(Cbrief) – A Wisconsin judge rejected an attempt backed by liberals to allow absentee ballots containing an incomplete witness address to be counted, saying that would disrupt the status quo and cause confusion with voting underway less than two weeks before Election Day.

The ruling was a win for the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature, which intervened in the lawsuit. The case focused on how much of the address of a witness needs to be included on an absentee ballot certificate in order for the ballot to be counted.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission has said that an address must include three elements: a street number, street name, and municipality. The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin sued, seeking a ruling that an address can only be missing when the entire field is left blank.

Dane County Circuit Judge Nia Trammell on Wednesday rejected the league’s request for a temporary injunction that would have allowed ballots with incomplete addresses to be counted. Trammell said she feared that loosening the witness address requirement would “would upend the status quo and not preserve it” and also “frustrate the electoral process by causing confusion.”

If she agreed with the league, the ruling would be quickly appealed and possibly overturned, which would result in ballots being tossed that were submitted by voters who thought their witness signatures were sufficient, Trammell said.

“This court does not want to add to the confusion that may arise from a temporary injunction that would all but certainly be appealed on an expedited basis,” she said.

The Legislature has passed bills since 2020 making it more difficult to vote absentee, but they have all been vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Republican attempts to limit absentee voting came after President Joe Biden’s narrow win in the state in 2020 when a record number of people voted absentee due to the pandemic.

The decision comes as the state’s 1,800-plus local election clerks are receiving absentee ballots in the mail and allowing voters to cast those ballots in person. As of Wednesday, more than 305,000 ballots had been returned, according to the elections commission.

Very few ballots would likely be affected by the ruling. But it remains an issue because of Wisconsin’s narrow-thin election margins.

Evers, who faces Republican Tim Michels on Nov. 8, won in 2018 by just 29,227 votes. Biden defeated former President Donald Trump by just 20,682 votes. Trump won Wisconsin by 22,748 votes in 2016.

The Legislative Audit Bureau last year reviewed nearly 15,000 absentee ballot envelopes from the 2020 election across 29 municipalities and found that 1,022, or about 7%, were missing parts of their witness addresses. Only 15 ballots, or 0.1%, had no witness address.

The issue of what constitutes an acceptable address arose after another judge sided with Republicans and ruled that election clerks aren’t allowed to fill in the missing information. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Aprahamian did not rule on what constitutes an address, leading to the League of Women Voters lawsuit. The league is represented by Fair Elections Center and Law Forward, law firms that have represented liberal groups suing over voting rights in Wisconsin.

A similar lawsuit filed by the liberal group Rise Inc., which encourages students to vote, is pending. A judge last month refused to order that the election commissions must accept partial addresses.

In last year’s audit, clerks corrected addresses on just 66 ballot envelopes or 0.4% of the sample.

conservativebrief.com/judge-midterms-67735/

From Next News Network:

Western Journal reports, During a panel discussion with digital media company NowThis, which aired on Sunday, Biden seemingly forgot that his student loan debt bailout had been achieved via executive order. He told the group the measure had been passed by Congress. This is concerning, to say the least. Does he really think Congress passed the student debt bailout? Does he not remember signing the executive order?

Top Comment:

“This is insane”

(Slay News) – A Democrat senator is under federal investigation for corruption for a second time, according to reports.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) faces a new investigation after he was previously charged with corruption by federal authorities.

In his previous case, Menendez managed to avoid prosecution by getting a mistrial.

“Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have contacted people connected to Menendez in recent weeks, the sources said,” according to a new report from Semafor.

“They have sent at least one subpoena in the case, according to a person connected to the inquiry.

“The two people familiar with the investigation, one who is directly connected to the investigation and the other a New Jersey lawyer who has been told of the case, said that the broad outlines of the new inquiry are similar to the 2017 case.

“Both said that the new investigation involves an entirely different group of people, however,” Semafor reported.

In 2017, CNN reported:

The federal corruption trial of New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez ended in a mistrial Thursday after the jury reported it was hopelessly deadlocked.

The mistrial is a blow to the Justice Department, which has been investigating Menendez for nearly five years, and will be a sigh of relief to Democrats worried about possibly losing his Senate seat to Republicans.

Menendez said he felt vindicated.

“I want to thank the jury, 12 New Jerseyans who saw through the government’s false claims and used their Jersey common sense to reject it,” he told reporters outside the courthouse before blasting the Justice Department.

“The way this case started was wrong, the way it was investigated was wrong, the way it was prosecuted was wrong, and the way it was tried was wrong as well,” he said.

“Certain elements of the FBI and of our state cannot understand or, even worse, accept that the Latino kid from Union City and Hudson County can grow up and be a US senator and be honest.”

Menendez also had harsh words for those who predicted his political doom.

