One Wisconsin Now

It looks like Republican Party efforts to prevent people from voting were dealt a serious blow with news that four of six of the member of the state’s Government Accountability Board failed when their names were process through a new voter identification test.

Why is this news? Because the Republican Party has been trying to get GAB to put in place additional barriers to Wisconsinites having their vote counted.

The Government Accountability Board is weighing in on a proposed rule change which, according to the non-partisan League of Women Voters, would disenfranchise voters and cause ending chaos at polling places across Wisconsin.

Wisconsin League Executive Director outlined the serious problems with the proposed rule being considered by GAB today. The rule places additional unnecessary burden on people who simply wish to cast their legal ballot and exercise their constitutional right to vote in Wisconsin. Among her critical points:

You wouldn’t know it from the big headline in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel or if you listened to any of the right wing paranoia, but the voter registration system in Milwaukee is working exactly as it should. Organizations have been very successful in registering voters in very large numbers, something that is critical in a properly functioning participatory form of government. Even with the large numbers of people being registered, these groups have established many quality control measures. They are catching the small amount of mistakes and the even smaller instances of mischief, and taking appropriate action in each case. All reports show that they are working seamlessly with the Milwaukee Election Commission and the result thus far has been a great success.

The right wing has shown repeatedly over the years that they are willing to throw the “voter fraud” accusation at anything and everything and just hope that something will eventually stick. In recent years they have even gone to the lengths of holding press conferences outside innocent people’s homes suggesting that they have engaged in voter fraud. Even when their specific accusations are repeatedly debunked they continue to parrot the false claims as if their repetition would somehow make them true. At this point it seems clear that they are going to run the same drill no matter how perfect the system works.

Although conservatives will try their best to shoehorn all sorts of conspiracy theories into ACORN’s hugely successful voter registration drive, everything in the process worked exactly as it should. Some 35,000 people were registered to vote and only about 3 percent of those registration cards had any problems at all. That amounts to 2,000 cards with problems out of 35,000! The vast majority of those were cards that were not complete while only about 100 cards (again, out of 35,000) showed signs of potential mischief. Any cards that caused any concern were flagged by ACORN ahead of time and the information shared with the Election Commission.

Critical to note, as Milwaukee Election Commission head Sue Edman told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, under state law all registration cards had to be turned in, so ACORN noted the problematic cards when they submitted them to the Election Commission. ACORN deserves all the credit in the world for protecting the integrity of the system and following the letter of the law.

Approximately 2.1 million ex-offenders, who have served their sentences, are denied the right to vote in the United States. According to an ACLU study, 62,324 people with felony convictions in Wisconsin are not allowed to vote; however, 61% of these people are no longer incarcerated.

Wisconsin law states that ex-offenders are allowed to vote after they have completed their parole or probationary periods. During these periods, these citizens are being denied the right to vote even though they may be holding jobs, paying taxes, and attempting to become an active part of society again. The right to vote should not be denied to ex-offenders who are on probation/parole.

The Institute for One Wisconsin is hosting the first Protect Wisconsin's Vote Education Summit, an educational forum including a panel discussion and short film screenings, at the Times Theater in Milwaukee today from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Partnering organizations include the Milwaukee Area Labor Council AFL-CIO, ACLU of Wisconsin, Disability Rights Wisconsin, Voces de la Frontera and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin.

This is a great opportunity for friends and neighbors to come together to make sure our right to vote is protected. We can make sure none of our friends or family is denied the right to vote.

The panel discussion will tackle important issues facing Milwaukee and cities throughout the nation, including: Voter Suppression, the Myth of Voter Fraud, Ex-Offender Re-Enfranchisement, Bilingual Barriers, Accessibility at Polls, Pitfalls of Voter ID and Same-Day Registration. In addition, an attorney will be on hand to answer questions about possible remedies for voters who experience problems at the polls.

