Letter to the Editor: Republican Election Strategy Based on Voter Restriction

Wisconsin State Senator Roger Roth is alleging that Green Bay Mayor Genrich and staff tampered with absentee ballots during the November 2020 election. That election was submitted to scrutiny like no other and passed with flying colors. 

Mayor Genrich helped voter access by installing ballot drop boxes in various locations so that voters could safely drop off their absentee ballots, hiring voter navigators to help residents register to vote and direct them to polling locations, and increasing early voting hours for weekdays and expanding them into Saturdays.

These policies helped a large percentage of eligible voters participate in the election during a pandemic, and 84% of registered Green Bay voters cast their ballots in November 2020.

The Republican Party’s election strategy is based not on appealing to voters but on restricting voters. It is not enough to totally gerrymander Wisconsin; now their goal is to keep progressive voters from the polls.

When the Republican Party’s platform consists of little more than hero worship of Trump, empowering white supremacists, gutting environmental and workers’ rights regulations, blocking Democrats from doing anything at all, and pampering the super rich from the cradle to the grave, it’s hard to draw new voters.

So the Republicans have fallen back on the strategy of preventing anyone likely to vote Democratic from voting. That is all this attack on Genrich is about. If they can create doubt in the minds of Wisconsinites about the integrity of the election, it will provide them the cover they need to pass voter-suppression legislation.

The Republicans will not be satisfied until only property-owning white males can vote.

Charles Frisk

Green Bay, Wisconsin