Posted on 02/03/2005 2:46:38 PM PST by swilhelm73
Greg Borowski reports in today's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that an analysis of voting records done by the newspaper reveals that seventeen precincts in the city showed at least 100 more votes than the number of registered voters, even counting the already-problematic same-day registrants. Four precincts, or wards, had more than 500 extra votes:
Record-keeping surrounding the Nov. 2 presidential election in Milwaukee is so flawed that in 17 wards there were at least 100 more votes recorded than people listed by the city as voting there. In two wards, one on the south side and one on the north side, the gap is more than 500, with fewer than half the votes cast in each ward accounted for in the city's computer system, a Journal Sentinel review has found.
Such gaps were present at different levels in nearly all of the city wards and could hamper the investigation launched last week by federal and local authorities into possible voter fraud by giving an incomplete or inaccurate picture of who actually voted.
They also raise questions about the level of oversight of how the city records who voted in each ward - an important safeguard that, properly done, can be used to spot double voting and other problems.
And unless the gaps can be fully resolved, they leave room for critics to allege that ballot boxes were stuffed in the city, which went heavily to Democrat John Kerry over President Bush in a state with one of the closest margins in the country.
Milwaukee has 312 voting wards, and the MSJ checked the records to see if it could find a pattern of abuse. It didn't find a geographic pattern, although Sean Hackbarth at The American Mind seems to note a couple of interesting items when he checks his map:
From looking at the Journal Sentinel's map of the really messed up wards we see them scattered across the city. The only real concentration was in the far north side, wards 258, 259, and 260. Combined those three wards had 490 more ballots cast than voters listed as voting. Such a concentration could mean a concerted fraud effort was happening in that area. Three wards that also caught my eye: Ward 312 at Marquette University, Ward 39 at UW-Milwaukee, and Ward 44 near UWM. Wards where university students votes makes me suspicious because in 2000 Marquette University students bragged about voting more than once. One of the admitted polling places was Marquette Alumni Memorial Union, Ward 312. These are wards investigators should look at first. Most of the problem appears to have been a highly careless election staff that didn't bother to scan the election logs, or failed to include them altogether. This is the important safeguard that the MSJ reports was ignored altogether, and it bolsters the notion that systemic fraud may be a secondary explanation, behind incompetence. It resulted in hundreds, perhaps thousands, of unrecorded votes as well; Borowski and the MSJ staff found 593 in one ward alone. Lisa Artison could not comment on this development as she was out of the office yesterday, but that's still not good news for her or the bureaucracy she leads.
So now on top of an outrageously high number of same-day registrants (30% of Milwaukee's total for the second presidential election in a row), we have a casual and haphazard counting and verification process to add to a casual and haphazard registration process. The bill attempting to mitigate the latter faces stiff Democratic opposition, and the Democrats have their usual ally in camp for the battle:
On Tuesday, Rick Graber, head of the state Republican Party, challenged his Democratic counterpart to appear at a hearing on the matter Thursday so together they can condemn "the fact that potentially thousands of voters across Wisconsin had their legally cast ballot disenfranchised by fraud and abuse." Linda Honold, state Democratic Party chair, said she was unsure if she would attend the meeting but added that if she did go, she would do so to oppose the bill.
"If I'm there, I'm not going to be arguing what he wants me to argue," she said.
Others, including the head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and the group Wisconsin Citizen Action, condemned the voter ID proposal.
The Democrats appear united in trying to protect their power base and the easily-manipulated system which keeps them in statewide office. The ACLU can be relied upon to oppose any kind of ID scheme, no matter how reasonable, especially when it favors the Democrats. Perhaps the ACLU could explain why presenting a valid ID on Election Day make voting "harder" for qualified voters, since most people drive to the polls and should have it on them anyway. Those who do not drive can inexpensively get a state photo ID that works just as well and remains valid just as long, and if they write checks in most places, already need. The only people who find it "harder" to vote when ID is required are the people who don't belong in the polling station in the first place.
It appears that Milwaukee's fiasco has many dimensions to it, and both fraud and incompetence remain as root causes. The independent investigation into the city's practices promises to cause an uproar when completed. Stay tuned.
