Wis. ruling halts ballot mailing
State Supreme Court stops sending of absentee ballots until decision is made on who will be on document.
MADISON, Wis. — The conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a halt in the mailing of absentee ballots until it gives the go-ahead or makes any future ruling about who should be on the ballot in the critical battleground state.
The order injects a measure of confusion into the voting process in Wisconsin a week before a state’s deadline for absentee ballots to be mailed to those with requests on file and less than two months before the Nov. 3 presidential election. Polls show a tight race in the state between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.
An unknown number of ballots have already been mailed, and local election clerks sounded the alarm about what even a temporary delay in the process would mean.
“This is potentially a huge disaster,” said Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell. “Just the delay of a decision is deeply irresponsible and jeopardizes the integrity of our election.”
In the city of Madison alone, there were 100,000 requests for absentee ballots on file, and election staff planned to work all weekend on mailing them out, he said. If the court would order changes to the ballot, Dane County would have to print, package, sort and deliver 500,000 new ballots.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins. He asked the state’s highest court to take up his challenge of a Wisconsin Elections Commission decision keeping him off the ballot. The commission deadlocked in
August on whether Hawkins had submitted the proper campaign paperwork to be placed on the ballot.
Census order: A panel of three federal judges said Thursday that President Trump’s order to exclude people in the country illegally when redrawing congressional districts violates the law.
The judges in New York granted an injunction stopping the order, saying the harm caused by it would last for a decade. The judges prohibited Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose agency oversees the Census Bureau, from excluding people in the country illegally when turning over figures used to calculate how many congressional seats each state gets.
Portland protests: The mayor of Portland, Oregon, on Thursday ordered police to stop using tear gas for crowd control during the frequently violent protests that have racked the city for more than three months since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat, was tear-gassed when he went to a demonstration against the presence of federal authorities dispatched to the city to protect federal property.
He said he still wants police to respond aggressively to prevent violence and vandalism. Hundreds of people have been arrested since the protests started in May.
Virus vaccine: A woman who received an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed severe neurological symptoms that prompted a pause in testing, a spokesman for drugmaker AstraZeneca said Thursday.
The study participant in late-stage testing reported symptoms consistent with transverse myelitis, a rare inflammation of the spinal cord, said company spokesman Matthew Kent.
“We don’t know if it is (transverse myelitis),” Kent said. “More tests are being done now as part of the follow-up.”
Medical marijuana: Nebraska voters won’t get the chance to legalize medical marijuana this year after the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the measure set to appear on the November ballot is unconstitutional.
The court’s ruling was a win for social conservatives, including Gov. Pete Ricketts, who argued that the state shouldn’t legalize a drug that isn’t approved by federal regulators.
The court also ruled that a measure to allow casino gambling can appear on the ballot, despite opposition from Ricketts and other conservatives who say it will contribute to gambling addiction and bankruptcies. The rulings came one day before the legal deadline to certify both measures for the general ballot.
Belarus protests: A prominent opposition activist who resisted her forcible expulsion from Belarus by ripping up her passport accused Belarusian authorities Thursday of threatening to kill her amid their efforts to end a month of protests against the country’s authoritarian president.
Maria Kolesnikova said in a formal complaint released by her lawyer that agents of Belarus’ state security committee put a bag on her head and drove her to the border with Ukraine before she fought her removal from Belarus and was jailed.
“They threatened to kill me,” Kolesnikova said.
“They stated that if I refuse to leave the territory of Belarus voluntarily, they will get me out of the country anyway — alive or in fragments.”
She demanded that the nation’s Investigative Committee probe the KGB officers on charges of abduction, illegal detention and threats of killing.
Neither agency commented on Kolesnikova’s statement.
Opposition activists came under increasing pressure this week as Belarus marked a month since massive demonstrations broke out against President Alexander Lukashenko’s reelection to a sixth term.
The opposition rejects the results of the country’s Aug. 9 election, and the protesters demanding Lukashenko’s resignation represent an unprecedented challenge to the leader’s 26-year rule.
Fires at migrant camp:
Thousands of migrants left homeless after fires gutted a sprawling refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos will not be allowed to travel to mainland Greece, the government said Thursday.
Authorities said the fires were started deliberately Tuesday and Wednesday nights by residents protesting their confinement at the overcrowded Moria camp. The camp that housed 12,500 people was locked down due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
“Some people do not respect the country that is hosting them, and they strive to prove they are not looking for a passport to a better life,” Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas said.
Some 400 unaccompanied children from the camp were flown to shelters in northern Greece, while other migrants will remain on Lesbos and be put in emergency accommodations, Petsas said.
“They will not leave (the island) because of the fire,” he told reporters.