WHAT: Protect Wisconsin's Vote Education Summit

WHEN: Thursday, July 24 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

WHERE: The Times Theater, 5906 W. Vliet Street, Milwaukee

WHO: Sheila D. Cochran - Secretary/Treasurer/COO, Milwaukee Area Labor Council AFL-CIO; Renee Shavers Crawford - Associate Director, ACLU of Wisconsin; Alan Freed - Attorney, Disability Rights Wisconsin; Ann Jacobs - Attorney, Election Protection Legal Committee; Christine Neumann-Ortiz - Executive Director, Voces de la Frontera; Kit O'Meara - Voting Rights/Election Administration Chair, League of Women Voters; Scot Ross - Executive Director, Institute for One Wisconsin.

For more information on how preserving the right to vote is critical to promoting democracy, please visit www.ProtectWisconsinsVote.org.

Using the false pretext of widespread voter fraud, conservatives constantly attack the ease with which some people can vote. The centerpiece of their attack on voting is the insistence on requiring a current photo ID to vote. A study by Rutgers and Ohio State University last year shows the effects of such strict requirements. The study found that states which imposed ID requirements reduced voter participation by about 3 percent. This is hardly the right direction for a democracy that only thrives with increased participation. These kinds of requirements had a much larger impact on African Americans which had a 5.7 percent drop in voting. The study found that Hispanic voters suffered a 10 percent drop in voting in states that have strict voter ID requirements.

A UW-Milwaukee study found that fewer than half of African-American and Latino adults had ID. The situation was even worse for young adults ages 18-24, with only 26 percent of African-Americans and 34 percent of Latinos possessing a valid license, compared to 71 percent of young white adults. The same study found that an estimated 23 percent of persons aged 65 and over do not have a Wisconsin driver’s license or a photo ID.

Not only would a voter ID requirement suppress voter turnout but it would also disenfranchise very specific segments of our society. All of this and it wouldn’t even address the actual complaints most often cited by conservatives at election time. The effort to make voting more complicated is a very transparent and political one. Wisconsin should be proud of its record of high voter participation, not looking for ways to drive it down to serve very narrow partisan interests.

On Thursday evening the Institute for One Wisconsin is hosting the Protect Wisconsin’s Vote Education Summit in Milwaukee. It will feature a panel of experts discussing voting rights, voter suppression and other related issues. There will be a partial viewing of the documentary Uncounted and informative videos produced by Milwaukee’s MATA Media.

Such an event is necessary because of the consistent and concerted efforts to disenfranchise certain voters by conservatives. The same bogus charges of “voter fraud” are parroted around every major election. Sadly the false accusations are given front page treatment only to be proven wrong later. Last year the first complete analysis of allegations from the 2004 presidential election was released. It found that the vast majority of allegations were unfounded and that there was no real voter fraud problem in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or the rest of the country for that matter.

Update: Daniel Bice has the audio of a Tom Reynolds phone call to state Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee, 20), “a veteran Milwaukee Democrat, (who) has a direct and personal interest in what Reynolds was doing, so she signed up - using a fake name - with Clean Sweep Wisconsin.”

This is the link is to the audio of the Reynolds phone call, and the URL is: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=770314

Transcription of the Reynolds call, in part, follows:

“… In Milwaukee here, we are working on a full slate of 12 candidates; eight on the north side, and four on the south side. And we are at eight or nine candidates right now. ... We have a candidate against Sinicki and a candidate against Staskunas. And we're still working on Zepnick and Colón….”

An anti-Catholic-Reynolds ally in Colón’s district? That likely will not play especially well there; though it’s a fair bet that Reynolds’ brand of politics and hate will not play well anywhere in the Milwaukee area. See the Milwaukee-area Democratic State Reps chart at the end of this post.
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What does a rightwing candidate recruited by a notorious anti-Catholic, Tom Reynolds, say if his/her name is on the ballot challenging Milwaukee-area Assembly Democrats in the September primary?

As little as possible.

And he/she hides from the public, staying in the shadows, an odd posture for candidates for public office, though consistent with the past odd behavior of former state senator Reynolds who reportedly had asked of prospective staff whether they were virgins.

Joe Leibham, State Senator from Sheyboygan just won’t stop trying to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin voters with his hair-brained voter ID scheme. Even as a new audit of the April 1 election found “nearly error-free voting,” Joe “Still Can’t Prove a Voter Fraud Case” Leibham keeps up the voter ID rhetoric.

