Captain's Quarters -

More Shenanigans In Milwaukee?

After the 2004 election, widespread claims of voter fraud arose from the close election results in our neighboring state of Wisconsin. At the time, the claims focused on the lax voter registration laws in Wisconsin that apparently allowed for massive overvoting in the critical precincts of Milwaukee. Over 4500 ballots got cast over the number of ballots that Milwaukee recorded as voting in that election, calling into question the reliability of the razor-thin margin of victory by John Kerry of 11,000 votes overall.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel did an excellent job of reporting the shenanigans in 2005, leading to an investigation that ended up going nowhere. The county, state, and federal governments could reach no real conclusion as to the existence of fraud, despite the obvious imbalance in votes versus the records. Now a blogger on the Left has discovered what three levels of government investigators could not (via Memeorandum):

The Optech IIIP Eagle optical scanner claims it scanned 1219 ballots. On the poll book certification page, the poll workers checking in voters and handing out blank ballots claim they handed 1071 ballots to electors. On the Inspectors’ reports with the forged signatures, it is claimed only 981 ballots were handed to electors. If I believe the machine and the poll book, then the ballot box in Ward One was stuffed with 148 extra ballots. If I believe the machine and the apparently forged inspectors’ report, the ballot box is stuffed with 238 extra ballots. If I ignore the machine altogether, the ballot box is stuffed with 90 extra ballots.

This leads to several questions.

1. How many ballots are currently sealed in the ballot bag for Ward One; 1219 ballots, 1071 ballots, 981 ballots, or some other number of ballots? Has anyone checked? Ever?

2. How is it that this anomaly was never discovered after two years of "investigation" by the Joint Task Force of the FBI, Milwaukee Police department, the Milwaukee county District Attorney and the US Attorney for Eastern Wisconsin? What have US Attorney Biskupic and the County District Attorneys E. Michael McCann and John Chisholm been doing for two years if such clear statute violations were missed?

John Washburn, guest-blogging at Brad's Blog, has more questions about the implications of this discovery, but there are more still. It took months for Washburn to receive the materials from a FOIA request; he got stalled by excuses of materials transfers between agencies. Now that Washburn has the materials, it hardly seems credible that the joint investigation could reasonably shrug off the complaints. The election inspectors signed their names as "Jane Smith", "Judy Doe", and "John Doe", and as mentioned before, the numbers are quite a bit off from the optical-scan machines, which should be highly accurate.

John asks who benefits from the apparent ballot-stuffing in this one ward. Given that Milwaukee has a strong Democratic registration advantage and that the electoral mechanics in that county are controlled by Democrats, I'd find it extremely unlikely that it represents a Republican conspiracy. Democrats needed a wide margin of victory for Kerry in Milwaukee to overcome the advantage Republicans have in most of the rest of the state -- and it seems as though some people were determined to maximize that margin through any means necessary.

However, no one can prove this, because we rightly do not match ballots to names. We rely on strict accounting to ensure a fair election with fair results. Regardless of who tried to game the system, all citizens should be demanding a new investigation into Milwaukee's 2004 election, who ran it, and most importantly who corrupted it. After that, we need to find out why the last investigation failed to proceed with charges against the officials in this ward that falsified the controls.

John says that "it is the duty of sovereign citizens to watch public officials vigilantly and eternally." He's right.

Dems Admit Election-Day Sabotage

Four of five Democratic activists charged with election-day sabotage took an eleventh-hour plea deal that convicted them of misdemeanors for slashing tires on GOP-rented vans on Election Day 2004. Despite doing over $5,000 worth of damage and perhaps keeping hundreds of voters from getting to the polls, the quartet will not have to serve any prison time in exchange for their guilty pleas (via The American Mind, who has a good roundup of reaction):

In an unexpected twist in the Election Day tire-slashing trial, four former Kerry-Edwards campaign staffers, including the sons of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) and former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt, have agreed to plead no contest to misdemeanors.

The plea agreements came in the middle of jury deliberations after an eight-day trial on felony property damage charges that carried potential 3 1/2 year prison terms upon conviction. The fifth defendant in the case was acquitted by the jury later in the afternoon.

Michael Pratt, 33, Sowande Omokunde, 26, Lewis G. Caldwell, 29, and Lavelle Mohammad, 36, have all pleaded no contest to misdemeanor counts of criminal damage to property. Omokunde is Moore's son.

Prosecutors will recommend probation sentences as part of the deal, and that the four together pay $5,317 in restitution for the damaged tires.

In light of the acquittal of the fifth defendant, some might think that the prosecutor made the right decision in offering the plea. It puts the Democrats on record as admitting to electoral fraud; it guarantees that these four men will have a police record and will make it difficult for them to continue playing any significant role in politics, at least in the near term; and it closes a case with some kind of conviction, as opposed to the mistrial or outright acquittal towards which it appeared to be heading.

