I’d never heard of Ieshuh Griffin, an independent candidate for a seat in Wisconsin’s Assembly, until Wednesday. I read yesterday about the Government Accountability Board’s denial of her request to describe her candidacy on the November ballot with the words
(Candidates may have a brief description of their candidacies on the ballot.) There’s now a link to a video of her presentation before the GAB.
Her desired description is vulgar, but it’s not a threat of violence or defamatory statement. A candidate should be able to place words on the ballot so long as those words neither threaten violence nor defame. Current regulations are too restrictive. These are simply a few words directed to other adults, to appear on a ballot. In a free society, a candidate should be able to make a declaration like this, even if it’s wrong, foolish, or crude.
Voters would be able to decide for themselves what they think of those words, and that candidate, when voting. If they think what Griffin’s saying is true, and they find it compelling, they can vote for her. There must be at least a few voters who would be eager to vote for a woman who confidently tells the world that she’s “NOT the whiteman’s [sic] bitch.” Griffin must be serious, as she capitalizes the first word of her proposed statement. She’s generous to do so; it removes the ambiguity that she might, just might, be otherwise.
Alternatively, perhaps this is a false claim, and Ieshuh Griffin is, in fact, under the thumb of one or more white men. If that’s true, she’s either lying or mistaken about her own condition. There’s a simple answer for voters should she prove to be a liar or deluded about her supposed independence from white society: don’t vote for her. Voters in her Assembly district can express their rejection of her claims, or the way she’s expressed them, by voting for someone else.
I’d also like to note that Griffin received the support of 3 of the 5 members present on the Government Accountability Board for her proposed statement, although by law she needed the support of four. The board members were all white men. A majority of them attending supported her request. That’s a pretty good showing.
Perhaps, just perhaps, she’s not their bitch after all. Truer still, they’re surely not the people her proposed description suggests they are.
Yet, she should be able, in a free society, to use the wording she’s requested.