Posted on 06/25/2012 8:48:24 PM PDT by bigbob
A Wisconsin Government Accountability Board official admits that poll workers in Racine did not follow the law when they allowed voters who registered on election day to obtain and cast ballots without signing the supplemental poll list.
"What is supposed to happen is that, they're not supposed to get a ballot," Michael Haas, Staff Counsel with the GAB said Monday afternoon. "The election official should not have given the person a ballot"
That statement reinforced the one Haas gave the MacIver News Service earlier in the day when we reported on the errors.
However, that same official now asserts that the discovery that thousands of individuals may have been mistakenly given ballots in the June 5th recall election should not disqualify their votes.
"If the election official, made an error and gave them a ballot, you don't disenfranchise the voter," Haas said. "The intent of their ballot can still be ascertained."
The discovery adds even more controversy to an already contentious recount of the 21 Senate District recall election.
"We consider that to be an administrative error and the voter is not supposed to be penalized for an election official making a mistake," said Haas. "The statute says, if you can ascertain the electors intent, failure to comply with the other provisions of the statutes don't invalidate the ballot."
As we reported, partisans are not disqualified from being poll workers. But today's news regarding poll workers failing to obtain the signatures of thousands of voters on the poll lists comes in the wake of an earlier report by the MacIver News Service, which uncovered that as many as 78 of the 189 people who worked as official poll workers in Racine may have earlier signed recall petitions that ultimately forced the elections to be conducted.
Earlier this month, we also broke the story that the Racine County Sheriff's Department is investigating the discovery of discarded election-related documents in the city of Racine.
In that case, what is at issue are election registration forms and partisan political literature found in a dumpster behind the Cesar Chavez Community Center in the City of Racine.
Eight of the 17 poll workers at the Cesar Chavez Community Center, including at least one of the Chief Election Inspectors there, appear to have signed a recall petition, according to the MNS report.
After the official canvass of election results, Republican Senator Van Wanggaard was found to have lost his recall election to former Democratic Senator John Lehman by 834 votes.
Wanggaard requested the recount, which began last week. Unless it receives an extension from a judge, the recount must be completed by July 2nd.
As of the time this story was filed, the Wanggaard campaign had challenged 116 votes in ward 2 in the City of Racine due to voters' failure to sign the supplemental poll list. While their challenge was denied during the recount, the campaign has not said what their next steps will be and whether they would pursue any legal challenge to the ruling.
So, if it's "disenfranchisement" to deny someone who isn't entitled to vote to cast a ballot anyway, what is it called when that vote cancels mine, which is legitimately voted for the other candidate?
Wasn’t Racine involved in the *one* recall election where the ‘rats prevailed? By <200 votes?
Wisconsin Racine Election Irregularity ping
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
834 votes, that’s why they’re doing the recall...then all this crap comes to light. Commenter at the MacIver site who is an election judge sees nothing wrong here, just a minor thing...
Reverse the situation and they’d be squinting at hanging chads again.
So democrat operatives commit fraud and allow people to vote and we need to allow the results to stand because the voter who was not supposed to vote in the first place was allowed to vote.
Okay.....................
“It doesn’t matter how they vote, what matters is who counts the votes” Stalin
ou cannot disallow the ballot after it has been cast. Those ballots should have been protested before the voter recieved them. That is what poll watchers are for.
It is unlikely that all, or most, of those voters were intent on committing fraud. This is the fault of the election chief inspector — not training and supervising her workers.
OTOH, what mischief enraged, engaged, and paid unionistas could perpetrate had they a mind to...
Sure you can. That's why they have these weird things called "rules", "laws", "procedures" and such.
“paid unionistas could perpetrate had they a mind to...””
That is just what they did—
That is where all the out of state busses
full of rat voters ended up, including
bus loads from my state, MI...Ed
Looks like they are practicing for November.
Ahh, the libs got caught using fraud.
If only we could prove that, then we’d have a case celebre! But, is there witness testimony that shows that the people getting off those buses walked in and registered at the polls? We can suspect all we want, but without witnesses, it is all conjecture.
Even if the buses had out of state license plates, it does not prove a thing. If a group wants to rent a bus, the rental agency provides whatever bus is available. Anybody who ever rents a vehicle in Wisconsin (especially in Racine) is apt to get one with an IL plate. If an agency, or several agencies, rent a lot of buses, they could come from as far away as Michigan, or Indiana.
As much as I’d like to view this as a smoking gun, without someone to say that they saw 30 people get off the bus and line up to register with questionable documents, it’s all circumstantial.
Unfortunately, with the way that Wisconsin elections are set up, you have to have someone challenge those votes BEFORE they are cast. Then, the ballots would be set aside BEFORE they are put into the electronic ballot box and marked as provisional. The voter would have 24-48 hours to appear at the municipal offices with the proper ID. If he/she comes forward with the right documents, his/her vote would then be counted at the canvass which happens within a week after the election.
THIS is why it matters who we vote for and who wins. The Democrat voter fraudsters will learn that lesson.
Exactly...those residents of Racine who cast a LEGITIMATE vote have been ‘disenfranchised’ by those who cast an ILLEGITIMATE vote. Everyone who has been ‘disenfranchised’ in such a manner should be raising seven kinds of hell...
After watching the antics in WI, I have to say the state is full of lying crazy hardcore Leftist. How can the regular folks stand them?
According to Vicki McKenna, Wisconsin radio talker, challenges were being ignored and ballots were put right in the ballot boxes without being segregated as provisional. I don't expect them to be able to prove the GOP won the race, at best they'll be able to prove the winner is unknown. Making ithat truth widely known may have future value. I don't know whether Wisconsin election law offers any way to a redo election, which is the only way the GOP ends up winning this race.
It seems to me that I recall reading of at least one Republican poll watcher that had been illegally ejected from a polling area. I don’t remember if it was the Racine area however.
That’s always been a favorite rat trick here in Washington.
The best reform that Wisconsin could see would be to disallow registration at the polls. Registration should close at least 2 weeks before the election to allow time for city clerks to check the applicants’ documents and residence. Maybe 30 days would be better.
I don’t fear absentee voting and early voting because there are lots of restrictions on it. Not restrictions about using it, but restrictions on how the ballot and ballot envelope are filled out. And there must be a witness too.
One place where absentee voting is subject to abuse, however, is in nursing homes and group homes for disabled people. I think that sometimes the voters there are subject to coercion by the agents who deliver and collect the ballots and who “help”. I think that it would be helpful to institute a rule that those ballots should always be handled by 2 people — members of the opposite party. That would be hard to require in Wisconsin, however, because voters are not required to register by party.
Just thoughts.
If they know who registered at the polls and didn’t sign the register, it would seem an eager young reporter could get their names and addresses and visit their homes to ask them why they didn’t sign their signatures. Of coarse, there is the possibly that the young reporter might find that some of these voters don’t live at there reported addresses. Isn’t that perjury? I assume they signed their on-site registration form. But then why go to the trouble, it’s only an election.
I think I recall the same and think it was in Racine.
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