I agree that shifting down to a misdemeanor may well serve the overall interest of justice, but not a lack of jail time. Wisconsin, like Minnesota and a number of other states, have lax registration requirements and even less rigorous enforcement of the law and investigation into fraud. When something this blatant arises, it calls for strict prosecution and an example for others tempted to try it again. This was no mere act of youthful vandalism -- it was a crime against people who could not get themselves to the polls to vote, by the party that claims to care for the helpless and disadvantaged. It also appears to have been a conspiracy of sorts, as it involved quite a few of the lower-level Democratic activists, two of whom have parents as elected representatives. That kind of betrayal should have resulted in more than just restitution and community service.

The judge does have the discretion to reject the terms of the deal, or to accept the pleas but still include some jail time. Let us hope that the judge in this case values the credibility of the electoral system more highly than the prosecutor, and certainly more highly than the well-connected defendants who will appear for final sentencing later.

Wisconsin Voter Fraud Gets Congressional Attention

The widespread allegations of voter fraud in Wisconsin from last year's presidential election, the level of which may have fraudulently pushed the state into John Kerry's Electoral College column, will finally receive some attention from Congress. Greg Borowski reported on Wednesday that the House Administration Committee would come to Milwaukee to hear from witnesses. However, one member of the delegation has some eyebrows raised (h/t: CQ reader A Guy In Wisconsin):

The meeting of the House Administration Committee, which oversees election issues, will put the state's election system under a potentially powerful microscope.

But the visit was criticized Tuesday amid questions about whether any Democratic members would attend. There also were questions about the witness list, heavy with Republicans and - for now - without Milwaukee representation.

The committee chairman, Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), said Tuesday that he was told Rep. Gwen Moore, a Milwaukee Democrat, would be sitting in.

Moore is not on the committee, but Ney said she would be able to testify and join the committee in questioning witnesses. The three Democrats on the nine-member committee all have conflicts and will not attend. Apparently, they had not submitted any witnesses they wanted called.

Rep. Mark Green made the request to get more attention on the case, which has languished since Mayor Tom Barrett appointed an investigatory board of city, state, and federal officials to look into the allegations. (My case archive on this can be found here.) The state Democratic Party Chairman, Joe Weineke, takes a dim view of the proceedings, claiming that they amount to nothing more than a political stunt and "road show" for Green, a Republican. Weineke wants to know why the witness list doesn't include more Democrats. Perhaps he should consider himself lucky at not having to explain why more of them won't be subpoenaed.

The inclusion of Rep. Gwen Moore has some people scratching their heads. After all, the Democratic Congresswoman has a significant connection to these allegations. Her son Sowande Omokunde, also known by the memorable name of Supreme Solar Allah, got charged with felonious vandalism in an Election Day tire-slashing incident meant to keep Republicans from going to the polls:

The investigation into the Great Tire-Slashing Caper will end Monday with felony charges against the adult sons of two prominent Milwaukee politicians - U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore and former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt.

Sources close to the 83-day-old probe said Sowande Omokunde, Michael Pratt and three other paid Democratic activists will each be charged with a single felony count of criminal damage to property, legalese for vandalism.

Omokunde, also known as Supreme Solar Allah, is the 25-year-old son of the rookie congresswoman. Pratt, 32, worked on Kerry's local campaign, which was chaired by his father.

Pratt, Omokunde and the other staffers will be accused of cutting the tires of some 20 vans and cars rented by the state Republican Party to usher the party faithful to and from the polls on election day. The charges will state that the damage to the vehicles was well in excess of $2,500 - the minimum required to merit a felony.

With that in mind, having Moore taking part as an investigator instead of a witness reminds me of having Jamie Gorelick serve on the 9/11 Commission. In fact, it might be worse. Supreme faces trial next year, and given her personal and professional connections to him, Moore could wind up as a witness or even as a possible accessory in the case. She refuses to answer questions about the case, so why should she be in a position to ask questions about other voter-fraud incidents in Wisconsin?

It appears that the Democrats want the cheesewash to continue.

WaPo Smells The Cheese ... Finally

The Washington Post has finally sniffed out the Silence of the Cheese, the voter-fraud scandal in Milwaukee that helped turn Wisconsin blue in the 2004 Presidential election. Michelle Malkin points readers to a new development that the Post reported late this afternoon:

About 4,500 more ballots than registered voters were cast in the election last November in Milwaukee, investigators said Tuesday.

Also, more than 200 felons voted improperly in Milwaukee, and more than 100 instances of suspected double-voting were found.

No charges have been filed. Investigators found no widespread conspiracy, just isolated incidents, U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic said.

"I don't think there's an election in this municipality or this state that would have been decided differently even with those numbers," said Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat.

Barrett wants this entire embarassment to go away, and the spin is designed for the national media to go back into silence mode. Having 4,500 more ballots than registered voters doesn't mean that 4500 extra votes were cast. It means many more thousands of extra votes were cast, unless Milwaukee normally gets 100% turnout for every election. Milwaukee had over 277,000 ballots cast in the election, and even if that accounted for 90% of the registered voters in the city, it would still mean 30,000 extra ballots before you even get to an overage.

