Posted on 03/04/2003 1:11:44 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
County Board Chairman Lee Holloway's recall election proceeded today under a cloud after a judge refused to halt voting, and multiple instances of possible fraud surfaced as absentee ballots poured into the city Election Commission from a group campaigning for Holloway.
An absentee-ballot application from a vacant lot; admissions of forgery; erroneous names on returned ballot envelopes; mismatched signatures; and other discrepancies surfaced in interviews with voters and a review of the sealed ballots.
The head of the Election Commission said late Monday she would not allow counting of the disputed absentee ballots the group submitted until she receives a green light from the Milwaukee County district attorney's office.
The district attorney's office launched an investigation Monday after the Journal Sentinel reported on an unusual arrangement that allowed a group known as the African-American Coalition for Empowerment, or ACE, to receive blank absentee ballots and distribute them to voters the group had solicited door to door. Nearly 160 completed ballots were presented to city election officials Monday by ACE, which is on Holloway's campaign payroll and is run by his longtime campaign manager.
In the last several weeks, ACE workers got as many as 600 potential voters to sign applications for the vote-ahead ballots. Election officials rejected hundreds, though, because the applicants were unregistered, according to Julietta Henry, Election Commission executive director.
Because of a loophole in state law, ACE got permission from election officials to persuade residents to have their ballots sent to ACE's Milwaukee office instead of to the voters - an unusual, if not unprecedented, move. ACE then took the ballots to voters' homes, and the group's workers acted as witnesses while people marked them.
Based just on handwriting discrepancies, more than 100 of the 162 ACE-solicited ballots were deemed suspicious enough Monday to warrant further investigation, based on separate, preliminary reviews by the district attorney's office and Henry's staff. Journal Sentinel reporters also examined many returned ballots and compared them with signed ballot applications. No actual ballots were opened.
Henry asked the district attorney's office to focus special attention on five cases in which either the alleged voters told the commission they did not seek to vote absentee, or the ballot envelope contained a different name than the ballot-request application.
Interviews Monday with more than 20 of the ACE absentee voters revealed widespread confusion. Holloway's opponent today is Yolanda Staples-Lassiter, a federal worker. Several people whose names appear on ballots and ballot applications submitted to the Election Commission told the Journal Sentinel on Monday night that they never voted.
Many said they had not voted absentee before.
"The people came to my door a couple of weeks ago from the African coalition," said Robert Stern, who lives on N. 37th St. "I signed my name (on the application), and I thought I'd get a ballot, but I never got a ballot. I'm not too happy about it. I don't need no absentee ballot anyway. They told me they were with Holloway." Stern, who said he did not know the workers' names, added that he would have voted for Holloway anyway. He contacted the Election Commission to complain Monday after realizing they received a ballot in his name. In addition, the signature of the witness who supposedly saw him sign the ballot is illegible, and there is no address provided.
Stern intends to go to the polls and cast a ballot today, and now he's nervous "they might think I voted twice," he said.
Guillermo Cantoral was mystified to learn last week that his signature appeared on an absentee election ballot until his mother-in-law revealed Monday that she signed his name on the ballot at the behest of someone who came to their door late last week. Cantoral now believes he was duped twice: first when he signed an application for an absentee ballot, and a second time when his mother-in-law was told to fill out his ballot. In the first instance, Cantoral said he was told he was signing a petition for a neighborhood cleanup.
"Maybe the candidates aren't that good, but my right to vote is precious," Cantoral, 36, said Monday evening. "This is not fair that they're doing this."
Cantoral's mother-in-law, Josephine Gomez, said she voted for Staples-Lassiter.
Three distinctly different "Sarah Moore" signatures appear on an ACE ballot application and two attached voter registration cards sent to the Election Commission, all under the address of 2014 N. 25th St. But the address doesn't exist, and the nearest address is a vacant lot.
Election Commission officials declined to send ACE a ballot in that case, noting the discrepancies.
Everlois Grimes said someone came by her house with an application for a ballot, and she signed that. But she said she never received a ballot, even though the city has one in her name. "I never got any ballot," she insisted, adding that the last time she voted was in the presidential election for Al Gore.
Grimes and her sister, Emma Graves, also were concerned that their mother, Aggie Grimes, is listed as voting, too.
