LETTER: Legislators kept voters in dark crafting harmful referendums

To Ozaukee Press:

On our Nov. 3 ballot this year are yet three more referendums asking voters to amend the Wisconsin Constitution with policies that should have been legislated, which would have provided judicial review and, more importantly, voter scrutiny.  

While the legislative majority had two full sessions, 2023-2024 and 2025-2026, to create these referendum questions, most voters learn nothing about them until the last minute. If these proposals are so necessary that we must amend our Constitution, when were the authors going to inform the citizens and campaign for them? Tellingly, what does it say about the legislators’ respect for the voter when they also write in misleading language? 

The three referendums have real life consequences for our citizens. The referendums are: Question 1—partial veto; Question 2—freedom to gather in places of worship during an emergency; and the most misleading of all, Question 3—governmental entity discrimination prohibited, which would scuttle 60 years of progress and programs that have lifted up women, tribal organizations, people of all color, race, ethnicity and national origin, all of whom have been marginalized in our society. 

It is crucial that voters understand the potential negative consequences for all of us if these amendments pass. The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin has studied and researched the effects and purposes of these amendments for the past seven months. We must prevent legislators from circumventing our legislative process and encumbering our Constitution with controversial social policies that deserved more time in front of the voters. 

Patty Keuck and  Christy Schwan

Co-presidents

League of Women Voters of Ozaukee 

and Washington Counties