2 voter registration workers in court on criminal charges

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ^ | 9/30/04 | TOM KERTSCHER

[MarlboroRed]

Racine - Two people implicated in possibly fraudulent voter registrations here are being prosecuted for unrelated crimes, court records show.

Both workers had court appearances Wednesday, the same day the Journal Sentinel reported that a criminal investigation was being sought on the voter registration drive they worked on. That drive is being led by a national group called Project Vote.

"How can they let people like that be messing around with one of the most important things in our society?" said Dona Poelman, chairwoman of the Racine County Republican Party.

Also Wednesday: # Acting Racine City Clerk Carolyn Moskonas asked the district attorney's office to investigate irregularities in several voter registration applications filed by Project Vote. In seven of the cases, residents told the clerk's office that they had not signed the forms that were filed in their names.

Deputy District Attorney Michael Nieskes said the Racine County Sheriff's Department and local police would investigate. He said he had been in contact with the state Elections Board and expects that a state Department of Justice investigator also would participate. # Moskonas revoked the "deputy registrar" designations the city had given to four Project Vote workers - including the two facing the unrelated criminal charges - because of "problems and irregularities" with voter registration forms they filed.

# Doris Alexander, head of Project Vote's Milwaukee office, said she had terminated all of the workers who registered voters in Racine. She sent the group's new Racine coordinator and several newly hired workers to Racine on Wednesday to take the mandatory city class for registering voters.

"We hold everybody to the highest standards. We have a zero tolerance for anything like this," Alexander said of the problems in Racine. "Our main focus is to keep up our integrity."

Alexander said she had taken over the Milwaukee office three weeks ago, after running Project Vote's office in Columbus, Ohio, and did not know how the Milwaukee-area workers were screened. Project Vote works in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha and has submitted about 30,000 voter registration applications, she said.

Alexander said she was not aware of the two workers facing criminal charges.

Both of those workers are Milwaukee residents who, like other Project Vote workers, are paid $7 an hour and, after meeting a quota, $1.50 for each voter registration application they file. They could not be reached for comment.

Robert Marquise Blakely, 23, made his initial appearance Wednesday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court on a felony charge of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver. He was arrested last Thursday, court records show.

In a separate case, the state is trying to collect $6,170 in unemployment compensation that Blakely should not have received, court records show. He has not paid that judgment, the records show.

Lucretia Ann Griffin was charged May 12 in Waukesha County with issuing worthless checks, a misdemeanor, prior to the start of the voter registration drive. Court records show she was convicted in 1999 in Milwaukee County of two misdemeanors, prostitution and possession of cocaine.

Project Vote workers were certified by the City of Racine as registrars after completing a city class and swearing that they would conduct their work honestly. The group submitted 1,389 voter-registration applications in Racine before the Sept. 14 primary election and 483 more last week that have yet to be reviewed by the city clerk's office.

The Racine clerk's office contacted residents when registration applications had missing or suspicious information, and six said they had not signed the forms. A Mount Pleasant resident also told the office that she had not signed a form submitted in her name.

The clerk's office also found that at least 20% of Project Vote's applications filed before the primary had to be rejected because they contained bogus addresses, addresses outside of Racine or were missing information.

[aaCharley]

The should face the Arthur Anderson treatment.

Big fine for the employees.

Jail for the executives.

[nw_arizona_granny]

ping