I've got another pattern for them to check. How many of these districts were run by Democrats?
I think the Justice Dept. should come in to places like Milwaukee, Philly, Seattle, New Orleans and conduct federal elections. We cannot trust these places to have the ethics or brains to run a fair election.
the ONLY reason these investigations came about is because they have some repubs up there who care...
Look at chicagoland... this crap goes on all the time, and NO ONE will even look into it
sad to say, but I think even most repubs here (except steve raushenberger (mispelled) munson and hastert) seem to be on the dem payroll in one form or the other also
even george ryan was making deals with dems over territory and judicial boundaries, just sickens me...
I hope more of this stuff shows up so we can throw it in the Democrats' face the next time they accuse us of cheating.
A precinct is an individual voting location. The ones I've worked at usually had less than 1200 total votes. That's 8% fraudulent. That's significant, and it is wide-spread enough to be found in at least those numbers in 17 places in the closest race in the nation. It's a story. Let's hope it has legs.
Divide by ten.
Nevermind. I thought you meant the two state's total votes. Mydumb.
Moderator:
Duplicate Post
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1334115/posts
"In the United States we need a computerized voting system with timestamped printed receipts operated by a swipeable, National Voter ID card for all ELIGIBLE citizens. That would stop the obvious ballot box stuffing that is getting worse every day in Liberal counties, as well as remove the need for this stupid, fraud-laden, instant-registration."
Hear! Hear! And you can only get that card with three types of ID. And once it's swiped through the magnetic reader at a polling place, you are LOCKED OUT of voting again in that election, in that polling place or anyplace. Also, computers could sort out in seconds if someone was voting in "real time" in Florida, but had already voted absentee in New York, for example.
And penalties for fraud should be $100,000 fine for first offense. And five years in prison for a second. Or punishments the Democrats would call "draconian."
DemoDictionary definition of draconian: Oh, no, all the ways we've been committing voter fraud won't work anymore!
Poing.
In this case it appears they overstuffed the boxes in several precincts which resulted in there being more votes cast then they had registered voters.
the thought had crossed my mind once or a hundred times
Your math is correct, however your assumption that the only fraudulent votes are those in excess of the number of registered voters is not.
80% turnout would normally be considered "very high" in any precinct. In a precinct of 1200 registered voters, 1300 votes is a turnout of 108%. The fraud is most likely closer to 30 or 40%.
if we don't - it will continue.
And we must have a no same day registering. If someone wants to exercise their right to vote - then they should know it before election day and register in time for validity to be checked in advance.
Years ago - you had to be registered months ahead...along with some one vote only card. For cripes sake, when we vote on a poll here on the Internet, after we've voted - you can't sit there and vote again.
"purple" fingers wouldn't work here because there is a solvent - and the dems would stockpile it ;o)
Yep, we need the purple inked fingers here, too!
I absolutely think Bush should have won WI. I heard on the radio yesterday that if he had won 30,000 more votes, he would have won 3 more states (bringing the total up to 36 I believe). WI was about an 11k difference, that means the other 2 states (don't know which ones they are - wasn't NH one of them? Maybe Iowa the other?) together were only about 19k difference.
But Botox, et al keep harping about the votes being off in Ohio with over 100k difference. Diversion
As much as I want a revote in WA, if we don't get one I hope the one thing it does is alert voters and (honest) election officials and legislatures that we need to change voting laws NOW! Picture ID, get rid of motor voter, same day registration, limit and restrict provisional ballots, etc., etc.
And he wants every vote counted.
I suggest you contact your state legislators and tell them that, in addition to photo IDs, they should require SIGNATURES affirming citizenship, voting only once, being
properly registered, still LIVING at the address of registration -- with penalties for PERJURY and FRAUD as well as voting law violations.
Consider getting same-day registrations elections outlawed. Absentee voters should have to send in a signed copy of their IDs along with their ballots and/or their ballot signatures must be NOTARIZED.
And then mandate protections for the early mailing and late counting of armed forces personnel's absentee ballots -- with even TOUGHER penalties for poll worker and election commission violations.
Pile on as many other ideas as you can come up with, because legislating means bargaining.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.