TELL ME SOMETHING I DON'T KNOW

INVESTIGATORS FOUND CLEAR EVIDENCE OF VOTER FRAUD IN MILWAUKEE.

THE WISCONSIN 2004 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS WERE TAINTED.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Probe finds evidence of election fraud

However, sloppy records may impede prosecution in many cases

By GREG J. BOROWSKI

Posted: May 10, 2005

Investigators said today they found clear evidence of voter 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 dead people.

Officials said charges will be filed in coming weeks, as individual cases are reviewed and more evidence is gathered.

Nonetheless, it is likely that many - perhaps most - of those who committed fraud won't face prosecution because city records are so sloppy that a case cannot be established against them that will stand up in court.

U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic likened it to trying to prove "a bank embezzlement if the bank cannot tell how much money was there in the first place."

...Mayor Tom Barrett, who from the start said he welcomed the probe, attended the news conference. At several points in recent months, he said he had seen no hard evidence of fraud in the system.

Today, he acknowledged the findings pointed to fraud and said again "any individual who committed fraud (should) be prosecuted."

In all, about 277,000 people voted in the election in Milwaukee. Thus, the cases identified in the investigation constitute a small portion of the total vote. The findings, however, carry extra significance in a state that had an 11,000-vote margin in the presidential contest, one of the closest in the nation.

...Biskupic said there was no indication of a widespread conspiracy to commit voter fraud, or of any knowledge or involvement by poll workers or any other city officials.

Nevertheless, he and McCann said they remain troubled that three months after the investigation started city officials still have been unable to account for a gap of about 4,500, with more ballots counted than people listed as voting.

McCann said: "I will not be satisfied if we cannot uncover that - what the explanation is, or a reasonable explanation."

Record-keeping problems by the city have meant investigators from the FBI and Milwaukee Police Department have logged more than 1,000 hours reviewing some 70,000 same-day registration cards, including 1,300 that could not be processed due to missing names, addresses and other information.

Indeed, about 100 cards described as "of interest to investigators" cannot be located, officials said. And within the past few weeks police found a different box of the cards at the Election Commission offices.

...The newspaper's findings included spotty compliance statewide with laws that require verification of same-day registrants. Those problems led to an audit by the state Audit Bureau of election procedures across Wisconsin.

Democrat John Kerry topped President Bush in the state. Had a larger state, such as Ohio, gone the other way, it could have led to a Florida-style recount here that would have turned on many of the issues that instead were left for the newspaper to uncover in its extensive investigation.

Early on, the Journal Sentinel also found the 7,000-vote gap in Milwaukee. While city election officials blamed post-election date entry for the flaws, the newspaper found gaps existed at dozens of wards throughout the city, with more votes counted than people tallied in log books.

Another 1,300 same-day registration cards were processed by poll workers, who allowed people to vote, even though the cards were incomplete. Many were missing addresses and even names.

...Reviewing information it had access to, including a computerized list of people recorded as voting, the newspaper identified 82 felons who had illegally voted in the city, while still on probation or parole.

A review of only about 40% of the 277,000 voters was possible, since a 2002 change in state law bars access to birth dates of voters.

In response to the newspaper's reports, Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, and any Republican lawmakers say that rule - approved with virtually no public discussion - should be rescinded.

The newspaper later conducted a more expansive review of felons who voted illegally found at least 278 felons voted statewide, though the vast majority came from within the city.

...Biskupic said the investigation had found more than 200 felons who voted illegally in the city, echoing the newspaper's findings. He also said that effort had been expanded to include the suburbs.

The newspaper also identified numerous cases in Milwaukee where the same person appears to have voted twice, though that analysis was hampered by major computer problems at the city.

...In some cases, non-residents used non-existent city addresses to vote in Milwaukee. Officials are checking to see if they also voted elsewhere, such as their actual address.

In other cases, voters used names of dead people or "identities and addresses that cannot in any way be linked to a real person," Biskupic and McCann said in a summary of their findings.