“I still think there are people getting around those processes,” Leibham childishly retorted when asked about the April election. I once again call on Sen. Leibham to produce one incidence of voter fraud that would have been prevented by his “voter ID” scheme. I don’t expect an answer. Then again, I don’t expect him to end his crusade to stop a problem that doesn’t exist either. I guess that’s the difference between the truth and a Leibham.

Another big election year means another year for Republicans to make false claims about voter fraud. It looks like they are already running the exact same drill that they have run stretching all the way back to the 1960’s. The Republican National Committee has added a page on its website entitled “You Can’t Make this Stuff Up.” Interesting title since most of the accusations of voter fraud on the page are either totally made up or at least severely short on the facts.

A recent story on Alternet lists a few examples posted on the RNC site. In Louisiana the Republican Party questioned a registration drive because 30 percent of the applications were missing some information – an industry norm – and called for an investigation. The Alabama’s Republican Attorney General said that “fraud and systemic corruption” were rampant in a few Democratic-majority counties. He then made the outlandish claim that absentee ballots were being sold and “traded for gravel” but could not cite any charges filed. In Indiana a Republican Party official made the unfounded claim that large numbers of people were coming over from Illinois to vote in their presidential primary. The local county election director rejected his claims as being totally unfounded.

Having looked all over my house for my missing driver’s license, it was clear that I needed to make a trip out to the DMV in Madison to get a replacement—a perfect chance to spell out what goes into a trip to the DMV, like thousands of Wisconsinites will have to do if state leggies and “voter ID” advocates Jeff “Poll Tax” Stone and Joe “Can’t Prove a Voter Fraud Case” Liebham had their way and passed a ridiculous voter ID law in Wisconsin.

The DMV office in Madison I went to is open from 8:30-4:15 MWF, and from 10-5:45 Tuesday and Thursday – not exactly convenient for a 9-6 working man. But hey if I want to vote, I need an ID, right Jeff? So I bit the bullet and took off from work at 3 pm on Thursday. So I’m already being charged for my right to vote – losing at least 3 hours of work time, and using 3 hours of my vacation time. So far, total estimated cost: $50.

On “normal” days, I walk to work. But today, since I need my car to get to the far-east side DMV, I had to pay to park - $6 more.

Former Republican Party tool Chris Lato wrote a piece Wednesday claiming that U.S. Senator Barack Obama’s operation in Wisconsin is basically all hype and that the “facts” don’t back up the idea that he has a strong organization here. I personally have no idea as to the strength of Obama’s organization in Wisconsin , but Lato’s piece stood out to me for an entirely different reason. Lato bases the entire premise of his blog solely on a press release from the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Hardly the most objective source of the “facts” in the midst of a presidential contest.

What is even more absurd than his use of a GOP press release as his primary “factual” source is his justification for doing so. Lato seems almost insecure about his blog because almost immediately after making his claim he begins to defend his choice of sources.

Why would the state GOP risk their credibility and a public raking-over-the-coals by putting out a news release that they know is pure fabrication? Simply put: they wouldn’t. They know the stakes if they put out something that can’t be backed up.

Chris Lato cannot be taken seriously, everyone should know that and this blog is only confirmation. Did he write this with a straight face or is he simply delusional? Why would they lie? Why would they put out a press release that they know is fabrication? Oh I don’t know because they have a history of doing such things perhaps. Forget press releases for a moment, the GOP had no problems having a full press conference in front of a young seminarian’s house falsely suggesting that he voted illegally. Around that same time they made many other accusations about voter fraud that were debunked upon close examination. 

Thanks to WSJ yesterday for this great response to the Supreme Court's Indiana voter ID ruling.  The editorial noted:

Wisconsin votes at just about the highest rate in the nation. Seventy-three percent of Wisconsin's adult population cast ballots in the 2004 presidential election.

...

Wisconsin is virtually the best state in the nation at voting. Our Legislature should strive to keep it that way.

Looks like I got my amen. 

In the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling that Indiana's voter ID law is constitutional, about 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place because they didn't have state or federal identification bearing a photograph. 

Another person who attempted to vote with a federal ID card was turned away because the card had no expiration date on it, and a woman who was newly married was turned away because her driver's license name didn't match the one on her voter registration record.

You can check out the full story here.