11:00:42 [Recording in progress]
11:00:54 Good morning, my name is Ayele Ajavon, I am the communication manager for the campaign of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
11:01:01 We are pleased to host today's press briefing and discussion about our latest report,
11:01:09 ballots for all, ensuring eligible Wisconsinites in jail have equal access to voting.
11:01:14 We are recording this press reading and will share it in our press release.
11:01:20 Joining us today are Shauntay Nelson, All Voting is Local, Wisconsin State Director.
11:01:27 Eileen Newcomer, League of Women Voters of Wisconsin voter education manager.
11:01:33 David Carlson, ACLU of Wisconsin, smart justice regional organizer.
11:01:40 First we will hear from Shauntay who will walk us through some opening remarks
11:01:45 and review the top-level findings from the report.
11:01:50 Next we will have Eileen you will explain the difference in the findings from our 2020 report
11:01:53 compared to the report we are releasing today.
11:02:00 She will also review some of the recommendations and recommended procedures and policies
11:02:05 that will help move this work forward.  And finally we will conclude with David
11:02:13 who will discuss work in our Claire and how his life and experiences exemplifies why this work is important.
11:02:18 Speakers will be available to answer questions in the Q&A session following the remarks.
11:02:22 If you have a question please raise your hand virtually in the zoom platform
11:02:26 and I will unmute you so you can ask your question directly,
11:02:30 or you can put your question in the chat box and I will ask it for you.
11:02:37 First we will hear from Shauntay Nelson, All Voting is Local Wisconsin State Director.
11:02:42 >> Thank you so much Ayele, thank you all for being here.
11:02:47 Hello everyone.  We are excited to be able to present this morning so thank you for joining us.
11:02:50 We are here because we all believe
11:02:53 that in order for democracy to work for all of us,
11:02:59 it must also include all of us.  And at All Voting is Local we take every measure
11:03:08 to ensure that all facets of voting are accessible, so to that end it is imperative for us to focus
11:03:15 our latest effort on jail based voting and to share our findings on what voting from jail
11:03:19 consists of particularly in the state of Wisconsin.
11:03:26 The creation of this particular report that Ayele spoke about at ballots for all,
11:03:33 to ensure all have access to voting was a collaboration between the League of Women Voters
11:03:42 and the ACLU of Wisconsin, League of Women Voters of Wisconsin mind you and ACLU Wisconsin.
11:03:47 We are interested whether jails have policies in place for facilitating jail based voting.
11:03:53 We know that residents of local jails are still taxed and they are used to allocate resources.
11:04:02 Therefore they should have the freedom of their voices being heard through the ballot.
11:04:06 And that fact, although we know that it is a fact that they should have their voices heard
11:04:14 through the ballot box, it basically is a fact that it will -- we know it will take a little bit of extra work,
11:04:22 but even taking a little bit of extra work, that is not an excuse to silence them more silence their voice.
11:04:28 So we have drafted within this particular report and we highlighted policies,
11:04:35 we have highlighted policies in comparison from our 2020 outreach to our 2021 outreach,
11:04:40 and because formal policies up to solidify procedures and ensure that those in county jails
11:04:46 have access to the right to vote.  So using data from public records requests
11:04:52 that were sent to every County Sheriff, and we sent them to the county sheriffs because of course
11:04:59 jails are governed by our sheriffs in the state of Wisconsin, and our intention was to compare
11:05:04 our 2020 policies in Jail to 2021 to see where there has been improvement.
11:05:11 Of the 72 counties, 55 counties responded to our 2021 records request.
11:05:15 That is about 76.4 percent of the counties in the state of Wisconsin.
11:05:21 So this report is an overview of our 2021 findings and it includes recommendations
11:05:26 for county jails, for the state legislature, as well as election administrators
11:05:32 in order to ensure greater access while voting in county jails.
11:05:36 So that is my overview and I will turn it back over to Ayele.  Thank you for this time.
11:05:39 >> Thank you so much Shauntay.
11:05:46 Now we will hear from Eileen Newcomer, the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, voter education manager.
11:05:50 >> Thank you Ayele and thank you to everyone for tuning in today.
11:05:56 This is a really important issue in the league is really proud to be able to partner with
11:06:01 these wonderful organizations on this work and in releasing this report.
11:06:07 And collectively we all need to raise our awareness to the predicament of eligible voters
11:06:12 who are in jail serving a misdemeanor sentence or awaiting trial and facing significant barriers
11:06:17 to exercising their right to vote.  This report builds off of the work started by
11:06:21 All Voting is Local and ACL Wisconsin, as Shauntay mentioned.