Now, given that kind of turnover in balloting, the notion that all of that activity came from "isolated incidents" makes no sense whatsover. Someone had to cast those extra ballots, and if it was just ordinary Milwaukee citizens, it would mean that one in nine voters double-voted on Election Day. Perhaps the investigators could find no evidence of a conspiracy, but that hardly means that one didn't exist. The sheer scale fraudulent voting in this case almost certainly eliminates all other explanations.

John Kerry's surprise 11,000-vote margin in a state most Upper Midwest political pundits picked for Bush now appears much more understandable. While it's far too late to challenge the 2004 results, Wisconsonites should ensure that such fraud cannot occur again. The first step should be to demand photo-ID at the polling stations and the end to same-day registrations. Those politicians who oppose such reforms should be seen as enablers of voter fraud, and handled accordingly.

UPDATE: The Washington Post blew its reporting, as CQ commenter Outactrl points out. The actual report, available here in PDF format, says that 4500 more ballots came in than Milwaukee recorded as voting, not 4500 more than the number of registered voters in Milwaukee. However, let's not forget that over 30% of the 277,000 votes came from same-day registrations, which Milwaukee has yet to reconcile.

Doyle Promises Veto On ID Requirement

After the ongoing debacle in Milwaukee's past election in November, when for the second straight presidential cycle more than 30% of the voters registered at the polls and instigated a federal investigation into fraud, one would assume that adding a requirement for photo identification would be seen as a reasonable response. The only one who appears to reject that notion in Wisconsin is the Democratic governor, Jim Doyle, who threatened to veto the bill passed by the legislature today:

Wisconsin lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday that would require voters to provide a driver's license or other government-issued photo identification before casting a ballot. Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle said he would veto the measure. ...

Wisconsin Republicans who pushed the measure through both houses of the Legislature say the photo ID requirement would lessen voter fraud and protect legitimate voters.

Democrats said the bill threatened the constitutional right to vote for thousands of poor and elderly who lack photo IDs and broke with the tradition of Wisconsin, long known for its high turnout and Election-Day voter registration.

It's known for its Election Day registrations, all right, but only on presidential elections. Milwaukee especially has a track record of anomalous registration activity. They exceeded thirty percent of all votes coming from same-day registrations in two successive presidential elections, but failed to come close to that in the off-year elections in between. In order to accept that as a normal result, one has to presume that one-third of Milwaukee's adult population moves every four years, and that this mass migration coincides with presidential elections.

At least, that's what Jim Doyle expects Wisconsin voters to believe - not that their open voting system invites fraud and mismanagement, effectively degrading the legitimate vote of honest Wisconsin citizens. Despite including provisions for free ID cards for low-income voters, Doyle wants to pretend that the entire legislature wants to oppress the 2.4% of Wisconsin residents who don't have state photo IDs. Perhaps the other 97.6% of Wisconsinites can tell Governor Doyle where to put that veto pen before he uses it.

Milwaukee Election Official Resigns

CQ reader Joe K brings me up to date on a story line that has gone quiet the past couple of weeks. The embattled head of elections for Milwaukee responsible for the fiasco of last year's presidential balloting has abruptly resigned after spending the last month on sick leave:

Under a blitz of criticism over the city's handling of the Nov. 2 presidential election, Lisa Artison resigned Tuesday as executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission after four weeks off the job on sick time.

Artison faxed a one-sentence note of resignation to the mayor's office Tuesday. She could not be reached for comment.

In recent days, speculation grew that Artison would leave the post she held since July, when she faced sharp questions about her qualifications from aldermen at her confirmation hearing.

Her mysterious resignation probably has to do with the independent investigation launched by a combination of the state legislature, the local DA, and the FBI. Artison started taking her assigned sick days shortly after the mayor's committee on the Election Day fiasco -- on which Artison inexplicably got to sit -- got superceded by the new independent panel. City officials get 30 days of sick leave and earn more as the year progresses, based on service, and it's pretty apparent that Artison saw the writing on the wall after she and her patron, Mayor Tom Barrett, lost control of the investigation.

Next item for Milwaukee residents: an explanation of how Barrett chose Artison in the first place. Her selection last summer to this post stirred up controversy as Artison had no experience other than as a Barrett campaign volunteer and being the wife of a local talk-show host. She barely made it past her confirmation with the aldermen, squeaking by on a 9-6 vote. The six opposing her now look like geniuses, and Barrett should be held accountable for handing out important appointments to unqualified people in order to curry favor with local opinion-makers.

Anti-Reform Wisconsin Governor Took Large Payments After Health-Care Merger

Democratic Governor Jim Doyle has repeatedly blocked electoral reform in Wisconsin and threatens to do so again if the state legislature passes a requirement for photo IDs at polling stations. Doyle vetoed the measure once before in 2003 and promises the same this year, even after the fiasco in Milwaukee last November in which an inordinate amount of people registered to vote on Election Day (over 30% of all voters).

