Monday, September 28, 2020

7th Circuit Overturns Obama Judge Ruling That Would Have Extended WI Election by a Week

 streiff reporting for RedState

Our republic is entering a particularly dangerous time when one of the major political parties is attempting to use the specter of China Wuhan Lung AIDS to electoral advantage. Because of the ephemeral — and perhaps entirely imaginary — risk of voting while this pandemic rages…




…several states have decided to mail ballots to their entire list of registered voters rather than use the tried and true method of absentee ballots.. (No, Chris Cillizza, mail-in ballots, and absentee ballots are not the same thing, and no matter how many times you say it, the facts will not change.) This has resulted in valid ballots being sent to an unknown number of people who have moved or who are dead, or who don’t even exist. Even in states using the traditional absentee process, we’re seeing federal judges deliberately destroy time-tested processes.

Last week, a Wisconsin judge declared that instead of having to be present on Election Day to be counted, absentee ballots postmarked by 8 p.m. Election Day could be counted so long as they arrived up to six days later.

In anticipation of a crush of absentee ballots, a federal judge on Monday extended the deadline for counting ballots cast in Wisconsin and sent through the mail by almost a week after Election Day.

The sweeping order by U.S. District Judge William Conley just 43 days before the election makes it likely Wisconsinites won’t know the unofficial results of the presidential election on Election Day this year, unless his ruling is reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals or U.S. Supreme Court.

In his order, Conley extended the deadline for absentee ballots to be counted until Nov. 9, the Monday after Election Day, as long as the ballots are mailed and postmarked on or before Election Day.

“Election workers’ and voters’ experiences during Wisconsin’s primary election in April, which took place at the outset of the COVID-19 crisis, have convinced the court that some, limited relief from statutory deadlines for mail-in registration and absentee voting is again necessary to avoid an untenable impingement on Wisconsin citizens’ right to vote, including the near certainty of disenfranchising tens of thousands of voters relying on the state’s absentee ballot process,” Conley wrote.

As much as John Roberts likes to gaslight us about there being no such thing as Obama judges, this ruling, once again, like with the whole “Muslim ban” kerfuffle, shows that Barack Obama was incredibly successful in stocking the federal bench with judges who are more than willing to use the most specious of legal reasoning to forward the cause of Democrat electoral politics.

Factually, the presence of a virus doesn’t stop anyone from picking up an absentee ballot from their mailbox, filling it out in their home, and putting it back in the mailbox unless you live somewhere BLM rioters are holding a peaceful protest. There is no conceivable reason to count ballots arriving nearly a week after the election and certifying them as valid based on a “postmark,” which will not be the subject to poll watcher observation. The only reason to permit this atrocity is to allow absentee ballots to be inserted into the process that were completed after the polls had closed and preliminary findings had been announced. A secondary reason would be to keep the outcome of the election unknown for a week, perhaps with leads changing hands, and thereby destroy the faith people must have that their elections are free and fair.

A little earlier today, the Seventh Circuit weighed in on an appeal by the Republican National Committee, the Wisconsin GOP, and Wisconsin’s Republican legislative caucus:

A federal appeals court on Sunday temporarily halted a six-day extension for counting absentee ballots in Wisconsin’s presidential election, a momentary victory for Republicans and President Donald Trump in the key presidential battleground state.

As it stands, ballots will now be due by 8 p.m. on Election Day. A lower court judge had sided with Democrats and their allies to extend the deadline until Nov. 9. Democrats sought more time as a way to help deal with an expected historic high number of absentee ballots.

That ends the argument unless the Supreme Court reinstates the lawless policy imposed in defiance of state law by a single federal judge.

Unfortunately, this kind of activity is becoming commonplace. In Montana, a judge appointed by that state’s Democrat governor ordered the state to count ballots arriving up to three days after Election Day…he also said a state law banning the pernicious practice of ballot harvesting was unconstitutional.

And another case in Texas where an Obama judge ordered the state to continue offering a “straight ticket” option on their ballots despite it being banned by Texas law.

We are in a battle for the future of the nation here, and when the smoke clears in some 50-odd days, if we are the ones still standing, we need to make damned sure the people who are so blatantly and corruptly attempting to use the courts to swing elections are not allowed to do that ever again.