In March, Lisa Artison, a Barrett appointee, resigned as executive director of the Election Commission. She had been under fire for her handling of the election, including some 238 absentee ballots that were not delivered to the polls in time to be counted on Election Day.

It was later determined by that the city did not comply with a state law that requires it to submit all materials to the Milwaukee County Election Commission - and the county certified the results without double-checking the numbers, contrary to a state requirement that it do so.

...Republican lawmakers cited the newspaper's reports in calling a photo ID requirement for voters, which passed the Legislature with some Democratic support. The bill, though, was vetoed by Doyle, who has issued his own package of election reforms, many of which target problems highlighted by the newspaper.

Those have not been acted on by the Legislature.
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For months, Democrats whined that there had not been a single documented case of voter fraud in Milwaukee. Democrat Mayor Tom Barrett dared conservatives to give him just one name. Well, you’ve got plenty of examples now, Tom.

Democrat Governor Jim Doyle insisted that Wisconsin elections were fair, dismissing notions of fraud.

WRONG!!!!!

TWICE, Republicans passed a photo ID bill, requiring voters to simply show a photo ID at the polls to verify their identity. TWICE, Doyle vetoed it, claiming that Republicans were attempting to disenfranchise the poor and the elderly.

In reality, the Democrats were trying to maintain their ill-gotten edge by making it so easy to commit election fraud in the state. They preferred to benefit from the lax laws rather than demand honest elections. When there is fraud, everyone is disenfranchised. The Democrats didn’t care. They lacked the character to do what was right and instead chose to do what was politically expedient.

I wish I could have been there when Doyle and Barrett received the results of U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic’s investigation.

The press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office

(Excerpts)

Summary of Findings

1. The task force has developed evidence of more than 100 individual instances of suspected double-voting, voting in names of persons who likely did not vote, and/or voting in names believed to be fake. Those investigations continue.

2. In addition, the task force has determined that more than 200 felons voted when they were not eligible to do so. In order to establish criminal cases, the
government must establish willful violations in individual instances.

3. Also, the task force has found that persons who had been paid to register voters as “deputy registrars” falsely listed approximately 65 names in order to receive compensation for the registrations. The evidence does not indicate that these particular false registrations were later used to cast votes.

4. The number of votes counted from the City of Milwaukee exceeds the number of persons recorded as voting by more than 4,500.

Findings Related to Fraud

…the investigation has found more than 100 instances where votes were cast in a manner suggesting fraud. These include:

1. Persons with the same name and date of birth recorded as voting more than once.

2. Persons who live outside Milwaukee, but who used non-existent City addresses to register and vote in the City.

3. Persons who registered and voted with identities and addresses that cannot in any way be linked to a real person.

4. Persons listed as voting under a name and identity of a person known to be deceased.

5. Persons whose identities were used to vote, but who in subsequent interviews told task force investigators that they did not, in fact, vote in the City of Milwaukee.

Vote Total Discrepancy

An additional finding of the task force to date is that the number of votes cast far
exceeds the total number of recorded voters. The day after the November 2, 2004 election, the City of Milwaukee reported the total number of votes as 277,344. In late November an additional 191 previously uncounted absentee ballots were added, for a total of 277,535 votes cast. Still later, an additional 30 ballots were added, bringing the total number of counted votes to 277,565. City records, however, have been unable to match this total to a similar number of names of voters who cast ballots – either at the polls (under a prior registration or same day registration) or cast absentee ballots. At present, the records show a total of 272,956 voter names – for a discrepancy of 4,609.

Future Investigations

Although many hours already have been undertaken, we realize that much more investigation is still to be done. There are many leads and interviews that still must be pursued.
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It should be noted that this investigation focuses on voter fraud in Milwaukee. The allegations of voter irregularities in other areas of the state, such as Racine and Kenosha, have yet to be examined. One can only imagine the extent of the fraud that took place in liberal hotbed Madison.

Wisconsin Democrats have fought hard to keep the state a voter fraud paradise. Again and again, they claimed there was absolutely no evidence of fraud in Milwaukee. Now, