By: dmc-admin//February 25, 2008//
Students at six university campuses went out to the polls last Tuesday to spark their peers’ interest in the April 1 Supreme Court race. Representatives of Students for a Fair Wisconsin, a gay-rights group, passed out applications for absentee ballots.
Bill Conway, deputy executive director of Madison-based Fair Wisconsin, said that the group has not endorsed a candidate yet. The goal of the primary-day outing was to register students for absentee ballots and encourage them to check out the candidates’ records. He noted that student turnout in off-season elections is typically low.
Fair Wisconsin and its student organization actively opposed a marriage amendment that would only recognize a marriage between a man and woman. Fifty-nine percent of Wisconsin voters in the November 2006 referendum supported the amendment.
Conway said the race between Justice Louis B. Butler Jr. and Judge Michael J. Gableman is important. He noted that the Supreme Court is likely to face issues related to domestic partner benefits and other issues that are important to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.