Northern Wisconsin town faces new complaint about barriers to accessible voting
Disability Rights Wisconsin and the firm Law Forward have filed a complaint to the Wisconsin Elections Commission in response to the northern Wisconsin Town of Thornapple's decision to eliminate electronic voting machines in this year's April and August elections.
The complaint comes a week after the U.S. Department of Justice threatened a lawsuit for the Rusk County towns of Lawrence and Thornapple for failing to offer voting equipment for people with disabilities.
The complaint alleges that Suzanne Pinnow, Thornapple town clerk, violated the Help America Vote Act of 2002 by halting the usage of electronic voting machines for the April presidential primary. The suit argues that without an electronic voting machine, voters with disabilities have more limited options to cast a ballot privately and independently.
"Because Thornapple has just done away with their voting machines, they no longer have that capacity, there's nothing that would permit a voter with that kind of disability to vote privately and independently," said Dan Lenz, an attorney from Law Forward, a liberal-leaning firm in Madison.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/09/12/wisconsin-town-faces-new-complaint-over-barriers-to-accessible-voting/75146752007/