Garbage receptacles sit in a non-existent address between businesses at 4209 and 4217 W. Silver Spring Drive that was given as a home address of a registered voter in Milwaukee. It was photographed Thursday
Posted on 10/29/2004 7:26:02 AM PDT by hripka
GOP fails to get 5,619 names removed from voting lists
City commission says party didn't prove case; challenges could move to polling places
By GREG J. BOROWSKI
gborowski@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Oct. 28, 2004
Although the state Republican Party failed Thursday in its effort to have 5,619 names and addresses removed from Milwaukee voting lists, the GOP plans to challenge anyone who tries to vote from the disputed addresses Tuesday. Election 2004
Photo/David Joles Garbage receptacles sit in a non-existent address between businesses at 4209 and 4217 W. Silver Spring Drive that was given as a home address of a registered voter in Milwaukee. It was photographed Thursday.
Polling-place challenges could bring a high level of emotion to an issue that was argued Thursday in largely dry legal terms, with the city Election Commission unanimously deciding the GOP had not sufficiently proved its case to have the names removed.
Nevertheless, the city moved Thursday to take its own steps to flag problematic addresses so poll workers could make their own challenges. Mayor Tom Barrett suggested that all voters bring identification with them to alleviate potential problems.
Republicans filed a challenge of 5,619 names at 4:57 p.m. Wednesday, three minutes before the legal deadline. The party identified the addresses as vacant after using a computer to compare 386,527 names on city registration lists against a U.S. Postal Service database of all known street addresses in the city.
Of the 5,619 addresses listed, the party submitted 34 photos of cases where an address didn't exist, was a vacant lot, or - in one case - a gyro stand. In nine of those cases, the GOP said voting records showed someone was listed as having voted from that address in recent elections.
The commission, though, tossed out the entire challenge, with Republican appointee Edward Schultz joining two Democrats in saying the case wasn't strong enough.
Victoria Toliver, a Democratic appointee on the panel, was critical of the late filing by the GOP and noted that none of the people whose registrations were challenged could be asked to appear.
"We can't rush to disenfranchise a voter without hearing from the person," Toliver said.
Commission chairman Allen Campos, another Democratic appointee, also voted to deny the challenge.
A Journal Sentinel review Thursday of many of the names and addresses confirmed some of the problems cited by the GOP, as well as uncovered additional missing addresses. Some cited by the GOP may be explained by clerical errors, however.
Republicans indicated that they would appeal to the state Elections Board today.
After the commission meeting, both parties returned to their roles in the ever-intensifying voter fraud vs. voter intimidation debate that has played out across the country.
Such matters are being fought in Wisconsin and other battleground states, such as Ohio, where Republicans challenged 35,000 voters.
Polls here show President Bush and Democrat John Kerry in a tight race, one that could ultimately be decided on who best gets supporters to the polls. Problems identified
"This is a black eye on the city of Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin," GOP Chairman Rick Graber said. "These 5,600 addresses could be used to allow fraudulent voting. Whether it's deliberate or not, something's wrong when you have people from addresses that don't exist."
He spoke at a news conference in front of a billboard located where the address 4309 N. Teutonia Ave. - included on the voting rolls - would be, if it existed.
"Someone voted from that billboard twice," Graber said, citing the February and April elections of this year.
The party has not said how many of the 5,619 addresses it found showed any voting history. Their checks on the 34 dated to September 2000.
George Twigg, spokesman for the Kerry campaign, said poll watchers are prepared for challenges from Republicans, who say their volunteers will be armed with lists of the questionable addresses.
"I think most people will be able to vote easily," Twigg said. "We hope for the best. But we are prepared for the worst."
Left undetermined Thursday: How many of the challenged addresses are actually non-existent and how many represent clerical errors, now-demolished buildings or attempts to vote fraudulently.
Donald Daugherty, the attorney for the Republicans, noted that if any valid voters are removed from the list, they can simply reregister on the spot on election day. Matt O'Neill, representing the Kerry campaign, argued that registrations should not be deleted without allowing the person named to contest it.
To remove the names, Republicans had to prove their case - that the addresses do not exist - beyond a reasonable doubt, the same standard used in criminal trials.
The GOP acknowledged, however, that it had checked only a few dozen addresses in person and no one who took the photos was offered as a witness to describe, under oath, the process used. O'Neill argued that amounted to hearsay evidence, which would not be allowed in court.
Indeed, the person who officially filed the complaint, Andrew Narrai, said he had done none of the legwork himself and knew nothing about the effort until Wednesday when he filled in for his wife as the official complainant.
O'Neill said Narrai had been "dragged in here (Wednesday) afternoon and told, 'We need a warm body to make a challenge, and you're the guy.' "
To be considered, the complaint had to be filed by a Milwaukee resident who is eligible to vote. Narrai, 38, is the display advertising director for the Journal Sentinel.
James Konowalski, who did the analysis for the GOP, said he had done similar comparisons for Racine, Appleton, Madison and Green Bay. Republicans have not filed similar challenges in those cities.