Now, however, Wisconsin voters may have another kind of reform in mind after the Journal-Sentinel revealed that executives involved in a controversial health-care merger gave Doyle over $28,000 in donations shortly after he allowed the merger to go through. Critics at the time wondered why Doyle didn't ask for common-sense economic concessions -- and now they think they know:

Gov. Jim Doyle received $28,500 in campaign donations late last year, near the time a major insurance company merger was finalized, from the firms' top executives, their spouses and former executives, state records show.

The money came on top of more than $47,000 in contributions top officials of the Wellpoint and Anthem insurance companies have given Doyle since his 2002 run for governor. The figure also includes contributions from executives at Blue Cross & Blue Shield United of Wisconsin, which was acquired by Wellpoint in 2003.

The latest batch of cash for Doyle was given just before and after the huge Wellpoint-Anthem merger was finalized Nov. 30. The Doyle administration has been criticized for allowing the merger without getting monetary concessions from the merged company. The $20 billion merger created the largest health insurer in the United States.

The biggest givers were Wellpoint Chairman Leonard Schaeffer and his wife, Pamela, of Westlake Village, Calif. They gave Doyle a combined $18,500 on Dec. 27. Pamela Schaefer's $10,000 donation - the maximum permitted under Wisconsin law - was her first to Doyle.

Leonard Schaeffer, who earlier had given Doyle $1,500, also hit the maximum with his $8,500 gift. Aside from those donations, the Schaeffers have never given to any Wisconsin state candidates, according to a campaign contribution database dating to 1993 that is maintained by the non-profit Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

These donations do not appear to have broken any laws, although the timing strongly suggests some sort of payoff. All of the money came in November, an odd time to donate to Doyle, who doesn't run for re-election until 2006. Why would these executives and their families max out their hard-cash donations to Doyle two years before the election? It certainly looks like the timing with which the Schaeffers were concerned have more to do with what Doyle did for them in November 2004 than what Doyle wants to do in November 2006.

Wisconsinites should realize that Jim Doyle doesn't want to solve electoral fraud in their state. It appears that he wants to continue profiting from it, figuratively and literally. Wisconsin voters need to make plain that they will hold legislators responsible for overriding Doyle's veto, especially those in Doyle's own party.

Requiring Voter ID Disenfranchises Voters: Wisconsin Dems

The debate on fixing Wisconsin's broken electoral system moved to the state legislature yesterday, where hearings opened on a bill that would require a state or military photo ID to verify identification of voters at polling stations. As expected, the Democrats lined up as many people as possible to whine about the extraordinary burden of carrying identification:

Earlier this week, leaders in the Republican-controlled Legislature revived a bill similar to one vetoed by Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle in 2003 that would have required voters to show a valid photo ID to register and vote. It would alter Wisconsin's historically open elections process, which allows residents to vote by providing their names and addresses to poll workers, and register on election day by presenting proof of residence. ...

Most people would show a driver's license to vote, but a state-issued identification card or military ID would also be accepted. The state would offer free IDs to those who don't have them or can't afford them, under the bill.

The proposed legislation would also eliminate the practice of "vouching," which allows eligible voters to cast a ballot if another person can confirm their identity and address.

So Wisconsin will allow two different kinds of state ID or a military ID card, and will even supply such ID for free? Sounds like a no-brainer to me. Unfortunately, the no-brainers showed up to complain about this perfectly reasonable compromise:

Karla Smith of Madison, who uses a wheelchair, told lawmakers that the measure would disenfranchise disabled people, because they would have trouble lining up transportation to get an ID.

So Karla Smith has no problem lining up transportation to go to the polls on Election Day, but somehow can't seem to make it to the DMV on any other day out of the year? Give me a break. How does she cash checks? She can't do any banking without having some kind of ID. Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and others don't just allow people to withdraw money from accounts by bringing someone in with them to "vouch" for their identity.

But the Democrats didn't stop at exploiting the handicapped by playing on pity. They also pulled out their favorite victims of our runaway capitalist society:

Rep. Joe Parisi (D-Madison), the former Dane County clerk, said getting rid of the vouching system would make it virtually impossible for homeless people to vote.

First off, the homeless have no residence by definition, and so should have no ability to register -- since one has to establish residence in a precinct to be eligible to vote there. Some areas have adopted the rule that homeless people can use city buildings for addresses to register and vote. If they can do that, then why not just allow them to get a photo ID (it's free, remember) using the same address? Because the Democrats know most of them won't bother to do so, and that will hamper the party's ability to round them up by offering them cigarettes on Election Day to vote Democratic.

All in all, the Democrats have performed shamefully by exploiting the people they hold up as victims in order to protect their network of petty electoral frauds. Wisconsin voters should understand that the Democrats now actively work to dilute the votes of bona fide voters by forcing the system to accept anyone who walks up to the polls on the buddy system. They need to express their disgust in the next elections, and hope that the Magic Buses don't throw yet another electoral contest.

