| By Cory @ One Wisconsin Now - Dec 3rd, 2008 at 10:00 pm EST |
We are a full month removed from the election and all reports indicate that it ran very smoothly. Unfortunately some appear bound and determined to find something...anything to further denigrate Milwaukee voters. Wispolitics reports in their Milwaukee Notes, that Milwaukee Assistant DA Bruce Landgraf is predicting that “some additional cases” could surface once municipalities finish scanning records. Great, just what we needed, a thread of hope that allows the right wing hysteria to continue!
After hundreds of thousands of votes in Milwaukee, since that is apparently the only place where we look over voters shoulders, there were no significant signs of mischief. The report names only the following Election Day issues: a confused women that voted absentee and then again at the polls but then reported it herself. A man that is suspected of voting himself and then with his deceased wife’s absentee ballot. Ten cases of a specific type that are usually caused by clerical error or confusion over similar names. Three absentee ballots that were challenged on Election Day by an off-duty Milwaukee detective.
Even if we assumed that there was criminal intent in every one of these cases, that amounts to a total of 15 votes out of hundreds of thousands cast. To suggest that voter fraud in Milwaukee is a problem based on these numbers should be the very definition of absurdity (or perhaps of blind obsession). So could there be a few more questions about a handful of votes after the municipalities finish scanning records? Sure. Will it be in a number that statistically changes the point being made here? No. If the right wing tin hats are going to be continually teased on this issue, it should at least be done with a dash of reality for those of us that care about such things.
When this taskforce has finished its work, will someone finally point out the actual facts or will the lights simply go out until the next cycle when Milwaukee voters are again put under a microscope?
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and I see the potential of the insistence of some in promulgating at least an ongoing perception of voter fraud as a possible motive for validating a parallel push to acceptance of Real ID.
Just a thought.