He said he completed the list of 5,619 addresses on Oct. 10 or 11, at least 16 days before it was filed. The GOP said it used that time to find the 34 addresses it cited.
At one point, he seemed to undercut the party's case when he said he had stopped at three addresses himself, two of which did not exist - 2020 N. 1st St. and 2437 N. Cramer St. But he said that the third, 6337 N. 77th St., may or may not exist. He said he found a vacant apartment building at the corner of the block that was missing the fourth digit of its address. It read only: 633.
O'Neill argued that the building could exist and therefore the GOP sample could be off by 33%. Toliver, the commission member, went further in her motion to deny the appeal, saying the testimony proved only "one of the three (Konowalski checked) was valid."
On Thursday afternoon, a Journal Sentinel check found the building in question now has a complete address posted: 6333, not the 6337 on the list. It is a four-unit apartment building being renovated.
It is unclear how the four units had previously been addressed, whether by separate street numbers, as a duplex would be, or apartment numbers (ie. 1 to 4). Neighboring four-unit buildings, all vacant, show large gaps between addresses on the buildings: 6309 to 6323 to 6333.
On Thursday, Barrett repeated his pledge that city workers would conduct a clean and fair election.
He acknowledged that some non-existent addresses are on the rolls, saying a list that large will have some problems.
The 5,619 addresses cited by the GOP represent about 1.5% of the 386,527 registrants, a number that now may be more than 400,000 based on the 20,000 new registrants officials cited this week.
Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the state Elections Board, said he could not find any clear direction in state law on what to do if a potential voter's address doesn't exist, or exactly who is responsible for policing those addresses.
Wisconsin courts have broadly interpreted state law, allowing someone to even list a homeless shelter where they were fed but did not sleep as a valid address for voting purposes, Kennedy added. He has the authority to rule on the matter, in consultation with the board chairman, or the full board could meet on it. Problems found
The Journal Sentinel on Thursday reviewed some of the questionable addresses cited by Republicans to determine the validity of their complaint.
Of the 34 properties that the GOP highlighted in its complaint, the newspaper could not locate 26 addresses or the voters' names associated with those addresses. The other eight instances appear to be typographical errors in which the voters' addresses were incorrectly listed on the voter registration rolls.
The newspaper also attempted to locate 74 other addresses among the 5,600 listed in the GOP complaint and determined that 68 of them didn't exist.
Among the discrepancies that were confirmed: Lucretia Ann Griffin is listed as a registered voter at 1700 W. Hampton Ave. on the city's voter rolls. The GOP says that address doesn't exist and a check of the city assessor's property database also shows no such address.
But some of the addresses labeled by the Republicans as bad addresses appear to be typographical errors: The Republicans said the voting address listed for Victor Moy at 8183 W. Thurston Ave. does not exist. City assessor records confirm there is no such address but also show that the Moy family lives at 8153 W. Thurston Ave.
Other discrepancies were difficult to explain.
For example, Louis O'Neal III is registered to vote at 7329 W. Herbert Ave., but assessor records show no such address.
But O'Neal's father, Louis O'Neal Jr., said his son has lived his entire life with him at a home in the 4500 block of N. 45th St. He said his son is 18, and he doesn't know whether he has registered to vote.
Officials said there are many possible reasons for non-existent addresses, including cases where now-demolished buildings once stood or basic data entry problems.
That could be cases where a "W." for west should really be "E." for east. Or cases where numbers are transposed. Given how frequently people move from place to place, there may never be a point where the list is 100% accurate.
Tom Kertscher, Steven Potter, Tom Held, Bruce Murphy and Steven Walters, all of the Journal Sentinel staff, contributed to this report.
From the Oct. 29, 2004, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
How Democrats Steal Elections - Top 10 Methods of Liberal Vote Fraud
1. Over-Voting. In Democrat strongholds like St. Louis, Philadelphia and Detroit, some precincts had 100% of their registered voters voting, with 99% of the ballots going to Gore. Clearly, multiple voting resulted in extra tallies for Gore in the 2000 election. (New York Post, 12/09/00).
2. Dead Voters. This classic Democratic method of vote fraud goes all the way back to 1960 in Chicago and Dallas. The 2000 election was no exception. In Miami-Dade County, for example, some of the 144 ineligible votes (those which officials actually admitted to) were cast by dead people, including a Haitian-American who's been deceased since 1977 (Miami-Herald, 12/24/00).
3. Mystery Voters. These "voters" cast votes anyway but are not even registered to vote. In heavily Democratic Broward County, for example, more than 400 ballots were cast by non-registered voters. (Miami-Herald 1/09/01)
4. Military ballots. Many of these votes were disqualified for the most mundane and trivial reasons. At least 1,527 valid military ballots were discarded in Florida by Democratic vote counters (Drudge Report, 11/19/00).