11:06:26 The focus is to better understand the infrastructure in place in county jails
11:06:31 to support voters while they are in jail, included in this report is an updated analysis
11:06:37 based on information gathered from that new open records request that Shauntay mentioned
11:06:48 to all Wisconsin County sheriffs.  And comparing data from 2022 2021,
11:06:53 we saw a promising increase in the number of county jails indicating that they have a policy in place
11:07:01 to support jail based voting.
11:07:01 This rose from less than have to over two thirds of county jails.
11:07:05 Formal policies are important as they provide written acknowledgment
11:07:10 that most people in jail have the right to vote and that jail administrators are committed
11:07:15 to protecting that right.  So this is a step in the right direction.
11:07:18 However not all policies are of equal quality.
11:07:22 Many are vague and approximately 20 percent of county jails
11:07:26 still do not have any policies in place to facilitate voting.
11:07:31 As with policies of the quality of procedures for providing access
11:07:37 to vote varies from county to county.  We are encouraged that a team counties have taken steps
11:07:46 to create or improve their procedures to providing access to voting.
11:07:47 And well developed procedures provide jail administrators and election officials
11:07:52 a step-by-step process for fulfilling the demands of the policy.
11:07:56 No work is needed though, but we do hope to see this trend continue.
11:08:02 And despite these improvements we actually only verified that around 50 people
11:08:07 of the 13,000 incarcerated voters who are in jail at any given time
11:08:15 were able to successfully cast their ballots in the 2020 election.
11:08:15 This is based on the jail's records.
11:08:19 In this report we have included recommendations to improve
11:08:25 voter access in Wisconsin's jails for various stakeholders involved including
11:08:29 County Sheriff, jail administrators, state and local election officials,
11:08:37 the legislature, and concerned Wisconsinites.  It is up to jail administrators to ensure that eligible voters
11:08:43 in jail have access to the materials they need to register to vote and request and return an absentee ballot.
11:08:50 This includes access to the my vote website or paper registration and absentee ballot request forms.
11:08:53 As well as access to information about the candidates running for office.
11:08:58 Jail administrators also need to ensure that procedures in place to facilitate voting
11:09:01 and ensure they are codified into jail policy.
11:09:06 And these policies and procedures should proactively provide election information.
11:09:10 State and local election officials can also do more
11:09:15 to give clearer guidance on how voting from jail can be facilitated
11:09:26 and to provide support to jail administrators and so voters in jail can navigate the voting process.
11:09:26 The legislature also has significant power to make voting more accessible
11:09:32 for eligible voters in jail.  One of the biggest challenges facing those voters is the restrictive
11:09:38 photo ID law, and many people are in jail do not have access to the drivers license or state ID card
11:09:45 to supply along with her absentee ballot request.  Common sense would say that if somebody is in jail
11:09:50 the government would have significant evidence of their identity and therefore the government issued
11:09:55 jail ID should meet the photo ID requirement.  However Wisconsin laws are restrictive
11:10:00 that this is not currently allowed and this is something that they have the power to change.
11:10:08 The legislature could also extend the use of special voting deputies to extend voting in jail
11:10:13 or the right to have a voting agent as hospitalized voters are allowed to do.
11:10:17 This is a brief overview of the recommendations we have laid out in our report.
11:10:22 There is more detail in the report, but we do hope that this leads to much needed
11:10:28 conversation and action so that de facto disenfranchisement of eligible voters
11:10:37 is not allowed to continue.  That complete my comments and I will turn it back to Ayele.
11:10:37 >> Thank you so much for your comments, Eileen.
11:10:43 I have added the link to the report in the chat function.
11:10:47 If you would like to see it and download it.
11:10:57 Now we will go to our final speaker, David Carlson, ACLU of Wisconsin smart justice regional organizer.
11:11:00 Thank you Ayele and the two speakers before me.
11:11:05 I guess I will start with a little bit of background of how I got involved with this work.
11:11:09 I started with the race for all campaign with the ACLU of Wisconsin
11:11:15 in the beginning of 2020.  Prior to my involvement with the rights of all campaign
11:11:20 which was an electoral advocacy campaign for historically disenfranchised populations
11:11:27 in northwestern Wisconsin, prior to my involvement with that campaign
11:11:31 I had only actually voted once in my life.
