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For what it's worth, the story was the front page headline article in this morning's Kenosha Snooze:

DA PROBES LOCAL DOYLE EVENT
Allegations claim Kenosha residents bribed for votes

Kenosha News Staff
Thursday, October 24, 2002

Republican Gov. Scott McCallum's campaign pounced Tuesday on allegations that supporters of Democratic challenger Jim Doyle gave mentally disabled people kringle, soda and quarters in exchange for their votes.

Meanwhile, District Attorney Robert Jambois launched an investigation into the Oct. 14 campaign event at the Dayton Residential Care Facility, and City Clerk Jean Morgan made arrangements for witnesses to observe future voting at the center.

Doyle's campaign tried to distance itself from the incident, saying the people involved worked for the Democratic Party, not the campaign.

Those supporters, as well as Dayton residents, denied any votes were exchanged and said people at the facility were not directed to fill out absentee ballots for Doyle. But Republicans hammered the issue home on talk radio and in press releases.

"I think it's an outrage and I think there's a bit of an irony besides the blatant misuse of the absentee process," Lt. Gov. Margaret Farrow told the Kenosha News. "The irony is the Democrats are always telling people they're the compassionate party, the party that cares about people, and yet they're manipulating the most vulnerable people in our society."

The merit of the allegations remained unclear Wednesday.

Dayton officials ordered absentee ballots for 33 of its approximately 70 residents earlier this month. The city delivered t hem on Oct. 9, and the center arranged for residents to fill out their paperwork on Oct. 14, Columbus Day. Because the many veterans at the facility would not be going to the Veterans Affairs clinic that day, they would have time to cast their votes, Dayton owner Lee Hamida said.

The same day, local Doyle backers arranged to host the center's regularly scheduled round of bingo. Longtime political volunteer Frank Santapoalo and Democratic Party staffer Angela Arrington were on hand for the event, though Arrington reportedly left early on, after WTMJ-4 began filming the bingo game.

Though a flier for the event said it was an opportunity to learn about Doyle, residents said no one stumped for the candidate and no one mentioned absentee voting.

Santapoalo was careful to point out that no one could win more than 75 cents because of state laws on election bribery, residents said. Those laws say votes cannot be exchanged for anything of value, which is defined as anything worth more than $1.

"They said it wasn't anything political, just playing bingo for the vets," said resident and lifelong Democrat Jack Andersen, who went on that afternoon to cast his absentee ballot for Doyle.

One other person voted that day, Andersen said.

While residents said no one encouraged them to vote, WTMJ's broadcast included a worker saying to residents, "They're still upstairs, if you guys wanted to vote."

According to the city clerk's office, eight of the 33 ballots have been filled out, but no one knows when the votes were cast.

Thomas Carlson, a resident who cast a vote a few days after the event for McCallum, agreed that the bingo game was not politically oriented.

"They said they couldn't make it above a dollar because of the election law and that's one of the times Doyle's name came up, because he was sponsoring the event," he said, adding, "Usually on a Monday, if you played here and they hadn't shown up you could win $1.50, so I wasn't too thrilled with them showing up."

Hamida balked at the idea that his residents were bribed.

"How can they get paid with a kringle, for crying out loud?" he asked, adding that the residents benefited from the interaction with people from the community.

Santapoalo agreed, saying he was helping people who society often overlooks.

As Republicans howled at the unseemliness of the incident and the media scrutinized the details, Kenosha County's district attorney sent a lawyer and police officers to interview Santapoalo and witnesses.

Jambois, who has endorsed Doyle and sits on his campaign's steering committee, said he would have Racine's Republican district attorney, Bob Flancher, review the findings as well.

Because of the fast-approaching Nov. 5 election, Jambois said he would try to wrap up the matter quickly, possibly as early as the weekend.

Morgan, the city clerk, said she would arrange for special voting deputies - one Republican and one Democrat - to help residents with the remaining ballots. While voting deputies go to most nursing homes, they were never scheduled for the Dayton because administrators had not requested them, she said.

Doyle's campaign sent a letter to state Democratic Party Chairwoman Linda Honold Tuesday, asking her to investigate the matter, but tried to distance itself from the incident, saying Santapoalo and Arrington work for the party, not the campaign. Doyle's campaign did not return a phone call, instead passing it on to the Democratic Party.

Thad Nation, party spokesman, said McCallum's focus on the incident was an act of desperation.

"It's coming down to the end of the election and the sitting governor is down by eight points in this morning's poll," he said, "They're making a big issue of it when their candidates have participated in these kind of events before."

Santapoalo, who has led Doyle around Kenosha on several occasions, denied that he was volunteering for the party rather than Doyle.

Santapoalo has flitted to and from a number of local, state and national campaigns over the years, spending hundreds of hours each election season taking politicians to fish fries, nursing homes and bowling alleys.

This article is not online, so I had to transcribe it. Sadly, I doubt this article will change many minds in this town.

But thanks to all of you great folks who have been publicizing this story, and contacting those involved!

Somebody had better get their stories straight then. Continuing excerpts from the Journal Sentinel story:

Frank Santapoalo, a Doyle campaign volunteer who organized the event, and two Dayton employees said they were not aware of anyone filling out an absentee ballot at the facility after the bingo games.
Tammy Nerling, the facility's activity director, said she doesn't recall any of the facility's residents voting after the bingo game. Some were spooked by the presence of television cameras, she said. A handful had filled out absentee ballots before the Columbus Day event, Nerling said.
She is seen in the TV report telling residents during the bingo game that absentee ballots were available "upstairs."
Also, the soft drinks were provided by the care center, not the Doyle campaign or the Democratic Party, Nerling said.
She said the care center orders absentee ballots on behalf of residents for every election. This time, they ordered a set of 33, which arrived a week earlier. So far, three-fourths have gone unused, Nerling said.

I'll first address the inconsistencies here. Who is lying about when the ballots were cast; Santapoalo and Nerling, who say that no votes were cast after the bingo session (indeed, Nerling recalls the beginning of the day clearly enough to say that votes were cast prior to the bingo session) or Andersen, who said he voted AFTER getting his danish, soda and $0.75? Who's lying; Kenosha City Clerk Jean Morgan who told the Jourtinel that none of the 33 absentee ballots were returned, or her office, who told the News that 8 of those 33 were returned?

What's VERY telling is that it is now in print that Santapoalo admitted that all the residents could expect for their votes for their benefactor, Jim Doyle, is 75 cents. What's also telling is that while voting deputies go to "most" nursing homes (I'll believe that when pigs fly), they weren't at Dayton because the administrators didn't request them.

The stench just keeps on getting worse.

Does anybody know why WTMJ was there filming in the first place? I haven't seen this info anywhere. Do they routinely cover bingo nights at Kenosha mental health centers? So far 8 ballots have actually been filled out, at least one of which was for McCallum per the story, in exchange for some loose change, soda, and kringel, and people are making it sound like the greatest political scandal of all time. If residents were instructed or "forced" to vote for Doyle, in my mind that would/should be enough to deny Doyle the governorship (via his withdrawl, or prosecution, or just getting beaten, etc), but I think people are making waaay too big a deal out of this as it looks.

For the record, I'm not a Doyle supporter. I might actually sit out the gubernatorial race this year. McCallum and Doyle are utterly inept, Thompson wouldn't be much better, and I don't feel like voting for Young and seeing my candidate get 4% of the vote.