January 16, 2005

Milwaukee Voter Fraud Update

While I was working for pay my fellow Wisconsin webloggers (we really need a name!) were working to keep the Milwaukee voter fraud story alive. Owen wrote a good piece explaining the whole thing. If Journal Sentinel editorial page editor Ricardo Pimentel were smart he'd put it in Sunday's paper. Rep. Jeff Stone was on Jeff Wagner's show Saturday, and Patrick has the audio. Charlie Sykes notes that Citizens for Responsible Government is calling for an audit.

I have two original items to add to the discussion. First, in Greg Borowski's story on Rep. Jeff Stone's revelation he mentions that something called Election Protection (EP) gave Milwaukee poll workers high praise in a report (PDF) released 01.06.05. That shouldn't be a surprise since EP is supported by People for the American Way, the Milwaukee County Labor Council, AFL-CIO, Voces de Frontera, the NAACP, Operation Big Vote, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the A. Phillip Randolph Institute, Wisconsin Citizen Action, the Faith Community for Worker Justice, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin. All Lefty groups who wanted John Kerry to win. EP can claim all it wants that it's non-partisan, but how non-partisan are its backers?

Second, to determine how out-of-kilter Milwaukee's same-day voter registration numbers are one should find out how many registered on Election Day statewide or in other cities. Did 25% of all Madison voters register on Election Day? How about in Racine, Green Bay, Appleton, or Eau Claire? Since I've found nothing helpful at the State Elections Board website it looks like we'll have to wait until Tuesday (remember, MLK Day) to ask government officials.