11:11:37 I have been I guess what you would call de facto disenfranchised or disenfranchised at times
11:11:44 due to my status and conviction history.  Prior to having a conviction history
11:11:49 I did serve seven years in the military with two combat tours to Iraq,
11:11:54 so I know quite a bit about engagement in terms of
11:12:04 serving your country and having your voice heard in that sense.
11:12:04 I did know as much about how important the vote was until I became involved
11:12:10 in the race for all campaign.  Throughout my time with the race for all campaign
11:12:17 I endeavored in the cochlear County community to spread voter awareness and education
11:12:22 surrounding voting rights and voter eligibility for individuals who have been previously incarcerated.
11:12:28 After becoming involved with the smart justice campaign at the ACLU of Wisconsin
11:12:36 and receiving the jail based voting toolkit the ACLU in All Voting is Local put out,
11:12:39 I realize there was a population that nobody was really addressing.
11:12:46 So with community partners in the County to be specific we approach the sheriff's department
11:12:53 and we were able to host two jail voting events and that leaves us up to basically where we are now.
11:12:58 A lot of the data that was presented in the jail based voting report for 2021
11:13:06 was taken out of Euclair as well as Milwaukee County and Dane County.
11:13:11 I would like to touch on the importance as I have discovered over the last year-and-a-half of working
11:13:14 with electoral advocacy efforts.
11:13:20 We have a lot of issues facing our society, one of them being mass incarceration
11:13:27 and its unintended consequences which you will see these unintended consequences are in the news every day.
11:13:32 There isn't a way to solve these problems or to even begin solving these problems
11:13:36 if we don't have the voices of the people most impacted by these issues
11:13:42 involved in the conversation.  Voting is the most powerful way to have your voice heard.
11:13:48 So with this in de facto disenfranchisement for eligible voters who may be sitting in a county jail
11:13:55 and anyone of the 72 county jails in Wisconsin, we are missing out on a very important resource
11:14:01 to redressing the most severe problems that our communities are facing in Wisconsin.
11:14:07 And further than that there is a constitutional liberty that needs to be enforced
11:14:13 and needs to be protected for individuals who were serving time in county jails but are still eligible.
11:14:19 Even further than the individuals were eligible to vote were sitting in jails,
11:14:26 we have de facto disenfranchisement in that case but then also disenfranchisement of 69,000 individuals
11:14:32 who for the most part are on extended supervision in the community, paying taxes, living productive lives
11:14:36 and still can't vote, the voices still cannot be heard.
11:14:41 So once again I would like to emphasize that if our voices are not added to the political process,
11:14:47 there is no way that we will find an effective solution to these issues and that is where my involvement comes in.
11:14:52 That is why I am passionate about this issue and why I plan on carrying on this issue
11:14:57 even though it became newer to me in my advocacy work.  I believe it is one of the points
11:15:03 that really has the potential to change a lot with mass incarceration and its unintended consequences.
11:15:06 Lastly the final thing I will say on this is
11:15:12 through involving community members in this effort, a lot of these committee members never had any involvement
11:15:16 with the criminal justice system, these committee members get to go inside of the jail
11:15:21 and get to interact with the jail population and hear what is important to them.
11:15:27 This helps the community realized that individuals who may be serving time in jail
11:15:35 or are being held in jail are also members of the community.
11:15:35 The jail is your community and the community is your jail.
11:15:39 And this is a quote that I'm referencing from the captain of the county jail.
11:15:48 So I will end with that and I appreciate the interest shown to this topic and I will pass it back over to Ayele.
11:15:51 >> Thank you so much David.
11:15:56 Now we will go ahead and open the forum to questions.
11:16:04 I do already have a question cute up by Anna Jewell from Fox six.
11:16:12 Her question is how does Milwaukee and Wisconsin compared to other states?
11:16:24 And this question goes to each of you, as far as access to voting rolls within the jail populations there.
11:16:30 >> Ayele I will jump in their and this is Shauntay Nelson with All Voting is Local.
11:16:35 We know that voting across the United States of America is different by state.
11:16:40 But one of the things we found just in research is we have states like California and Texas
11:16:47 that enable individuals to submit a voter registration form and an absentee vote by mail request
11:16:51 in the jail through a coordinated voter registration initiative there.
11:16:58 We can look at places like Cook County and Chicago and Los Angeles County and the District of Columbia
11:17:05 which facilitate in person voting in their jails.  Residents of Chicago also, Chicago jails I should say,
11:17:11 also benefit from a policy that supports voter participation among homeless residents.