Milwaukee Had 17 Precincts With 100+ More Votes Than Voters

Greg Borowski reports in today's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that an analysis of voting records done by the newspaper reveals that seventeen precincts in the city showed at least 100 more votes than the number of registered voters, even counting the already-problematic same-day registrants. Four precincts, or wards, had more than 500 extra votes:

Record-keeping surrounding the Nov. 2 presidential election in Milwaukee is so flawed that in 17 wards there were at least 100 more votes recorded than people listed by the city as voting there.

In two wards, one on the south side and one on the north side, the gap is more than 500, with fewer than half the votes cast in each ward accounted for in the city's computer system, a Journal Sentinel review has found.

Such gaps were present at different levels in nearly all of the city wards and could hamper the investigation launched last week by federal and local authorities into possible voter fraud by giving an incomplete or inaccurate picture of who actually voted.

They also raise questions about the level of oversight of how the city records who voted in each ward - an important safeguard that, properly done, can be used to spot double voting and other problems.

And unless the gaps can be fully resolved, they leave room for critics to allege that ballot boxes were stuffed in the city, which went heavily to Democrat John Kerry over President Bush in a state with one of the closest margins in the country.

Milwaukee has 312 voting wards, and the MSJ checked the records to see if it could find a pattern of abuse. It didn't find a geographic pattern, although Sean Hackbarth at The American Mind seems to note a couple of interesting items when he checks his map:

From looking at the Journal Sentinel's map of the really messed up wards we see them scattered across the city. The only real concentration was in the far north side, wards 258, 259, and 260. Combined those three wards had 490 more ballots cast than voters listed as voting. Such a concentration could mean a concerted fraud effort was happening in that area. Three wards that also caught my eye: Ward 312 at Marquette University, Ward 39 at UW-Milwaukee, and Ward 44 near UWM. Wards where university students votes makes me suspicious because in 2000 Marquette University students bragged about voting more than once. One of the admitted polling places was Marquette Alumni Memorial Union, Ward 312. These are wards investigators should look at first.

Most of the problem appears to have been a highly careless election staff that didn't bother to scan the election logs, or failed to include them altogether. This is the important safeguard that the MSJ reports was ignored altogether, and it bolsters the notion that systemic fraud may be a secondary explanation, behind incompetence. It resulted in hundreds, perhaps thousands, of unrecorded votes as well; Borowski and the MSJ staff found 593 in one ward alone. Lisa Artison could not comment on this development as she was out of the office yesterday, but that's still not good news for her or the bureaucracy she leads.

So now on top of an outrageously high number of same-day registrants (30% of Milwaukee's total for the second presidential election in a row), we have a casual and haphazard counting and verification process to add to a casual and haphazard registration process. The bill attempting to mitigate the latter faces stiff Democratic opposition, and the Democrats have their usual ally in camp for the battle:

On Tuesday, Rick Graber, head of the state Republican Party, challenged his Democratic counterpart to appear at a hearing on the matter Thursday so together they can condemn "the fact that potentially thousands of voters across Wisconsin had their legally cast ballot disenfranchised by fraud and abuse."

Linda Honold, state Democratic Party chair, said she was unsure if she would attend the meeting but added that if she did go, she would do so to oppose the bill.

"If I'm there, I'm not going to be arguing what he wants me to argue," she said.

Others, including the head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and the group Wisconsin Citizen Action, condemned the voter ID proposal.

The Democrats appear united in trying to protect their power base and the easily-manipulated system which keeps them in statewide office. The ACLU can be relied upon to oppose any kind of ID scheme, no matter how reasonable, especially when it favors the Democrats. Perhaps the ACLU could explain why presenting a valid ID on Election Day make voting "harder" for qualified voters, since most people drive to the polls and should have it on them anyway. Those who do not drive can inexpensively get a state photo ID that works just as well and remains valid just as long, and if they write checks in most places, already need. The only people who find it "harder" to vote when ID is required are the people who don't belong in the polling station in the first place.

It appears that Milwaukee's fiasco has many dimensions to it, and both fraud and incompetence remain as root causes. The independent investigation into the city's practices promises to cause an uproar when completed. Stay tuned.

Milwaukee Election Fraud May Still Not Convince Dem Governor On Reform

Wisconsin voters who have reacted with alarm and outrage over the incompetence and probable fraud in the Milwaukee election. State legislators also want to ensure that this fiasco doesn't repeat itself, and plan on introducing a new requirement for a state-issued photo ID to cast a ballot. Unfortunately for the real voters, the Democratic governor apparently wants to keep the system just the way it is:

The mounting evidence this week of irregularities in Milwaukee has caused concern around Wisconsin that will result in new pressure for reform, said Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale), one of the authors of the photo ID bill, which is to be introduced Monday.

State residents may worry about their votes being, in effect, negated because of questions surrounding thousands of votes in Milwaukee, he said.

Lawmakers tried tightening the security on elections in 2003, but Governor Jim Doyle vetoed the bill. The Assembly did not have the votes to override the veto, and with Doyle openly opposing the bill in this session, no one knows of any new votes to override his expected encore with the veto pen.