“To those who were digging my political grave so that they could jump into my seat, I know who you are, and I won’t forget you,” he said.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) is under investigation again, reports @kadiagoba.

He was indicted in 2015, but there was a mistrial in 2017.https://t.co/NFChQdFTov

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) October 26, 2022

slaynews.com/news/dem-senator-under-federal-investigation-for-corruption-again-report/

From Next News Network:

Daily wire reports, Kudlow said Biden repeatedly told falsehoods about the state of the economy on “Fox News Sunday,” such as that his administration inherited a weak economy from Donald Trump and that the economy is strong.

Top Comment:

“This is all on purpose”

(Slay News) – New York City’s vaccine mandate for all city workers has been struck down by a state Supreme Court judge.

A New York Supreme Court judge ended the vaccine mandate in a Monday ruling, finding the order to be unconstitutional, arbitrary, and capricious.

The verdict was announced by attorney Chad LaVeglia, who said in a statement outside the Richmond County courthouse that the mandate is now “null and void.”

“So, we just defeated the vaccine mandate for every single city employee—not just sanitation,” LaVeglia said in a video posted on Twitter.

Over 2,000 city workers were fired for not getting a COVID-19 vaccine under the mandate.

LaVeglia said the ruling extends to all public workers, including the New York fire department, the police department, and the Department of Corrections.

“For all the brave men and women who have been our first responders and have been brave through all this are now free, and you should be able to go back to work,” he said.

George Garvey and 15 others who worked at the New York City Department of Sanitation filed the lawsuit on July 20.

The workers were terminated for failing to comply with the mandate.

Judge Ralph Porzio ruled against the city and found the mandate, which allowed exceptions, to have been an arbitrary and capricious order.

He said that Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, “made a different decision for similarly situated people based on identical facts” in his Executive Order No. 62.

However, there wasn’t anything in the record to “support the rationality of keeping a vaccination mandate for public employees, while vacating the mandate for private sector employees or creating a carveout for certain professions, like athletes, artists, and performers.”

“This is clearly an arbitrary and capricious action because we are dealing with identical unvaccinated people being treated differently by the same administrative agency,” the judge said in his ruling (pdf).

The ruling noted that all but one of the 16 petitioners applied for exemptions and received “generalized and vague denials.”

They remained unvaccinated during the time their exemptions were being processed.

Porzio said there was “no reason” they couldn’t have been allowed to keep working while submitting to COVID-19 testing.

“There was no reason why the City of New York could not continue with a vaccinate or test policy, like the Mayor’s Executive Order that was issued in August 2021,” the judge said in his ruling.

The judge affirmed vaccinations but said that public employees shouldn’t have been “terminated for their noncompliance” with the mandate.

Almost 80 percent of New York City is vaccinated, the judge noted.

Porzio’s ruling noted that “certain classes of people” were granted vaccination exemptions, proving the mandate for public workers “to be arbitrary and capricious.”

“It is clear that the Health Commissioner has the authority to issue public health mandates,” Porzio said in his ruling.

“No one is refuting that authority.

“However, the Health Commissioner cannot create a new condition of employment for City employees.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ Executive Order No. 62 “renders all of these vaccine mandates arbitrary and capricious.”

“Being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting COVID-19.

“As of the day of this Decision, CDC guidelines regarding quarantine and isolation are the same for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.”

In his ruling, Porzio said city workers shouldn’t be terminated for choosing “not to protect themselves” with a vaccine.

“Breakthrough cases occur,” the judge noted, even for those who are vaccinated and boosted.

Porzio also noted that Democrat President Joe Biden has declared “the pandemic is over.”

The judge noted that New York ended its COVID-19 state of emergency “over a month ago.”

He also noted that the first responders named in the lawsuit continued to work without protective gear, and had “created natural immunity” after catching COVID-19.

“They were terminated and are willing to come back to work for the City that cast them aside.

“The vaccination mandate for City employees was not just about safety and public health; it was about compliance.

“If it was about safety and public health, unvaccinated workers would have been placed on leave the moment the order was issued.

“If it was about safety and public health, the Health Commissioner would have issued city-wide mandates for vaccination for all residents.

“In a City with a nearly 80 percent vaccination rate, we shouldn’t be penalizing the people who showed up to work, at great risk to themselves and their families, while we were locked down.

“If it was about safety and public health, no one would be exempt,” Porzio said in his ruling.

“It is time for the City of New York to do what is right and what is just.”

slaynews.com/news/judge-ends-new-yorks-vaccine-mandate-all-city-workers/

From Next News Network:

Recently private conversations of the Saudi Crown Prince mocking Joe Biden’s mental decline have been leaked, leading to global humiliation of Joe Biden. Sources within the Saudi government claim that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) mocks Joe Biden’s gaffes and questions his mental fitness to be President.