11:17:14 Then we can look at places such as Massachusetts
11:17:21 which their jails consider detainees to be specially qualified and they do not have to register
11:17:27 before completing an absentee ballot.  Earlier within the conversation David referenced
11:17:38 David and Eileen I believe both reference the challenges of voting while in jail.
11:17:38 Eileen specifically reference of the whole component of photo ID and the requirement
11:17:46 for photo ID within Wisconsin and as basically having a requirement to show an ID
11:17:51 in order to obtain a ballot within Wisconsin when you are in a county jail,
11:17:55 you don't always have access to your possessions immediately.
11:18:04 And so taking upon some of these other leniency across the state,
11:18:11 if we can take notes from some of these other states to really create additional access within Wisconsin.
11:18:16 One Eileen referenced earlier, simply doing away with the requirement for a photo ID.
11:18:22 I have always stated that if an individual is within jail you cannot say that you have
11:18:28 incarcerated the wrong individual and so then we have a problem state wide.
11:18:33 So we can be sure that we have incarcerated the right individual and can prove their identity
11:18:38 they should not be an additional requirement for photo ID when a resident of a jail is
11:18:44 attempting to vote.  And so those are just some of the things, I am not sure if David or Eileen
11:18:48 would like to share anything they have come across, but I did want to share that.
11:18:57 >> One point that I would like to touch on, and this is covered in the report also,
11:19:03 is Black and Native American individuals are incarcerated, especially in county jails,
11:19:09 at a rate nearly 7 times higher than the rest of the population.
11:19:14 Milwaukee County has 70 percent of the Wisconsin population.
11:19:20 Every electoral effort that is being undertaken right now in Wisconsin
11:19:24 Milwaukee County needs to be the center of a lot of these efforts.
11:19:30 So the stuff that we did in Eau Claire County in the background and a lot of the stuff we are doing at the state level
11:19:37 with some of our workgroups is to put that focus on Milwaukee and use the tools that we have found in other counties
11:19:41 to implement these practices and these policies and Milwaukee as well.
11:19:47 So we do need support and we do need the citizens of Milwaukee County speaking out in favor of this.
11:20:02 >> Eileen, did you have anything else to add?
11:20:05 >> No, I don't have anything else to add.  I think Shauntay and David made the comments very well.
11:20:12 >> Thank you.  We do have another question from Mike, I will unmute you now.
11:20:14 Please go ahead.
11:20:20 >> Thank you very much for your time today, this is Mike from Wisconsin news connection.
11:20:26 Looking at the report I see that you gave one example there of
11:20:34 one of the counties taking steps in light of the new survey from earlier this year.
11:20:40 I believe that was the green light County jail.  But of all of the counties that responded
11:20:44 in the new survey that made up a difference in terms of they were taking steps
11:20:52 to implement a policy, what's the -- is there any sense of a timeline
11:20:59 that these policies could be implemented before the spring elections over the crucial midterm elections later next fall?
11:21:03 Or sorry, fall of 2022.
11:21:12 >> I can maybe take the first stab at a response.
11:21:14 Thank you for your question, Mike, and I think now is the time
11:21:22 to be focusing on implementing these, either getting policies or procedures in place,
11:21:27 or improving the existing policies and just building up a knowledge base
11:21:36 of those who are working in a county jail or looking to support as like volunteers to go and do events
11:21:45 in the county jails as well.  Now is the time to build that capacity so that there is greater access for the 2022 elections.
11:21:51 >> And I will just say, I will just add to that and just say
11:21:58 we have to also be cognizant of the fact that many residents of any County jail,
11:22:06 maybe earlier within a year or maybe even during this time, they are based on state statutes
11:22:12 of course they can vote, however once an election comes or once it gets closer to election,
11:22:17 maybe they have relocated from that jail or maybe they have moved onto another jail
11:22:22 or been sentenced and things of that nature.  And so implementing these policies,
11:22:29 implementing these processes early on in the state could also help to really familiarize
11:22:36 the residence of jails to the process which is an important thing as we move forward within this work.
11:22:39 It needs to be something that is common knowledge
11:22:48 for those who need to -- who are incarcerated and they have to follow the process of voting from jail.
11:22:56 As David shared Black and Brown folk are the individuals who are incarcerated at higher rates,
11:23:02 and with that being the case I think it is important particularly within those communities for this knowledge,
11:23:07 this information to become common knowledge so that individuals can have their voices heard.
11:23:10 Because legally they are able to do so.
11:23:15 >> I think we have a follow-up question from Mike.