The bill now has 30 co-sponsors and the momentum of a scandal to put pressure on Doyle, but one has to wonder why he would support voting reform. After all, Milwaukee is the Democratic power base for Wisconsin; Kerry topped Bush by over 120,000 votes in 277,000 cast, when he only won the state by 11,000. Restoring sanity to elections in Wisconsin would do nothing to change the political environment in Milwaukee, but it could have a devastating effect on Democrats running for state office -- like Doyle's.

It appears that these calculations weigh heavily on Doyle's mind, instead of ensuring fair and competent elections for his constituents. Wisconsin residents should express their sentiments directly to Doyle and their Assembly representatives to make sure they understand that Doyle's calculations represent bad math, bad policy, and bad politics.

Milwaukee Can't Account For Gap

Lisa Artison keeps digging the hole deeper in Milwaukee. The Milwaukee election commission announced yesterday that they have determined that 1,305 same-day voter registrations from the November 2 election could not be verified, instead of the 10,000 estimate Artison reported earlier. However, as the Journal-Sentinel's Greg Borowski reports, that leaves over 7,000 more votes than registered voters in Milwaukee:

Milwaukee officials said Thursday that 1,305 same-day voter registration cards from the Nov. 2 election could not be processed, including more than 500 cases where voters listed no address and dozens more where no name was written on the card.

But the revelation of the actual number of cards that couldn't be processed, far lower than previous estimates of 8,300 or more, raised new concerns, because it leaves a clear gap of more than 7,000 people who voted on Nov. 2 and cannot be accounted for in city records.

An audit earlier by Borowski showed an additional 1,200 registrations that came from non-existent addresses. Yesterday, the commission upped that number to almost 3,000, as cards from apartment buildings have come back as undeliverable (the J-S could not verify apartment addresses due to database issues). Almost half of the new set of 1,305 didn't even have an address and/or a name on them. And the gap between registered voters and the votes cast in Milwaukee is larger than the 7,000 one gets from simple subtraction, as Borowski has found a number of instances of multiple voting.

Shown in this scan is a registration card from "Randal Jarosch". Note that Jarosch filled out the card as a new voter in the precinct -- and yet supplied no address at all, despite having supplied a Wisconsin driver's license as ID. He signed the card, as did the poll worker, who also supplied a voter number, which means Jarosch got his ballot. The poll worker never bothered to check the address against the ID, meaning Jarosch could have driven in from Hudson if he wanted.

Have the city leaders taken any ownership of this fiasco? No -- they've started shifting the blame away as fast as possible:

Lisa Artison, executive director of the city's Election Commission, said "layer upon layer" of human error likely is to blame for the problems, which came as election workers faced a crush of voters, tens of thousands of whom registered at the polls. ...

Mayor Tom Barrett reiterated his confidence in Artison and pledged that the process will be improved. "We will look at all options to see what we can do," said Barrett, who was elected in April. "Obviously, it's a system I inherited."

Artison wants people to simply accept that "mistakes were made" and move on. Barrett also says that these issues don't convince him that photo-ID should be required for voting. Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle has threatened to veto any bills with that requirement.

Is this the kind of leadership Wisconsin voters wanted? Either massive incompetence or serious fraud has completely undermined the state's choice of electors in a Presidential election, and yet the simplest preliminary fix has been taken off the table by the state's executive, and the two people on the scene responsible for conducting the election refuse to take any responsibility for its failure. In such an environment, it's easy to see why this incompetence or corruption flourishes. (see also The American Mind)

The Cheese Is Not Silent Now

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has a flash announcement on their website that local, state, and federal resources will combine to investigate voter fraud in Milwaukee in November 2004:

Local and federal law enforcement authorities are finalizing a task force that is to look into potential fraud in Milwaukee in the Nov. 2 election, sources confirmed today.

The details are being worked out between Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann, U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic, Milwaukee Police Chief Nannette Hegerty and the local office of the FBI.

The task force comes in the wake of Journal Sentinel revelations that more than 1,200 votes came from invalid addresses and that there were other problems with how the election was run in the city.

Greg Borowski promises more in tomorrow's edition. I suspect that Lisa Artison may have a sleepless night tonight. (via Power Line)

UPDATE: The story has been updated at the link above, with more background. The new investigators include one Democrat (McCann) and one Republican (Biskupic), which should minimize partisan bickering. The state audit will also be announced today.

Now, the question is whether a federal investigation into electoral fraud in Wisconsin will actually get any national media coverage.

Milwaukee Election Office Reneged On False-Address Agreement

Milwaukee's Elections Commission reneged on a settlement with the Wisconsin GOP to block voting from scores of non-existent city addresses, Greg Borowski reports in today's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Lisa Artison finds herself in the middle of another controversy about the mishandling of the presidential election with the revelation:

The votes came from addresses that were among 5,619 the state Republican Party challenged less than a week before the election as non-existent. The city Election Commission rejected the claim, saying the party hadn't met the high legal standard for removing names from poll lists.

That led GOP officials to question Tuesday whether the city complied with its later agreement to have poll workers seek identification from anyone who attempted to vote from those addresses.

