The rigged Wisconsin voting lines lawsuit and impeaching Judge Janet with Wisconsin Common Cause’s Jay Heck

Wisconsin Common Cause executive director, Jay Heck, joins La Crosse Talk PM to discuss a plethora of things surrounding the new voting lines lawsuit in the state, how Republicans want to impeach “Judge Janet” before she can vote on it, and a La Crosse County lawsuit against college voters.

La Crosse Talk PM airs weekdays at 5:06 p.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk PM wherever you get your podcasts.

Common Cause Wisconsin is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that’s been working to hold “power” accountable through lobbying, litigation, and grassroots organizing.

After doing a brief rundown of what we tried to fit into one show, we dove into the redistricting lawsuit in Wisconsin, that could force the state to redraw voting maps and put every legislator on the ballot in 2024 — instead of just half the state Senate, along with the Assembly.

That led to a conversation about Assembly Speaker Robin Vos wanting to impeach the newly elected Justice Janet Protasiewicz, because she voiced her opinion on what the consensus is in that Wisconsin’s voting lines are gerrymandered to favor Republicans.

After that, how voting rights in the state have changed, restricting types of voter IDs and getting rid of ballot drop boxes, which led into a conversation about a La Crosse County lawsuit over the Democrat winning the sheriff’s election, and that college students shouldn’t get to participate in that vote.

Lastly, we talked about the Wisconsin Election Commission administrator, Meagan Wolfe, who Republicans are not trying to oust her essentially because they didn’t like the 2020 election results. Wolfe was unanimously appointed to the position, after the GOP fired the last administrator for investigating former Gov. Scott Walker.

What we didn’t get into was Wolfe doesn’t have to leave the job, because Republican DNR board member Fred Prehn didn’t leave his position after his six-year term ended, and the conservative-leaning Wisconsin Supreme Court, at the time, ruled he didn’t have to unless he died, resigned or was removed for cause by the governor and a successor is named.

Regardless, the GOP-led state Senate is trying to remove her anyway.