NEW GLARUS — Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Monday morning visited Green County to tout his support for a constitutional amendment that would ban, once and for all, partisan gerrymandering in the state.
Meeting with city officials at village hall in New Glarus, Evers said the time has come to let the voters and voters alone decide who will represent them based on maps that are not designed with partisan goals. The push follows years of court fights over the issue not only here, but nationwide as the GOP launched an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting push — ostensibly fearing defeat in November’s Congressional elections.
“I believe fair maps make democracy stronger,” said Evers. “So let’s put it in the Constitution.”
A special session of the legislature was scheduled for Tuesday, during which Evers hoped the legislature would use its limited time back in Madison to support the push for fair maps, along with tax and other needed reforms.
According to a statement from the governor’s office: “Gov. Evers has long been an advocate for nonpartisan redistricting, fair maps, and maintaining Wisconsin’s fair, safe, and secure elections.”
The governor has previously opposed efforts by Republican lawmakers to pass a nonpartisan redistricting plan that his team said would have required “Legislature-picked and Legislature-approved map drawers.”
Evers also used his time in New Glarus to learn about the village’s voting system using a Dominion voting machine and the new Badger Books system that has streamlined the process, and improved the professional lives of clerks around election time in all 72 of Wisconsin’s counties. And that’s good news, agreed New Glarus Village Administrator Kelsey Jenson, who said the work is key to keep voting a habit for a new generation; and to expand turnout among longtime voters.
“Every year our elections keep growing as far as turnout and we’re seeing a lot more younger voters” recently at the polls, she said.
Village Clerk Amy Barnes said the recent balloting was her first election using Badger Books. It went smoothly, she added, and is helping to prevent the potential for late election-night counts in future vote-counting efforts. But she said the system is still only as good and as honest as the people who run it, and that requires plenty of friends and neighbors to help democracy function at its most basic level.
“Especially in the rural areas, it is getting harder to get those volunteers,” she said.
For his part, Evers left the locals with some kind words about not only the way they run elections, but also about New Glarus itself.
“This is one of the best places to eat and enjoy life,” he said. “Good neighbors…they do wonderful work, I’m so grateful to them.”