NAACP finds election problems in suburbs (of Milwaukee

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ^ | 2/3/2005 | Georgia Pabst and Amy Rinard

[steveegg]

On the eve of Thursday's hearing in Madison on a proposed voter ID requirement, the Milwaukee branch of the NAACP moved Wednesday to shift the spotlight from Milwaukee to highlighting election problems in several suburbs.

The group said its review of election data in those communities had found irregularities similar to those that have been reported in Milwaukee, such as more votes cast than voters on record in various wards.

Clerks in several of the communities acknowledged errors Wednesday.

In general, though, the problems are of a different nature and much smaller scope than those the Journal Sentinel has found in its extensive review of Milwaukee election records....

[steveegg]

To summarize what the JS found after a quick audit of the vote totals and interviews with most of the government officials that could be reached:

• In Oak Creek (southeast Milwaukee County), Wards 1, 2, and 3 (which make up the 1st Aldermanic District, and which vote at the Oak Creek Public Library), there were 2,670 votes recorded for President and 2,611 voters recorded. Upon investigation, the information that the city submitted to the Milwaukee County Election Commission shows that 2,608 votes were cast for President, and the County Election Commission took responsibility for a "simple math error". (full disclosure; I live in the 2nd Aldermanic District of Oak Creek, which votes elsewhere)
• The village of Hartland (Waukesha County) had 4,979 votes and 4,942 voters recorded. The village clerk acknowledged the mistake and was unsure how it happened.
• The town of Vernon (Waukesha County) had 4,784 votes and 4,769 voters recorded. While the story says the clerk made an error, it doesn't elaborate further.
• The story also does not elaborate on the overvote in the village of Lac La Belle (Waukesha County), and finds that the NAACP claims of overvotes in the village of Pewaukee and the town of Oconomowoc (both Waukesha County) were incorrect.

---

I'll give the NAACP credit for finding this. However, they miss the forest of the desperate need for vote reform in Wisconsin for the trees of trying to defend Milwaukee.

[steveegg]

Ping

[steveegg]

Just in case some of you stepped into the story in the middle, I've tried to archive the problems in Wisconsin under the keyword WISTOLENELECTION (I've got most of the post-election threads, and selected pre-election ones).

[steveegg]

I bet if it were up to the NAALCP, suburbs (along with small towns and rural areas) wouldn't even be allowed to vote. Only the cities—with their fetid ghettos and trendy lib enclaves—would be allowed a voice in government.

I wouldn't cover that bet ;-)

[normy]

Finding a few votes in the suburbs is to be expected. I assume the results of these finds would be an even split between Bush and Kerry. From what I understand, the results of the Wisconsin electoral votes could be overturned by the thousands of phony Kerry votes in Milwaukee.

[codercpc]

They (NAACP) say that the "push" for voter ID is "politically motivated". Well DUH... The Republicans are sick and tired of losing elections in Milwaukee due to fraud!!!!!

Has anyone been investigating Madison? The newspapers in that area are so incredibly liberal that I never read them. There also is such a conservative void in all news media from that area.

I have contacted "Diamond Jim" Doyle multiple times, and I encourage everyone else from Wisconsin to do so also. Not that it matters, but at least you get the satisfaction of having done something. I see this as such a huge factor in the 2006 election, along with the Tax Payers Bill of Rights, that I cannot see Doyle winning re-election without the help of fraud, so he has a vested interest in not supporting voter ID's.

[steveegg]

They (NAACP) say that the "push" for voter ID is "politically motivated". Well DUH... The Republicans are sick and tired of losing elections in Milwaukee due to fraud!!!!!

And the corollary...the push to block it is also "politically motivated" by those that benefit from the fraud that it would prevent (namely, the DemonRATs).

Has anyone been investigating Madison? The newspapers in that area are so incredibly liberal that I never read them. There also is such a conservative void in all news media from that area.

Doubt it, though there was a cursory investigation by the Journtinel when the newsroom was still in full-blown "cover Milwaukee's butt" mode that hinted at a similarily-sized problem there.

---

Speaking of contacting officials, an Assembly committee is taking this up at Room 300 in the state Capitol at 10 am. Write, call, and show up if you can.

[steveegg]

Finding a few votes in the suburbs is to be expected. I assume the results of these finds would be an even split between Bush and Kerry.

I wouldn't make that blanket statement. The Wisconsin Elections Board has ward-by-ward returns available in both Excel and Acrobat formats. I'll be going back through Milwuaukee's 17 wards where there was an overvote of at least 100 shortly (likely within this post. The Oak Creek wards (overvote of 59 out of 2870 recorded votes) favored Bush over Kerry 54.1%-45.3% (in line with the rest of the city), Hartland (overvote of 37 out of 4,979 counted) went for Bush 67.7%-31.2% and Vernon (overvote of 15 out of 4,784 counted) went for Bush 69.9%-29.6%.

From what I understand, the results of the Wisconsin electoral votes could be overturned by the thousands of phony Kerry votes in Milwaukee.

Likely.

