Republicans in Milwaukee — come on, right now.” (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)