Top Comment:

“He’s the laughing stock of our own country as well”

(Slay News) – Fox News star Jesse Watters dropped the hammer on Nancy Pelosi by calling the Democrat House speaker a “reality-denier.”

Watters said Pelosi “won’t even acknowledge the reality” of what inflation is doing to America.

“That’s the key word: Nancy ‘dismisses’ that,” Watters said.

“She’s dismissing everything you care about.

“Bill Clinton said, ‘I feel your pain,’ Nancy dismisses your pain.

“Pelosi won’t even acknowledge reality.

“She’s a reality-denier,” he said.

“It’s hard to face your failures, but that’s what grown-ups do, and this is exactly what Nancy dismisses.

“Forty-four percent say the economy or inflation is the most important problem facing us. Just 5% say it’s abortion.

“When Nancy says The New York Times is rigging their polls against Democrats, you know the Democrats are about to get wiped the hell out.

“And is Joe Biden talking about the number one issue facing the nation? No.

“Joe Biden, weeks before the midterms, give a big speech today about what just 5% of Americans care about.

“Democrats control the House and Senate right now.

“Why are they waiting until after the midterms to codify Roe v. Wade?

“Because it’s a game to them,” Watters said.

“This is just another issue for them to run on instead of solve.

“Running on the economy should be easy.

“There’s a clear problem — all Joe has to do is tell us how he’s going to fix it, but he can’t because he won’t even admit that he caused it.

“So instead, he goes on stage and talks birth control and your bedroom.”

Yesterday, Pelosi held an astounding interview on CBS where she proves Jesse Watters’s criticisms to be accurate.

She refused to take responsibility for inflation and insisted all the Democrats have to do is change the subject.

WATCH:

NANCY PELOSI: "When I hear people talk about inflation…we have to change that subject!" pic.twitter.com/Ck1DaPVrCc

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 23, 2022

TRANSCRIPT:

MARGARET BRENNAN: You have said a lot is going to be determined by turnout. But you’ve heard, our CBS estimates have the Republicans taking the house with 224 seats. How do you shift the momentum?

SPEAKER PELOSI: Well, let’s just say, first and foremost, good morning, it’s Sunday morning, 15 days or so before the election vote, people are already voting, we’re very pleased with our early vote for our owning the ground initiative.

I- it’s interesting to me, because for a year and a half, the media has been saying, Oh, they’ve go– it’s gone, president’s party always loses in the off year. And now we’re down to the stretch. And we’re down to very close races.

And we feel very confident. I’ve been in over 20 states since Congress adjourned in the last month or so. And I see very clearly that the ownership of the ground is with us. It’s about getting out the vote, everything else is a conversation compared to that. But in order to do that, you have to have inspiration, you can’t run on empty.

And the fact is- is that, when I hear people talk about inflation, as I heard him there, we have to change that subject. Inflation is a global phenomenon- phenomenon.

The EU, the European Union, the UK, the British, have higher inflation rate than we do here. It’s not- the fight is not about inflation. It’s about the cost of living. And if you look at what we have done, to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, to bring down the cost of- of energy and the rest in our legislation, you will see that that has been opposed every step of the way by the Republicans, and they have no plan for lowering the cost of living or helping with inflation.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Did you also realize at that time that the congressional spending would add to inflation? Did you see that risk then?

SPEAKER PELOSI: Well first- first of all, government spending does- we had a pandemic, and that brought down unemployment from seven percent to three-and-a-half percent now.

It put people back to work, children back in school, inoculations in the arm, and it helped take us through that stage of the pandemic. But let me just say that because of people, more people working in the rest, the national deficit has been cut in half from 2.8 to $1.4. Trillion.

That is a big change. So it is- it’s, yes, we have to take a step forward to solve the pandemic problem. But we did so in a way that would reduce the national deficit and that is cannot be ignored.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But, on things like sending you know, those $1,400 checks, putting cash out there. I mean, didn’t that end up contributing to inflation? Do you have any regrets about the bills you passed and how you structured them?

SPEAKER PELOSI: No, absolutely not. Because this- that was necessary for people to survive. Our purpose–

MARGARET BRENNAN: The risk though, was that it was inflationary.

SPEAKER PELOSI: But the point is, is that, when you reduce unemployment, it’s inflationary. That is a fact. When I was a new member of Congress, I was told that unemployment was dangerously low in our hearings on inflation and unemployment.

Unemployment is dangerously low for what it does to inflation. But the fact is, the point is, is that this is about helping America’s working families meet their needs, and that was essential to them.

Less inflationary than a $2 trillion tax cut for the high end that the Republicans gave and we’re still paying a price for $2 trillion, 83% of the benefits going to the top 1%. So we feel proud of what we’ve done. We feel proud of the President. To help America’s working families to lower their cost, and in doing so to reduce the deficit.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, on the issues that voters tell CBS News are important to them, abortion ranks number seven.

