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"
The GOP HoR candidate in a part of Orange County Cali was pushed out of the race because one of his staffers sent a letter like that. The Left got him by claiming a somewhat ambigous Spanish word meant "immigrant" when in fact it means "one who has migrated from their homeland" and is not as specific as "immigrant." The intent of the letter was to say only Citizens can vote, but whoever wrote the Spanish was not direct about it the way I would have been (I would have said "Solamente ciudadenos estarian permitido a votar. Todos otros, si votarian, harian comitido un acto criminal tan serio" or something like that).
"Vote Early, Vote Often" Ping!
"Immigrant" is kind of loose, even in English. Arnold Schwarzenegger is an immigrant. He is a naturalized citizen of the United States, but he is also an immigrant.
That letter should have specified no un ciudadano de los Estados Unidos de América.
I'm voting right after work :)
Bump for later.
Big shocker!
Is Belling talking this at all?
More proof that liberals have a disdain for facts. And as far as the signs in question "intimidating voters" is concerned, they'd only intimidate felons (most of them Democrats, obviously).
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.
Prosecuted? What's the charge?
Without the help of felons, dead people, pets, and illegal aliens the Democrat party would be virtually nonexistent.
Already did. Hugh line when I went at 8:30 this morning...
That's even more specific. Exactly!
I like Jeff, but don't get much of a chance to hear him or Charlie as of late.
I just slays me to see how McCann, Barrett, and Doyle just seemed to turn a blind eye to such shenanigans.
Thanks!
LOL...
Belling was on this last hour.
Thanks again!
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.