The polls in Wisconsin closed moments ago. So far, so good in the state's unprecedented recall elections today, at least according to the bulk of media reports throughout the day. Turnout was reportedly very high, nearing or even exceeding rates from the 2008 Presidential election in some areas. "It's astronomically high," according to Matt Rothschild, Editor of The Progressive in Madison, WI, with whom I was just on air with on Santa Fe Public Radio's KSFR to discuss today's recalls.

Never before in American politics have voters recalled more than two state legislators in a single year. That record could be broken on Tuesday, when Wisconsinites vote to decide the fate of six Republican state senators who voted for Gov. Scott Walker's conservative, anti-union agenda.

With the July primary elections behind us, the League of Women Voters encourages every eligible citizen in the Senate recall and Assembly special election districts to take the time to vote.

• August 9 - recall elections in Senate Districts 2, 8, 10, 14, 18, 32 and special election in Assembly District 48 (seat vacated by Joe Parisi)

• August 16 – recall elections in Senate Districts 12 and 22

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ~ August 1, 2011

As faith in U.S. political system hits historic lows, organizers announce that
LAUNCH OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT WILL BE AUGUST 24-28 IN MADISON, WISCONSIN

(MADISON, WI) ~ The eyes of the nation will return to Madison, Wisconsin, August 24-28, as nearly 1,000 community, labor, and student organizers gather at the first Democracy Convention to launch a movement to bring democracy to the United States.

"We're broke."

Or so claim governors and lawmakers all over the country. Our states and our nation can no longer afford, their plaint goes, the programs and services that Americans expect government to provide. We must do with less. We need "austerity."

A series of Wisconsin special elections this summer are being watched as testing grounds for how riled up both Democratic and Republican voters will be in a key state for 2012. But voting rights advocates are also watching the elections for early indications of how a rash of stringent voter ID laws that have swept the country this year will play out.

"This is what voter suppression looks like."

The head of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights group on Monday condemned state laws requiring photo identification of voters as an attempt to disenfranchise minorities through some "of the last existing legal pillars of Jim Crow."

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said a wave of newly enacted photo-ID requirements stemmed from what he saw as "the worst and most racist elements" in conservative Tea Party groups that have immersed themselves in state politics since the 2010 elections.

With a sharp eye, the state Republican Party has watched for any signs that Gov. Scott Walker's policies are saving money for local school districts.

One way districts are reducing costs, the GOP says, is by switching their employee health insurance from the WEA Trust, the insurance wing of the Wisconsin Education Association Council.

Recently, the GOP issued a press release noting how the Marshfield School District had saved $850,000 by dumping the teacher's union insurance plan.

As the first half of 2011 has revealed, Wisconsin is not a moderate “purple” state, but a state divided between staunchly “blue” progressives and righteous “red” right-wingers. That rift is particularly apparent in legislative conflicts over the criminal justice system, a debate spurred by corporate interests represented in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and perpetuated by ALEC legislative members, including Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

Waukesha - When Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus said in May that she intended to start providing unofficial election night results broken down by municipality - something that might have flagged the kind of snafu that earned her notoriety after the Supreme Court election this spring - she did not mean all municipal results.

Nickolaus told the County Board's Executive Committee on Monday that she'll change her reporting practices based on advice from the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board.