"I am 100 percent sure she didn't vote," said Graves, who said she had signed her mother's application for a ballot, adding that she never received the actual ballot. Everlois Grimes added that her mother's mental condition is such that she can't even spell her name on her own.
For her part, Graves said she also signed an application but never received a ballot. Instead, she said that she received a letter from the coalition saying it had run out of ballots.
Barbara Rainey-Mitchell, who lives in the 3100 block of N. 39th St., said a man approached her several weeks ago as she walked to her front door. "They were going up and down the block," Rainey-Mitchell said. "They said they can't get people to come to vote, so they were going to come to them."
Rainey-Mitchell said she signed something to request the ballot with the expectation that it would arrive in the mail and that she would return it through the mail.
Friday, however, another man arrived at her house with a ballot and had her fill it out while he waited in an adjacent room. She put the ballot in an envelope and handed it to him.
Rainey-Mitchell said she voted for Holloway because she was more familiar with him.
Sharon Yarber, who operates a day care center in the same neighborhood, said a man approached her more than a week ago and asked if she planned to vote in the supervisor's race. The man offered to bring Yarber a ballot, after she told him that her day care duties would keep her from getting to the polls.
Another person brought the ballot to her home sometime last week, and Yarber filled it out, voting for Holloway.
"I didn't know too much about the other people," Yarber said.
"I feel good about it," she said. "Normally I would not have gone out and voted."
Yarber and Rainey-Mitchell said the people who presented them with absentee-ballot applications and ballots did not attempt to sway their votes. Several others contacted in the same neighborhood said the same.
Bette J. Higgins, who lives on the 1900 block of N. 32nd St., said two people came to her house with a ballot in her name at the end of last week. "They had a whole stack of ballots," she said. She said she just checked off both candidates. "I didn't know who to vote for," she said, adding they didn't talk about any of the candidates. "I generally vote. But I vote at the school across the street," she said pointing to Westside Academy I.
Patricia A. Neal, who lives in the Parc West Apartments, 2342 N. 35th St., recognized the person who had solicited her absentee registration. She believed the man was working for Holloway, but she said he never said so explicitly. "He brought me the ballot," said Neal. She said she filled out the ballot in privacy and that he didn't see who she was voting for. She declined to say how she voted.
Brief legal skirmish
A move by Staples-Lassiter for a court order to halt today's election failed, with Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Maxine White dismissing it for lack of specific evidence.
The remedy for any absentee ballot irregularities should be post-election challenges, argued John Finerty, a lawyer for Holloway, and County Corporation Counsel William Domina. Domina represented the Milwaukee County Election Commission. Holloway has declined to comment on the dispute.
A losing candidate can petition the county Elections Commission for a recount and challenge ballots the candidate feels are suspect, he said.
James Gatzke, an attorney for Staples-Lassiter, said Monday his client's election chances could suffer because of ACE's role.
At a Monday afternoon news conference, Gatzke said some voters "had been potentially misled as to the effect of their absentee ballot." He said holding the election today "could be a gross injustice."
Milwaukee County is one of the worst areas of vote fraud in the USA. But nothing will ever get done to change it.
This election fraud has got to stop. This has been going on in Milwaukee ever since I have lived here, but no one seems to be able to do anything about it. What slays me is that even the folks who sere defrauded out of their votes intend to vote for the scum anyway.
I should add that the incumbent is being recalled because of an outrageous pension scheme he was involved in. He is the last of the Milwaukee Aldermen to face recall. The County Executive and about 5 Aldermen lost their seats over this scandal.
Wow! You are johnny-on-the-spot today, steve. Nothing gets by you! LOL
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa...
The way I see it, it's simply the Machine knowing that it's so secure in its web of fraud that they feel comfortable rubbing our faces in giving us the details in real time.
One must be vigilent at all times!
And the Milwaukee (and Madison) voters feeling that it is their RIGHT to cheat at elections.
One of the most frustrating aspects of all of this is that the Republicans refuse to cheat (not that I would have it any other way.) But the R party just lets this stuff happen and never says a word that means anything about it.
Yep; don't concentrate on just one person to start with. We spent so much energy booting FU Ament that we only got 7 of the bums that actually have a vote out (with 3 official bums and a couple more that are at least slight disappointments replacing them).
I'm afraid that Milwaukee has succeeded.
Are you familiar with the administration of former Milwaukee Mayor *Anything Goes* Rose at the turn of the last century?
-archy-/-
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