"I don't think there should have been anyone voting from the 5,600 addresses," state GOP chairman Rick Graber said. "We had an understanding. We had an agreement. For whatever reason, the city did not live up to its end of the bargain."

Artison has changed her rhetoric in the past couple of days as more examples of incompetence or worse arise from Milwaukee's polling data. Yesterday she reversed her previous antagonism to the city's investigation by claiming to welcome anyone willing to help Milwaukee "improve the election process." She may soon get more help than she expects:

Meanwhile, the state is moving closer to an audit of election procedures that is expected to include a major focus on the problems in Milwaukee.

The statewide audit, which had already been approved by the Legislature, has been accelerated, and a "scope of audit" - the step that formally launches the state probe - could be approved as soon as Thursday.

The Journal-Sentinel reviews the outstanding issues thus far in the Milwaukee debacle, adding more details as well. For instance, the mystery votes don't just appear for presidential elections. Last year's mayoral race in April saw 3,500 votes from same-day registrations that could not later be verified, or about 2% of the total 161,000 votes cast and about a third of that from the presidential election. (The Milwaukee Election Commission and its state counterpart do not have the number of same-day registrations from the spring election available.) The MJS also determined that 75% of the 1200 addresses that appear to be false came from same-day registrations.

With that in mind, Wisconsinites should question their governor to see if he pays any attention to the fraud and/or incompetence occurring in his largest city. They should also question his honesty:

Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, who opposes a photo ID requirement, said Tuesday he believes most of the issues raised could be traced back to processing problems, not fraud.

"I think we have a pretty good system," Doyle said. "If you register at the polls, you have to show appropriate identification to show that you are who you claim to be and that you reside at that location."

The one lesson everyone can take from the Silence Of The Cheese is that Wisconsin has a demonstrably lousy election system. If you take the results at face value, their largest city has to register a third of its voters on Election Day, leading to all sorts of errors. Further, Doyle overstates the requirement for registration. The only identification necessary at the polling station is another registered voter willing to vouch for his or her (or their) authenticity. If he doesn't know that, then perhaps he should refrain from commenting on Wisconsin election law until someone explains it to him.

At least now it looks like the Wisconsin legislature plans on getting some answers, thanks to the dogged reporting of Borowski and the insistence of Rep. Jeff Stone. Mayor Barrett's cheesewash panel should be put on permanent hiatus.

Invalid Addresses Add To Milwaukee's Voter Irregularities

Greg Borowski at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has conducted a review of votes cast in the last presidential election and found that over 1,200 of them came from voters at non-existent addresses. These votes add to the total of the same-day registrants whom the city cannot verify, raising even more questions about the competency of city election officials:

A review of Milwaukee voting records from the Nov. 2 presidential election has found more than 1,200 ballots cast from invalid addresses in the city, including many cases in which the voter could not be located at all. ...

The newspaper’s review, the most extensive analysis done so far of the election, revealed 1,242 votes coming from a total of 1,135 invalid addresses. That is, in some cases more than one person is listed as voting from the address. Of the 1,242 voters with invalid addresses, 75% registered on site on election day, according to city records. ...

Already, the newspaper has reported that about 8,300 more votes were cast than the number of people recorded by the city as voting. This appears to be due to cases where cards from those who presented identification and registered on election day could not be processed, a gap that the city’s own estimates had put at more than 10,000.

In any case, those are not included in the city database and are not part of the paper’s review, which involved checking each voter’s address against two separate lists of properties in the city.

A spot check of addresses that came back as invalid found cases where the address in question is a park, a baseball diamond and at or near the W. Wisconsin Ave. bridge. In most cases, though, there simply was no building at that address.

The additional 1200 voters only accounts for less than one percent of all votes cast in the city. Combined with the unaccountable same-day registrations, however, the additional votes provide an uncomfortable coincidence; the total comes to almost exactly John Kerry's margin of victory for the entire state. It also contributes to the growing consensus that Milwaukee's voting system has broken down, mainly due to the wild same-day registration laws and a lack of competency in the election office.

Lisa Artison, the executive director of the city's Election Commission and a strange addition to the supposedly independent panel investigating its performance, didn't hesitate to make excuses when informed of the new issue:

Lisa Artison, executive director of the city Election Commission, said simply: “The results you obtained make it clear the new statewide voter system is very badly needed and long overdue.”

But that system, to be online late this year, will do little to safeguard against problems with same-day voter registration, or with the flood of registration cards the city received in the final days before Nov. 2.

And it wasn't like Artison and the city hadn't been warned about the problem, either:

Questions about the accuracy of the city’s voter rolls, and whether adequate safeguards are in place to prevent fraud, were raised before the Nov. 2 election.

Six days before the election, the state Republican Party challenged 5,619 addresses on the city voter rolls as non-existent, including vacant lots, a billboard and a gyros stand. The challenge, though, was rejected by the city Election Commission, which said the GOP had not met the high legal standard for dropping names from voter rolls.

