Posted on 12/18/2011 2:02:25 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
MADISON — Members of the Government Accountability Board seemed impressed.
Armed with language from a Wisconsin statute and GAB regulations, Mary Ann Hanson earlier this week spoke out against the policy of allowing voters who have submitted an absentee ballot to vote at a polling place on election day.
It's a long-held practice, according to the GAB, predating the board itself, which was created in 2007 to replace the State Elections Board and the State Ethics Board.
If the absentee ballot hasn’t been “cast” — processed and tabulated — the person who filed the absentee ballot can vote in person, and the absentee ballot is supposed to be rejected. If the absentee ballot has been tabulated, then a poll worker is supposed to turn away the voter.
“Nothing that I see in Wisconsin statute actually provides for voters to vote by absentee and on election day,” said Hanson, a member of the voter watchdog group We’re Watching Wisconsin Elections. “The intent was to provide for one or the other.
“Legislative intent in (Wisconsin statute) 6.85 is quite clear that absentee voting is a privilege offered by the state for those who certify they are unable or unwilling to appear at the polling place on election day,” she said.
Absentee voters are required to sign a form attesting that they are either unable or unwilling to vote at the polls, Hanson said.
“To show up and again to vote on election day presents a problem, because (Wisconsin statute) 12.131b considers it election fraud to falsely procure registration or make false statements to the municipal, board of election commissioners or any other election official, whether or not under oath,” she said.
The policy adds to the burden of poll workers and clerks conducting the election, she said, and adds to the cost of elections.
Hanson recommended that GAB adopt a three-pronged policy: • Use a color other than grey to indicate an absentee voter on the poll voting list; • Require a voter who has requested an absentee ballot but hasn't cast that ballot to return it to the polling place before being allowed to vote on election day; • Require clerks to follow "clear, transparent" rules.
“I personally share some of the concerns that you expressed,” particularly in regards to needing a clear law that is clearly communicated, GAB chairman Thomas Barland told Hanson.
“I hope we can take steps to strengthen that,” Barland said.
Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at conservative think tank Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., said there's nothing unusual about a state allowing an absentee voter to cast an election day ballot.
"The process has to be set up so that you're very careful to make sure that a person doesn't get to vote twice," von Spakovsky said.
In Wisconsin, voter lists at polling places include a watermark next to the names of people who have submitted absentee ballots. If absentee voters want to vote on election day, instead, the poll worker is supposed to reject the person's absentee ballot.
In municipalities that canvass — or inspect and count — all absentee ballots at a central location, the poll worker is supposed to contact the election official at the central location, verify that the absentee ballot has not been tabulated, tell the election official to reject the absentee ballot and then allow the voter to vote at the poll.
If an absentee ballot has been tabulated, that voter is not allowed to vote a second time.
Von Spakovsky said that in Virginia, absentee voters are allowed to vote a regular ballot, if they return their absentee ballot to the polling place.
Voters who don't return their absentee ballots are allowed to cast a provisional ballot on election day, which is tabulated only after election officials determine that the voters did not cast absentee votes.
Wisconsin's GAB took no action on Hanson's request, which was offered during a public comment portion of Tuesday's GAB meeting and not an agenda item.
A friend of mine had a home (residence) in PA and was registered to vote there in 2008. He got an app to register in Fla (2nd home, rental) in the mail. He had enough sense to trash it.
Hey! Nobody is watching or checking. Vote early and vote often. America is a Marxist banana republic now. Voting as many times as you want is now encouraged. Voter fraud has become the law of the land thanks to DOJ’s Eric the Red.
Democrats have VOTE FRAUD down to a Science!! It’s what they DO...it’s how they WIN!
There were reports in 2000 that some of the Florida votes for Gore were cast by people who had also voted in New York State (but spend the winters in Florida). Not a story the media would have had any interest in pursuing, of course.
If you didn't get your ballot in the mail, then provisional ballots should be clearly marked with your name and not counted until the absentee ballot is accounted for. Voter ID should be mandatory for all people going to the polls.
Racist! These people are trying to prevent black people from their Democratic right to twice! Republican blacks are NOT allowed to do this, however.
And, of course, all Democratic union members are allowed to vote as many times as they can, no matter what color they are.
(As a rule). :-\
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