5. Criminals. Felons are a natural Democratic voter and they're protected on voter rolls across the country. In Florida at least 445 ex-convicts - including rapists and murderers -- voted illegally on November 7th. Nearly all of them were registered Democrats. (Miami-Herald 12/01/00)
6. Illegal aliens. These voters have long been a core liberal constituency, especially in California. In Orange County in 1996, Rep. Bob Dornan had his congressional seat stolen from him when thousands of illegal aliens voted for Loretta Sanchez (Christian Science Monitor, 9/2/97).
7. Vote-buying. Purchasing votes has long been a traditional scheme by Democrats, and not just with money. In the 2000 election in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Democratic workers initiate a "smokes-for-votes" campaign in which they paid dozens of homeless men with cigarettes if they cast ballots for Al Gore (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 11/14/00).
8. Phantom Voters. These voters don't really exist, but their ballots do. In the 1996 Lousiana Senate race, GOP candidate Woody Jenkins had the election stolen from him when he discovered that 7,454 actual votes were cast but had no paper trail to authenticate them (Behind the Headlines, F.R. Duplantier, 4/27/97).
9. Dimpled chads. Those infamous punch-cards were a ballot bonanza for Al Gore. Democratic poll workers in Palm Beach, Dade and Broward counties tampered and manipulated thousands of ineligible ballots and counted them for Gore, even though no clear vote could be discerned. (NewsMax.com 11/27, 12/22, 11/18, 11/19/00).
10. Absentee ballots. Normally it's assumed that Republicans benefit from absentee ballots. But in the case of Miami's 1997 mayoral election, hundreds of absentee ballots were made for sale or sent out to non-Miami residents. Fraud was so extensive in the race that the final results were overturned in court (FL Dept. of Law Enforcement Report, 1/5/98)."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=votefraud
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=electionfraud
WE MUST FIGHT VOTE FRAUD!
This is a GREAT top 10!
The demoncrats still think that we are in the Roaring 20s Era!
How could the Milwaukee Election Commission imagine it is not guilty of dereliction of duty by not throwing out registrations citing imaginary or non residential addresses?
Garbage receptacles sit in a non-existent address between businesses at 4209 and 4217 W. Silver Spring Drive that was given as a home address of a registered voter in Milwaukee. It was photographed Thursday
How likely is it you're going to hear from a nonexistent voter from a nonexistent address, you nitwit???
Trust me, this story is just beginning. The GOP is NOT sleeping here. They are working all night. KEep calling the election boards in Wisconsin. We are truly on a ground war in this election. Every phone call and email from us counts.
Every vote counts . . . including the FAKE Ones!!
FYI-Local radio broadcaster said this yesterday ....One of the names in question was the SAME name that was used to vote in the 2000 election. Just more proof of the fraud going on in this city. Who knows how many more of them are duplicates that have yet to be dicovered.
Thank you. I hope you share this list of methods of vote fraud.
Hopefully........................
(1) Publicity of this address will serve as a deterrent to those idjits who will attempt this Felony.
(2) The GOP will have the balls to PROSECUTE to THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW ANY clown caught showing up to vote from this address.
Death penalty for vote fraud.
Suggestion: Everyone should take one of those cheap throwaway cameras with them to the polls and actually take or pretend to take pictures of the commies standing around with demonrat signs. Then inform them you're turning their picture over to your State Attorney General. Should be great fun! Get em all lathered up.
Hmm, Algore carried Wisconsin by 5,700 votes in 2000. There's 5,900 non-existant addresses with at least one "voter" attached in the voter rolls in the City of Milwaukee. Methinks that's worth a JD (and a Jack Daniel's)
Won't work in Wisconsin; not only is it illegal to take those photos, and not only is the AG a DrunkenRAT, but the DAs in the areas that matter are DemonRATs.
Hopefully........................
(1) Publicity of this address will serve as a deterrent to those idjits who will attempt this Felony.
Since when has the light of day stopped the crooks?
(2) The GOP will have the balls to PROSECUTE to THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW ANY clown caught showing up to vote from this address.
Hate to break the bad news to you, but unless a federal issue is found and President Bush is re-elected, there is NO way this will be prosecuted. The DA (known around these parts as Michael McCan't) is a DemonRAT who thought nothing of asking nothing more than a $5,000 donation from the broad who distributed smokes for votes in 2000, the DrunkenRAT AG was elected with the help of kringles-for-votes in 2002, and if the DemonRATs win, there goes the federal route.
Let's parse that short, but all-important sentence:
Left undetermined Thursday: How many of the challenged addresses are actually non-existent... - That's the short version of saying the Milwaukee Election Commission is simultaneously telling those who wish to commit fraud that it's open season and those that wish to stop it to stick it where the sun doesn't shine.
...and how many represent clerical errors, - That the MEC isn't even willing to seek out innocent errors to correct speaks volumes.
...now-demolished buildings... - Seeing we do have winter, it's kind of hard to live out-of-doors.
...or attempts to vote fraudulently. - No <Jr's favorite expletive deleted> Sherlock.
Another RINO rears its ugly head.
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