Up top: economy, inflation, crime, immigration. Was it a miscalculation to believe that the momentum from striking down Roe versus Wade was going to help Democrats? Why not talk more about these issues around the economy?

SPEAKER PELOSI: I can just say this. Nobody ever- The elections are about the future. They’re about the economy. Everybody knows that.

Nobody said we’re doing abortion rather than the economy, but it’s- it’s about both. And I can tell you that that issue is very, very provocative and encouraging people to vote across the country, having just been there not sitting in Washington, but while going around the country.

slaynews.com/news/nancy-pelosi-hands-jesse-watters-huge-win-proves-he-was-100-correct-for-calling-her-a-reality-denier/

From Next News Network:

The Washington Free Beacon reports, an electronic billboard set up by Job Creators Network, a business advocacy group, on Thursday shows President Joe Biden eating an ice cream cone. The billboard also shows data showing the rising cost of the dessert’s ingredients.

Top Comment:

“he lives with brain freeze”

(CBrief) – The border has been a continuing crisis with the administration of President Joe Biden, and now it has become historic.

In September the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border reached a record high for one fiscal year, Newsmax reported.

The year-end numbers reflect deteriorating economic and political conditions in some countries, the relative strength of the U.S. economy and uneven enforcement of Trump-era asylum restrictions.

Migrants were stopped 227,547 times in September at the U.S. border with Mexico, the third-highest month of Joe Biden’s presidency. It was up 11.5% from 204,087 times in August and 18.5% from 192,001 times in September 2021.

In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, migrants were stopped 2.38 million times, up 37% from 1.73 million times the year before, according to figures released late Friday night. The annual total surpassed 2 million for the first time in August and is more than twice the highest level during Donald Trump’s presidency in 2019.

Nearly 78,000 migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua were stopped in September, compared to about 58,000 from Mexico and three countries of northern Central America that have historically accounted for most of the flow.

United States and Mexican officials said that since Title 42 has started being used to send Venezuelans to Mexico the rate of illegal border crossing by Venezuelans has fallen 80 percent.

But the Biden administration has pledged to allow as many as 24,000 Venezuelans on humanitarian parole if they come in via an airport and have a financial sponsor.

“While this early data is not reflected in the (September) report, it confirms what we’ve said all along: When there is a lawful and orderly way to enter the country, individuals will be less likely to put their lives in the hands of smugglers and try to cross the border unlawfully,” Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Chris Magnus said.

In May a federal judge blocked the Biden administration from ending Title 42, a Trump-era rule put in place during the pandemic authorizing immigration and border agents to immediately deport migrants who crossed illegally.

The rule was set to end, but several states filed suit to block the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from ending the rule, claiming the agency did not follow federal law in doing so.

“Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have decried the end of the policy — implemented as public health initiative under the Trump administration to block migrants from coming during the pandemic — out of concern that ending Title 42 would exacerbate already record numbers at the border,” Axios reported.

“Given the impact of the Termination Order on the Plaintiff States and their showing that the CDC did not comply with the [Administrative Procedure Act], the Court concludes that the public interest would be served by a preliminary injunction preventing the termination of the CDC’s Title 42 Orders,” U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays of the Western District of Louisiana noted in his 47-page ruling.

Not surprisingly, the Justice Department announced following the ruling that it would appeal.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) invoked its authority under Title 42 due to the unprecedented public-health dangers caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” department spokesperson Anthony Coley said.

“CDC has now determined, in its expert opinion, that continued reliance on this authority is no longer warranted in light of the current public-health circumstances. That decision was a lawful exercise of CDC’s authority,” he added.

Twenty-four states filed suit to keep the policy in place, Axios noted. In addition, there is a bipartisan effort in the Senate to keep the rule in place, which is holding up the latest COVID relief package, the outlet added. The House has passed a bipartisan measure but the Senate has yet to act.

“The decision is wrong and we would expect the administration to take immediate action to undo this injunction if the White House is actually serious about finally getting rid of the Trump administration’s unlawful attempts to eliminate protections for asylum seekers,” ACLU’s Lee Gelernt, who is the lead attorney in the Title 42 lawsuits in DC, told Axios in a statement.

But supporters of the ruling were elated.

“Today’s ruling is a significant win as Title 42 is one of the few policies that is actually working,” said Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, according to Fox News. “I’m grateful to the court for upholding the rule of law and helping maintain some level of sanity as we continue to battle the Biden-made border crisis.”

conservativebrief.com/crossing-67618/

From Next News Network:

NYPost reports. Kamala Harris will be hoping the third time is the charm. NYPOST reported Wednesday that the VP has hired her third chief speechwriter since taking office in January 2021.

Top Comment:

“That’s the democrat party at work.”