More Milwaukee County Demographics

captainsquarters ^ | January 18, 2005 | Captain Ed

[swilhelm73]

Part of the continuing look at voter fraud in Wisconsin and the lack of media attention, which I called The Silence Of The Cheese ...

For a bit more analysis on Milwaukee County's presidential election results, let's take a look at the population dynamics over the past 13 years. As these articles make clear, Milwaukee County has seen a continuing flight of residents; the county decreased by 19,000 people between the 1990 and 2000 census, and the US Census Bureau estimates that the drop has steepened since. They now estimate that 32,000 fewer people live in Milwaukee County, including 29,000 voting-age adults.

From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel of March 8, 2001:

Meanwhile, Milwaukee County Executive F. Thomas Ament was relieved to hear that his county didn't lose more people. Milwaukee County dropped 2%, from 959,275 to 940,164. "Obviously, I'm not pleased with losing population," he said, but this drop is "not as large as many have expected."

Ament said Milwaukee County's population decline reflected a trend of "less people per household," particularly in long-developed areas.

And it dropped further, according to Census Bureau estimates, since the last election cycle. In 2000, the Census found 692,339 adults living in Milwaukee County. In 2003, the Census Bureau estimates 663,517 adults, a drop of almost 30,000 potential voters, and a much steeper decline than in the previous decade.

Now, with that information, one would expect a decline in voter registrations and turnout, at least in real numbers. However, the election turnout has shown a remarkable and unnerving result that belies the residency figures. Ballots cast have increased, and not by a statistically insignificant margin. Here are the numbers for the last three presidential election cycles:

1996: 365,387 2000: 433,537 2004: 482,236

The increase in votes for the 2000 election was 18.7% over 1996 in a county that had had a net decrease in population of 2% over the past decade. In 2004, despite a population decrease of 3.2% in the past three years, the voter response increased in Milwaukee County by 11.2% over the already-ballooned turnout of 2000. While Milwaukee County lost 5% of its overall population over the past thirteen years and accelerating in the past three, votes cast increased an unbelievable 32% in the past eight years.

I'd like to see the statistical analysis which supports that kind of voter turnout improvements, especially with only a 6% increase overall in national turnout between 1996 and 2004. The results point to some other force at play than a monumental increase in civic response among Milwaukee County adults.

UPDATE: This certainly could be one explanation, an e-mail from a Wisconsin poll worker to Dirty Harry at Stranded On Blue Islands:

We have a large low income apartment complex located in the district covered at the polling place I worked. We had more same day registrants for that address than could live there. We were unable to contest any of those registrations because of a little trick called "Voter verification" It goes something like this: A voter has an out of state driver's license and wants to register.They are required to present a utility bill or some other form of information that would verify they live where they say. If they don't have that, a "legitimate elector" can verify their residence.

What is a "legitimate elector" you may ask? Well let me give you an example. Groups from Move-on.org, Vote Now, ACT, and local GOTV would drop off a group of "voters". One of the drivers would act as the "Legitimate Elector" and say this person was located where he claimed. Presto - that person is a voter.

Do that enough times and the 32% increase in votes from 1996 to 2004 becomes a lot more understandable.

[damncat]

bump


Milwaukee sucks!!!

[E.G.C.]

BTT!!!!!!

[steveegg]

It would be even more interesting to run the numbers for just the city of Milwaukee (where a lot of other problems, er, fraud, occurred). Hmm, in a city of 550,000 or so people, and about 430,000 adults at last check (not to mention the main reason for the drain in the county), you had an increase in the number of votes of about 32,000 (from about 245,670 in 2000 to 277,535 in 2004). By my math, that's a 13% increase in a city losing a lot of population.

Further, you have 396,600 pre-"registered" voters, another 15,000-20,000 registrations not processed in time to be included in that number, and 83,000 "voters" showing up at the polls to take advantage of same-day registration where one need only write gibberish and have someone else swear to the lie.

[Timeout]

The City of Milwaukee's website has election results for this and prior elections.
http://www.milwaukee.gov/display/router.asp?docid=1707

Acccording to them there were 396,600 "Pre-Registered Voters" at the time of the November election. We know from news articles that the number INCLUDES 74,000 who registered ON ELECTION DAY in 2000. Now add the 84,000 who registered same-day in November. That implies a total registered voter base of 480,600 (396600 + 84000).

Given that 84,000 and 74,000 of those are same-day registrants, that's a total of 158,000 -- a FULL 1/3rd of the entire voter base.

The single worst statistic to come out of the bloogers efforts is the fact that, of the same-day registrants in November, some 10,000 were discarded because they were illegible---AFTER THEY VOTED! Kerry carried the state by 11,000 votes.

I don't understand why people aren't up in arms about this.

[RicocheT]

Anyone can see with one eye open that Wisconsin votes were manufactured by Democrats in Milwaukee and in Madison. Why, because Wisconsin could have tipped the election to Kerry had Ohio gone for Kerry.

Now I'm sure the Democrats tried to steal Ohio too, but it didn't work. They had Wisconsin in their back pocket and will in the future too, unless Wisconsin Republicans get serious about election integrity and voter ID.