Two days before Wisconsin’s elections maps will be argued in what could be a landmark case before the U.S. Supreme Court, folks upset over what they say is a rigged system rallied in Milwaukee. Holding signs “Democracy Demands Fair Maps” and “Fair Maps for Fair Elections,” a crowd of around 150 people cheered and applauded speakers at the rally at Plymouth Church on Milwaukee’s east side. “I’m sort of insanely excited,” Mary Lynne Donohue said shortly before the gathering. Donohue, a resident of Wisconsin’s 26th Assembly District in Sheboygan County, is a plaintiff in the suit and is flying to Washington, D.C., Monday morning.
“My role is to just sit and listen. It’s such an important case, such a big issue. It’s important for democracy,” Donohue said.
A group of Wisconsin Democrats sued in 2015, arguing that the election maps drawn up to account for shifts in population following the 2010 census violated their voting rights. Republicans controlled all of Wisconsin’s government after the last census and used their majorities to devise maps that greatly favored them.
Last year a panel of federal judges ruled 2-1 that the maps were drawn so favorably for Republicans that they violated the rights of Democratic voters in Wisconsin.
Full Article: Plaintiffs in Wisconsin redistricting case get send-off.