January 25, 2005

Milwaukee Voters' Addresses Don't Exist

The Journal Sentinel's Greg Borowski continues to put together some fine work on Milwaukee's Election Day problems. His latest find is that 1,242 votes came from voters whose addresses do not exist. Reporters found a park, a baseball diamond, an alley, and a bridge at addresses voters claimed in order to vote. What isn't surprising is that 75% of those bad addresses came from same-day registration. Mayor Barrett's chief of staff Patrick Curley took the ostrich approach and said this was no sign of fraud. If it wasn't fraud then why would a voter use a non-existent address? Lisa Artison, head of the Election Commission, said, "The results you obtained make it clear the new statewide voter system is very badly needed and long overdue." No long recitations on the definition of "estimate" this time. However as Borowski points out,

But that system, to be online late this year, will do little to safeguard against problems with same-day voter registration, or with the flood of registration cards the city received in the final days before Nov. 2.

"Over 1,200 Voters’ Addresses Found Invalid"

[Added to OTB's Beltway Traffic Jam.]