One Wisconsin Now filed a formal request last week for investigation with federal and state authorities to combat a coordinated plot it uncovered by the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin and organizations in the so-called Tea Party movement targeting university students and minority voters in a possibly illegal “voter caging” effort for voter suppression.

The recordings, documents and strategy memos we obtained are available at www.SaveWisconsinsVote2010.org and are shocking. One Wisconsin Now will do everything it can to ensure the authorities take action to prevent voter suppression.

The solution for students is straight-forward: Get registered to vote, know your rights and be vigilant. The participation of students on campuses across Wisconsin is critical. We cannot and will not allow well-financed, corporate interests to take away your basic right to exercise the franchise.

It is the audacity of the Tea Party-GOP-Americans for Prosperity plot which makes it so nefarious.

According to the statements made on the recordings from a secret Tea Party meeting behind closed doors June 12 in Marshfield, Tim Dake, the leader of the so-called Tea Party movement laid out the plans. He details contact between himself, Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Reince Preibus and Mark Block, state director of Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin:

-The Republican Party of Wisconsin will use its “Voter Vault” state-wide voter file to compile a list of minority and student voters in targeted Wisconsin communities. -Americans for Prosperity will use this list to send mail to these voters indicating the voter must call and confirm their registration information, and telling them if they do not call the number provided they could be removed from the voter lists. -The Tea Party organizations will recruit and place individuals as official poll workers in selected municipalities in order to be able to make the challenges as official poll workers.

On Election Day, these organizations will then “make use” of any postcards that are returned as undeliverable to challenge voters at the polls, utilizing law enforcement, as well as attorneys trained and provided by the RPW, to support their challenges.

The Tea Party documents indicate a mailing of some sort went out to three wards in Milwaukee: Wards 39, 60 and 62. Ward 39 is the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In 2008, 1,891 of the 1,966 votes cast in that ward came from 3400 Maryland Avenue, the Sandburg Residence Hall, which houses 2,700 students. Wards 60 and 62 cited in the apparent voter caging plan both cover the Marquette University campus.

The extent to which these groups have enmity towards the student vote is clear from this quote taken from One Wisconsin Now’s recording. The speaker is the head of the Eau Claire Tea Party:

“I was a poll watcher from 2000 to 2006 and if you’ve got a university in your county, or your city, students will come down in droves and then they will all vouch for each other. I had this one kid come in five times with five separate groups of people and this person brings in students, they’re usually from Minnesota or wherever up by Eau Claire, and you go, ‘Do you live here?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Well do you have anything that shows your address?’ ‘No.’ Then that one student says, ‘I vouch for her, I vouch for him.’ And they all vote.

To be clear, federal law makes clear that elector or private challenges cannot be based solely on returned mail. Any challenge to an elector’s eligibility based on such unreliable grounds is an abuse of the right to challenge and violates state and federal law, subjecting the challenger to removal and other sanctions.

Students can protect themselves and the solution is as old as it is steeped in our democracy: Get registered to vote, know your rights and be vigilant.

One Wisconsin Now has created an online petition calling for Attorney General JB Van Hollen to investigate now. This petition, which we are encouraging everyone to use, as well as the full recordings, a transcript and other information, is available at One Wisconsin Now’s voter protection website: www.SaveWisconsinsVote2010.org.

Scot Ross ([email protected]) is the Executive Director of One Wisconsin Now as a statewide liberal advocacy organization.