A review by the city attorney’s office found many cases where the addresses did exist, but could be explained by errors such as numbers from registration cards that were transposed. In other cases, though, officials agreed that addresses on the GOP list didn’t exist.

These issues reflect the incompetence of Artison in addition to the fraud that Milwaukee's flood of same-day registrations in two successive presidential elections suggest. It demonstrates even further the need for Wisconsin's legislature to prevent the cheesewash that Mayor Barrett and Artison plan. The legislature must investigate this themselves with a truly independent board of inquiry, if not a criminal investigation.

UPDATE: I just checked my e-mail, and I see Sean Hackbarth at The American Mind has weighed in on this new development:

The Journal Sentinel's Greg Borowski continues to put together some fine work on Milwaukee's Election Day problems. His latest find is that 1,242 votes came from voters whose addresses do not exist. Reporters found a park, a baseball diamond, an alley, and a bridge at addresses voters claimed in order to vote. What isn't surprising is that 75% of those bad addresses came from same-day registration. Mayor Barrett's chief of staff Patrick Curley took the ostrich approach and said this was no sign of fraud. If it wasn't fraud then why would a voter use a non-existent address?

There's little doubt that the individual voters committed election fraud. Normally, one would say that it doesn't prove a conspiracy to throw an election. However, the numbers of unaccountable voters here have added up to a significant portion of the Milwaukee election -- four percent overall -- and it looks like more than just a collection of petty frauds. That doesn't even count the fact that almost a third of all Milwaukee voters registered on Election Day, an astronomical number. Something stinks in Milwaukee, and it ain't the cheese.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! For a complete run-down of my posts on this matter, click here. To see some of the work done by other bloggers besides myself and Sean Hackbarth, check out Michelle Malkin, Pull On Superman's Cape, Polipundit, and Boots and Sabers, whose work on the story precedes mine.

Milwaukee Democrats To Face Felony Charges In Election-Day Conspiracy

Two sons of prominent Democratic polticians and three paid party activists will face felony charges as a result of a widely-publicized attempt to keep Republicans from voting on Election Day in Milwaukee. The charges will be filed on Monday, highlighting the other unrelated issues of voter fraud in Wisconsin's largest city and Democratic stronghold:

The investigation into the Great Tire-Slashing Caper will end Monday with felony charges against the adult sons of two prominent Milwaukee politicians - U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore and former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt.

Sources close to the 83-day-old probe said Sowande Omokunde, Michael Pratt and three other paid Democratic activists will each be charged with a single felony count of criminal damage to property, legalese for vandalism.

Omokunde, also known as Supreme Solar Allah, is the 25-year-old son of the rookie congresswoman. Pratt, 32, worked on Kerry's local campaign, which was chaired by his father.

Pratt, Omokunde and the other staffers will be accused of cutting the tires of some 20 vans and cars rented by the state Republican Party to usher the party faithful to and from the polls on election day. The charges will state that the damage to the vehicles was well in excess of $2,500 - the minimum required to merit a felony.

Originally police reported one arrest, that of Opel Simmons III, a Democratic activist working for John Kerry. Cary Spivak and Dan Bice now report that Simmons will face no charges and has returned to his home in Virginia. The initial report gave the impression that the tire-slashing was an isolated act by one person out of control. Now, however, the district attorney's actions indicate that this was a conspiracy, even if the specific charge isn't included.

I wonder why the DA is so reluctant to include a conspiracy complaint. If five people come together to plan a felony and then commit it, does that not constitute a conspiracy -- especially when the intent of the felony is to deprive people of a vote in a presidential election? Spivak and Bice note that federal charges are unlikely if the charges match up against the state charges in this case, but if Wisconsin doesn't charge them with the conspiracy, then the feds should file a civil-rights criminal case against the five.

Why did the Milwaukee DA decide to just focus on the felony vandalism? It could be the powerful parents of the two men. That also could explain why the investigation dragged on for over two months. But the reluctance could be credited to the connections back to the Kerry campaign and the uncomfortable questions that raises. According to Spivak and Bice, the campaign headquarters hardly thought about civil rights and disenfranchisement when they heard about the slashings:

Sources say that investigators caught a break in the case because the slashings quickly became the talk of the Kerry headquarters on the morning of Nov. 2.

"People came back and bragged about what they did," said one source.

Added a second: "Ultimately, they didn't see this as a badge of shame that they needed to hide from their co-workers."

So the Kerry campaign staff knew exactly who committed the crime, and yet it took over two months to bring charges against the quintet? It sounds like a lot of people in Kerry's office became accessories after the fact. One could presume that investigators asked the staff about the slashings; if they protected the five slashers or remained silent about what they knew, that could form an obstruction of justice charge, too.

We need to know much more about the Kerry campaign's involvement in this incident, either before or after the fact. We also need to know why the DA seems intent on charging these men with the minimum necessary for trial. The FBI should remain on the case and refer it to the US district attorney and take jurisdiction from Milwaukee in order to ensure that local politics haven't played a role in the investigation.