Posted on 07/22/2003 2:39:46 PM PDT by MediaMole
8 in central-city voting group charged
ACE workers accused of fraud in Holloway recall election
By DAVE UMHOEFER
dumhoefer@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: July 22, 2003
A top official and seven workers with a central-city campaign group face felony charges for alleged fraud in a novel absentee-ballot drive conducted in the recall election won by Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway, District Attorney E. Michael McCann announced Tuesday.
A 92-count criminal complaint alleges that Holloway's campaign benefited from widespread illegalities by the African-American Coalition for Empowerment (ACE) and its field workers, but says the investigation found no evidence that Holloway himself was aware of the fraudulent activities or participated in them.
Among those charged was ACE co-founder Vincent Knox, a prominent minority-voting rights activist in Milwaukee. Knox has acknowledged coordinating the unprecedented absentee-voting drive, in which ACE went door-to-door persuading hundreds of residents to allow absentee ballots to be sent to ACE's offices rather than to would-be voter's addresses.
ACE officials have said that workers then delivered the ballots to the requesters and acted as witnesses for the votes. The tactic, if done correctly, is legal under a loophole in state election law, but the new complaint alleges forged signatures, voting on behalf of non-existent people and voting from phony addresses.
"Numerous voters stated they did not sign the voter registration cards and/or absentee certificates filed in their names," the complaint alleges.
Some would-be voters were told by an ACE worker to vote for Holloway, the complaint says. Several of the people hired by ACE are linked to Holloway's recall campaign, according to records taken from ACE's offices in a raid by investigators, the complaint says. Holloway's campaign manager, Barbara White, runs ACE but said she took a leave of absence during the race. She was not charged.
The eight charged ACE workers, including Knox, acted as authenticating "witnesses" and authored forged voter signatures on at least five voter registration cards, 17absentee ballot requests, and 40 absentee ballot envelopes, which ACE submitted to the City of Milwaukee Election Commission, the complaint says.
Investigators were able to locate 19 of the 40 fraudulent absentee ballots witnessed by these individual defendants - and all 19 were votes for Lee Holloway.
McCann's office started its investigation after a Journal Sentinel story shortly before the election revealed details of the absentee drive. The district attorney's office challenged and sealed 96 ballots as potential criminal evidence. Witnesses were questioned this spring and summer during a secret John Doe court proceeding.
Holloway easily defeated challenger Yolanda Staples-Lassiter in the recall election, one of several spawned by the county's pension scandal.
All eight defendants were taken into custody Tuesday morning and were expected to appear in court later Tuesday or on Wednesday.
Complete coverage of this story will appear online later today and in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in the morning.
Their ambiguity speaks for itself.
For those that have Adobe Acrobat, the text of the complaint is over here (courtesy jsonline.com).
Some members of the group are Republicans and the group worked to elect a Pubbie county exec. Actually, the GOP better hope they don't get dragged into this further.
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