Brown v. WEC

On March 1, 2023 Law Forward, on behalf of Black Leaders Organizing Communities (BLOC), moved to intervene in Brown v. WEC, the latest in a long line of attacks on access to absentee voting. Brown is a two-pronged threat, weaponizing contorted and discredited interpretations of state law to 1) severely curtail the number of locations available to voters through in-person absentee voting (IPAV), and 2) hamstring the staff of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

During the 2022 election season, the City of Racine selected a number of different locations for  IPAV. After complaining about this process to the Wisconsin Elections Commission (and losing), Plaintiff Kenneth Brown sued. He asked the court to enjoin the City of Racine from deploying a robust IPAV and declare that the City of Racine’s practices are illegal.

The City of Racine is home to one of the largest concentrations of Black folks in Wisconsin. As a historical target of disenfranchisement and discrimination Black voters in Wisconsin deserve a seat at the proverbial table to fight this latest attack on voting rights. Law Forward is proud to represent BLOC – one of Wisconsin’s most powerful organizations that advocates improving the lives of Black folks in Wisconsin – in this dispute. BLOC is a key voice in the larger conversation regarding voting rights and Wisconsin’s Black community and will play a key role in litigating this lawsuit.

On October 31, 2023 Law Forward filed a Brief in Wisconsin Circuit Court. The brief argues that the plaintiff’s challenges to Wis. Stat. § 6.855 are based on misinterpretations of the statute and rely on an outdated version of the law. The defendant-intervenor, Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC), requested that the court 1) affirm that WEC was right: placing alternate absentee balloting sites throughout a municipality is perfectly legal, and 2) deny the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment.