By HARM VENHUIZEN, Associated Press/Report for America
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge on Wednesday ordered a clerk in Green Bay to grant poll watchers greater access to in-person absentee voting, siding with Republicans who alleged the clerk was improperly allowing them to only view certain parts of process.
Judge Marc A. Hammer ordered City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys to permit poll watchers access to areas where voters complete witness certification and return their ballots in the town hall constructing. His order got here a day after the Republican National Committee filed the lawsuit in Brown County.
Poll watchers, known as election observers in Wisconsin, are legally entitled to view all the general public parts of the voting process from an area designated by an election official. There aren’t any residency requirements to be a poll watcher within the state.
Jeffreys said Wednesday afternoon that her office has complied with the order.
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“In response to a legal motion brought by the RNC regarding rules of statement, the town has provided additional areas of statement,” Jeffreys said in an announcement emailed to The Associated Press. “The modifications made will proceed to preserve and protect the integrity of the in-person absentee voting process while protecting voter security and freedom.”
Based on the criticism, Jeffreys had previously allowed observers to be in her office, where voters would check in, register to vote and receive their ballots. Nevertheless, voters were then sent into the hallway outside her office — out of sight of the poll watchers — to mark their decisions, certify their ballot with a witness and place it in a ballot box.
The clerk said she has received other requests for greater statement access that “would have resulted in intrusions upon voters actively casting their ballots,” a non-public a part of the voting process protected by law.
The lawsuit is the newest in a slew of legal actions by Republicans targeting administration of the 2022 election. The RNC said it has filed 75 election-related lawsuits this cycle.
The party has also devoted hundreds of thousands of dollars to recruiting poll watchers and election employees by the 1000’s, a move that has raised concerns about insider threats and aggressive observers.
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