11:23:22 >> Yes, and sorry if I am stepping on anyone else's toes here,
11:23:26 I have one more question I wanted to get in and thank you for those answers.
11:23:33 We saw some election related laws adopted by the legislature, of course there is the issue of
11:23:40 a potential veto with the governor, but would any of those voting restriction bills that passed
11:23:47 the legislature place further restrictions on voting for those who are currently in jail?
11:23:54 >> I will start out here and just say we understand that
11:23:59 in order for democracy to work for all of us, it must include all of us.
11:24:04 So when we talk about that we also have to understand that rather it is a legislative
11:24:10 push or a procedural push.  We have to ensure that we create access
11:24:17 for individuals to be able to vote whether they are awaiting a sentence or
11:24:23 they are an individual who is a constituent out in public trying to vote.
11:24:30 The legislation that has been introduced, even those that are -- have been adopted,
11:24:34 we know that these pieces of legislation are not necessarily
11:24:43 written with the voter at the forefront or at the core, if you will.
11:24:49 And as a result of that it is our job, it is our duty, it is also the duty and the job
11:24:54 of those who are elected officials to create access where access is limited.
11:25:00 And so when we look at any pieces of legislation we are always going to go back to
11:25:05 the fact that voters should have access to be able to vote,
11:25:12 and that access should not be limited even if it is done through pieces of legislation.
11:25:19 >> Yeah, and I would add that this report highlights that the election
11:25:26 laws and procedures in place in Wisconsin are not perfect, and that some changes do need to be made
11:25:30 to ensure that everyone who is eligible is able to vote.
11:25:37 And the legislature is not paying attention to the actual challenges that Wisconsinites are facing
11:25:45 as far as going out to vote.  And so we would like to see their attention focused
11:25:53 on fixing the actual issues in Wisconsin laws versus some of the things they're working on right now.
11:25:58 >> Thank you guys for those answers.
11:26:05 I do have a follow-up question from Hannah Jewell, Fox 6.  Following this webinar
11:26:12 what efforts are you all taking next to demand voter access for all, and thank you for your time.
11:26:17 >> I could take that one, thank you for the question, Hannah.
11:26:24 Moving forward in my work individually in Eau Claire County I am going back to focusing on individuals
11:26:28 who have been disenfranchised or who believe themselves to be ineligible to vote
11:26:35 but actually may be eligible to vote.  Voter awareness and voter education is extremely important.
11:26:39 Been coming up with innovative ways in each of these counties to address
11:26:45 the barriers that individuals in jail face and that individuals in the community face as well.
11:26:53 To vote.  One example I would like to give is Allegheny County who did not necessarily have
11:27:01 the same buy-in that Eau Claire County had with the sheriff department, they sent in correspondence
11:27:10 to eligible voters to instruct them to how to request an absentee ballot by mail or to register and then request their absentee ballot.
11:27:15 So there was always innovative solutions to matter what type of legislation is passed,
11:27:21 no matter what the resistance is within the county or the sheriff's department,
11:27:28 there are ways that the community can get involved.  A very important aspect of this is we need community partners
11:27:33 and community engagement to ensure this continues going despite any legislation
11:27:37 that may be geared towards further disenfranchisement or suppression.
11:27:44 >> Go ahead Eileen.
11:27:51 >> Thanks Shauntay.  We have 20 local leagues around the state
11:27:56 and a number of them have expressed interest in doing this work and
11:28:07 modeling off of and building off of the work that David in Eau Claire County
11:28:12 is doing in the jails and their local communities to have different registration events
11:28:18 or different voter registration activities.  So one of the things I will be focusing on is providing
11:28:25 support and resources to the grassroots organizations that are looking to be a part of this work.
11:28:32 >> And I will just finalize this by sharing a small summary.
11:28:38 As part of a coordinated effort the ACLU of Wisconsin and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin
11:28:44 as well as All Voting is Local will continue to build relationships with county jails and county sheriffs.
11:28:52 We will continue to of course educate those who are citizens of Wisconsin or just those who are voters within Wisconsin,
11:28:57 those who are constituents of Wisconsin, we will continue to educate those individuals
11:29:02 as well as build public knowledge around this particular topic
11:29:08 in hopes that we could really be able to create additional access
11:29:13 where access is limited within our county jails.
11:29:18 >> Thank you so much for those answers.
11:29:22 Do we have any additional questions from our attendees?
11:29:29 I'm going to give you a minute to think about it.
11:29:38 If no further questions, that concludes our press call today.
11:29:44 I will be sending a wrap-up press release with the recording of this conversation.