Posted on 11/07/2006 11:38:12 AM PST by Jean S
Edited on 11/07/2006 2:08:59 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Could the state Elections Board squander any more credibility? Oh, that's right. It doesn't have any left.
Now comes the word that the state Elections Board has ordered the City of Milwaukee Election Commission to remove signs from the polls that warn felons on parole not to vote or they will be prosecuted.
What the Elections Board's action today will do is make cases of felons voting illegally tougher to prosecute because prosecutors need to demonstrate the felon knew it was illegal to vote. The signs were designed to help address this problem (along with other fixes), which has hindered prosecutions in the past. In fact, the state Elections Board is thumbing its nose at the specific request of prosecutors.
Journal Sentinel reports:
"They are factually accurate," (state Elections Board Executive Director Kevin) Kennedy said. "But our staff thinks that they will intimidate voters."
Kennedy said he has had conversations throughout the morning with the Sue Edman, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, and has told her to take the signs down.
Both the Milwaukee County district attorney's office and the Milwaukee city attorney's office say they want the signs up, Kennedy says.
But screw them, I guess. What the Elections Board wants, the Elections Board gets.
Can Gov. Doyle overrule them? What's his comment about this? Mayor Barrett?
The only voters such signs would intimidate are.... felons on parole. Who. Aren't. Supposed. To. Legally. Vote. In fact, this has been a demonstrable problem for years. Back in 2000, along with reporter Dave Umhoefer, I reported:
A Journal Sentinel investigation found 361 illegal felon voters. As part of its review, the newspaper analyzed 203,000 records from 14 of the city's 17 aldermanic districts, using computers to compare the city voting database with records from the state Department of Corrections and criminal courts.
The state then refused to give voters' dates of birth to reporters, making any future studies incomplete. Still, Greg Borowski, of the Journal Sentinel, reported that felons were still voting illegally in 2004.
Investigators said Tuesday they found clear evidence of fraud in the Nov. 2 election in Milwaukee, including more than 200 cases of felons voting illegally and more than 100 people who voted twice, used fake names or false addresses or voted in the name of a dead person.
At the time I wrote the original story, in 2000, the common liberal response was to argue that the poor felons just didn't know it was illegal for them to vote while they were still on supervision.
I received an email from a listener this morning around the same time the JS story went up. It says:
I was voting this morning in the city of Milwaukee (I believe district 4, ward 61....the school at 12th and Highland) around 11am and as I walked in, an election official was making a change.
Inside, there is a bulletin board with general election info, regulations and such. On this board was a rather large and significant sign stating how felons can not vote and the details concerning that. The election official was removing the sign. I asked him why he was doing this and he said he was ordered to by the election commission and that he was taking them down at several other polling places. I asked who specifically told him to do this and he claimed the assistant to the head of the commission was who he talked to.
As for Kennedy, he sounds like a mouthpiece for a certain political party:
Kennedy said he had more pressing matters to consider.
"We're not going to spend all day on this," he said. "We have more pressing matters, like whether people are being denied a right to vote."
No mention about the pressing matter of people who might be voting illegally. We wouldn't want to intimidate them, I guess.
Outrageous.
Update from Journal Sentinel: Don't buy Kennedy's claims on the radio that the second sign wasn't needed. City Election Commission executive director Sue Edman thinks otherwise.
Edman said the city designed the sign to spotlight the law. A separate state Elections Board sign also includes that information, but it is "buried," Edman said.
"It really doesn't catch your eye," Edman said. "We didn't want to be criticized that we weren't doing anything about ineligible voters, so we thought it would be a good idea to have a clear sign."
Related thread: (Gov(D)(WI)Doyle's Elections Board)"City (Milwaukee) told to pull(No Voting)warning to felons"
~sigh!~ Can it bet that we have a problem in the way we sign people up for things? Like illegals getting drivers' licenses?
Well, it's all about the little darlings self esteem.
Surprise, surprise, surprise.
Jean... Did Charlie Sykes mention this today on his show?
I don't think so but Jeff Wagner was just talking about it.
Only those to which it applies. And isn't that the point?
This country is going to hell and a hand basket. We've got so much trash in this country. This is a true story from today. I took my parents to vote. A woman with hair that would make Cynthia McKinney's look tame walked up--very disheveled with her clothes. Looked like she had just got out of bed. She was with an older man. They started talking with another woman in line. The woman with the crazy do said out loud something about Republicans not believing in God then went on to say that they better let her vote. They let illegals vote so they better let her vote and if they didn't she would burn the place down because she's from the hood. Of course she didn't have the card she was supposed to have so they let her fill out a provisional ballot. Hopefully her "informed" opinion won't count. This is what votes for Democrats. This is the face and mind of the Democrat party and it wasn't pretty inside or out.
Sorry, but this is Wisconsin, where the entire election board belongs to that sleezy POS "Craps" Doyle.
I'm sorry you had to see that. It's one of the best reasons why I always try to vote early. It's nice that you took your parents, too.
I wonder how much she was 'paid' for exercising her 'free speech?'
From the looks of her I imagine she was paid with something she could snort, smoke, or inject.
The news broke after Charlie left the air. Jeff led off his show with it though.
You can't possibly be talking about Jim Doyle the reformer and people's candidate?
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB116287026089615243-lMyQjAxMDE2NjAyNzgwNzcwWj.html
On a side note, I arrived at the polls this morning in Bay View (south of downtown Milwaukee) and was told that I had already voted. A bit of a suprise for sure. I asked if anyone remembered seeing me as only 76 people had been through at that point and they laughed saying that mistakes happen. Turns out that one of the recorders marked my wife down on my spot on the book. The second book revealed that she was marked and I wasn't.
Still, the experience leaves a lot of questions.
Here are the only conditions I could see where this decision makes any sense:
(1) If the signs do NOT specify felons ON PAROLE, but simply say "felons".
(2) If it is legal for felons who have served their time (and are off parole) to vote.
Unless both of these conditions are met, then the elections board has just countenanced voter fraud, and should all be prosecuted for inciting illegal activity.
JMHO.
It's illegal for all felons to vote in Wisconsin, not just those on parole.
Then the two conditions are not met - and the election commissars should be prosecuted.
Print Print Version
Staff for the State Elections Board
Horizontal Line
[Click on the staff member's name to send an electronic message.]
General Staff
Kevin J. Kennedy, Executive Director, 608-266-8005
kevin.kennedy@seb.state.wi.us
Clue; felons already know its illegal but don't care.. signs are meaningless..
Should be signs IN SPANISH warning all legal and illegal aliens that VOTEing for them is ILLEGAL.. but then since they will VOTE anyway, they don't care..
So signs here are meaningless too..
Republican leadership don't even care that the dead vote.. the felons and aliens voting mildly amuses them.. Even though all three groups WILL VOTE for democrats..
(Leftist tizzy)Vote supression!(/Leftist tizzy)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.