Now, let me compare the results from those 17 massive overvote wards in Milwaukee (map of those wards here courtesy Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; it and an understanding of Milwaukee geopolitics is recommended):

• Ward 9 (127 overvotes out of 902 counted) - Kerry 85.6%, Bush 14.0%
• Ward 14 (249 overvotes out of 713 counted) - Kerry 95.8%, Bush 3.9%
• Ward 39 (241 overvotes out of 2096 counted) - Kerry 57.4%, Bush 40.3%
• Ward 44 (357 overvotes out of 1941 counted) - Kerry 68.2%, Bush 30.8%
• Ward 58 (101 overvotes out of 2162 counted) - Kerry 57.7%, Bush 40.6%
• Ward 62 (234 overvotes out of 1059 counted) - Kerry 50.6%, Bush 48.0%
• Ward 71 (114 overvotes out of 928 counted) - Kerry 90.8%, Bush 9.1%
• Ward 93 (525 overvotes out of 922 counted) - Bush 55.3%, Kerry 43.7%
• Ward 124 (136 overvotes out of 870 counted) - Kerry 84.0%, Bush 15.8%
• Ward 188 (260 overvotes out of 1501 counted) - Kerry 49.9%, Bush 49.0%
• Ward 216 (217 overvotes out of 857 counted) - Kerry 50.4%, Bush 48.3%
• Ward 229 (596 overvotes out of 1133 counted) - Kerry 53.7%, Bush 45.5%
• Ward 258 (111 overvotes out of 1029 counted) - Kerry 76.9%, Bush 22.1%
• Wards 259 and 260 (put together because they vote at the same polling place; 379 overvotes total out of 1564 counted) - Kerry 75.3%, Bush 24.2%
• Ward 298 (117 overvotes out of 809 counted) - Kerry 95.7%, Bush 3.7%
• Ward 312 (319 overvotes out of 1327 cast) - Kerry 52.7%, Bush 46.2%

[Michael.SF.]

OK, I looked at the map. It shows that the fraud is spread from the north (258, 259, 260) to the south (229) from the west (93) to the east (39). I see no discernible pattern, as I expected, such as a cluster in some areas. I am not familiar with Milwaukee, so the lack of pattern tells me nothing.

What does the map indicate to you, since you are familiar with the area?

[CAPTAINSUPERMARVELMAN]

sure give them credit, but what they're doing is trying to make this a racial issue instead of what it really is. Their arguement is that the discrepencies weren't just in the inner city areas, but the real tragedy or crime was in the suburbs. The ideal is that the pre-dominantly "white" areas is where the trouble. The way I see it is this; sure investigate the burbs(we have quite a few liberal suburbs here)as well as the inner city areas, you'll still find the same results.(A high number of vote "prolems" in predominantly democratic districts)

[Timeout]

Thanks for the ping.

I love this part:
Henry Hamilton, of the NAACP's political action and legal redress committee, said that to date "not one scintilla of evidence has been found in Milwaukee to suggest the voting disparities are the result of fraud or criminal behavior."

Ahhh. They learned well from the the master, Clinton. Deny the existence of proof BEFORE there's even been an investigation. Watch for the next level: "No one's been charged with a crime!".

As for the NAACP's allegations, don't you find it funny that---in reporting wrong numbers----they got THEIR numbers wrong in two cases?! "In two of the cases cited by the NAACP - the Town of Oconomowoc and the Village of Pewaukee - the NAACP's figures were incorrect."

LOL!

[steveegg]

Going just from memory, here's the breakdown of several of the Infamous 17 (in no particular order):

• The racial makeup of the wards are essentially as follows: Wards 229, 216, 188, 93, 39 and 44 are mainly white. Wards 9, 58, 62 and 312 have a mixture of color. Most of the remainder are heavily black.
• Going into some specifics, Wards 39 (UW-Milwaukee) and 312 (Marquette University) cover the two main universities in Milwaukee, with Wards 44 (near UWM) and 62 (near Marquette) having high concentrations of students who live off-campus.
• Most of those in Wards 258, 259 and 260 (northwest side) live in rental units.
• Similarily, Ward 229 (far south side) has an unusually high number of rental units for its area of the city.
• Nearly all of these areas have Democratic representation in the state Assembly (focusing there because the districs are smaller than those in the state Senate, and every seat was up this year). Most wards were in areas where there wasn't even a Republican challenger, though the situation was exactly opposite in Wards 9 and 229 (Pubbies with mainly suburban areas didn't have a challenger).
• The polling places for Wards 229 and 216 are, as fast food restaurants next to the freeway would say, "EZ on-EZ off" (BTW, they're the two closest to Illinois).

So, what do I make of it? The system is broke and stinks worse than Lake Michigan outside of Jones Island right after a 6-inch rain (Milwukee's sewerage district tends to start dumping "partially-treated" sewage any time there's more than an inch of rain).

[Mr. Silverback]

Wisconsin Defense Ping!

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[Bellflower]

I have an idea that cheating goes on in the rural areas of Wis. I think that most people think the smaller areas are safe because they are small but that the Dems somehow have them cover too. I would like to see all of Wis gone over with a fine tooth comb. It would pay off vastly in the future. Madison is of course a Dem cheating stronghold.

How many of the state and local elections are won by them through cheating? How many times when they do win is it by much less than it appears?

[BraveMan]

This is an outstanding effort on your part. Kudos . . .

[Duke Nukum]

I growed up in Oak Creek!

I lived on Oak St off of Howell Ave where St. Johns Luthern Church is on the corner.

[steveegg]

That's the church I go to. Small world, isn't it?

[Duke Nukum]

I was raised Catholic and we went to ST. Stephens but we went to VBS at St. Johns.