Thousands of Racine Voters May Have Been Able to Cast a Recall Ballot by Mistake [WI recall]

[Racine, Wisc...] Thousands of voters who registered at the polls on recall election day in the City of Racine may not have signed the supplemental poll list as required by law, the MacIver News Service has learned.

Individuals who register as new voters or change their voter registration on election day do not appear on the pre-printed voter rolls maintained by election workers. Those same-day registrants are added to a supplemental poll list, maintained at each polling location across Wisconsin. A space is provided on the Supplemental Poll List for new registrants to sign by their hand-written entry, and by law they are required to do so.

'They are required to sign the poll list, just like everyone else," said Michael Haas, Staff Counsel with the GAB told MacIver News Monday morning.

According to the Government Accountability Board's Election Day Manual for Wisconsin Election Workers,

"Providing the correct ballot to the voter and enabling the elector to mark a ballot privately and independently are two of the most important tasks for election inspectors on Election Day. It is essential that you are familiar with the correct procedure for issuing ballots and facilitating voting."

a. The elector only signs one poll list. b. Election inspectors must ensure that all voters are signing the same poll list which is later provided to the county clerk. c. If another person signed the voter's registration form because the voter was unable to sign due to disability, the inspector writes the word "Exempt" on the signature line. d. If voter claims to be unable to sign due to physical disability, and both inspectors concur, the inspectors shall enter the words "exempt by order of inspectors" on the signature line. e. If both inspectors do not waive the signature requirement, the voter shall be allowed to cast a ballot and the inspector or inspectors who did not waive the requirement shall challenge the ballot and document the situation on the Inspectors' Statement.

For new voters or those with changes of address, their names are placed on a Supplemental Poll List, which includes a space for the newly-registered voter to sign their name before receiving their ballot.

During a review of same day registrations for just one ward in the City of Racine conducted at the ongoing Senate District 21 recount at the Racine County Courthouse, more than 100 voters failed to sign the supplemental poll list.

More than 4,000 people were added to the supplemental poll lists in the City of Racine on the day of the June 5th recall election.

Sources tell MacIver News that upwards of half of those voters failed to sign the poll list.

There’s more on these developments now, also from MacIver News Service, as follows:

Clouds Gather Over City of Racine Election Procedures, Pollworkers (http://www.maciverinstitute.com/2012/06/clouds-gather-over-city-of-racine-election-procedures/)

A Wisconsin Government Accountability Board official admits that poll workers in Racine did not follow the law when they allowed voters who registered on election day to obtain and cast ballots without signing the supplemental poll list.

“What is supposed to happen is that, they’re not supposed to get a ballot,” Michael Haas, Staff Counsel with the GAB said Monday afternoon. “The election official should not have given the person a ballot”

That statement reinforced the one Haas gave the MacIver News Service earlier in the day when we reported on the errors.

However, that same official now asserts that the discovery that thousands of individuals may have been mistakenly given ballots in the June 5th recall election should not disqualify their votes.

“If the election official, made an error and gave them a ballot, you don’t disenfranchise the voter,” Haas said. “The intent of their ballot can still be ascertained.”

The discovery adds even more controversy to an already contentious recount of the 21 Senate District recall election.

“We consider that to be an administrative error and the voter is not supposed to be penalized for an election official making a mistake,” said Haas. “The statute says, if you can ascertain the electors intent, failure to comply with the other provisions of the statutes don’t invalidate the ballot.”

As we reported, partisans are not disqualified from being poll workers. But today’s news regarding poll workers failing to obtain the signatures of thousands of voters on the poll lists comes in the wake of an earlier report by the MacIver News Service, which uncovered that as many as 78 of the 189 people who worked as official poll workers in Racine may have earlier signed recall petitions that ultimately forced the elections to be conducted.

Earlier this month, we broke the story that the Racine County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the discovery of discarded election-related documents in the city of Racine.

In that case, what is at issue are election registration forms and partisan political literature found in a dumpster behind the Cesar Chavez Community Center in the City of Racine.

Eight of the 17 poll workers at the Cesar Chavez Community Center, including at least one of the Chief Election Inspectors there, appear to have signed a recall petition, according to the MNS report.

After the official canvass of election results, Republican Senator Van Wanggaard was found to have lost his recall election to former Democratic Senator John Lehman by 834 votes.

Wanggaard requested the recount, which began last week. Unless it receives an extension from a judge, the recount must be completed by July 2nd.

As of the time this story was filed, the Wanggaard campaign had challenged 116 votes in ward 2 in the City of Racine due to voters’ failure to sign the supplemental poll list. While their challenge was denied during the recount, the campaign has not said what their next steps will be and whether they would pursue any legal challenge to the ruling.

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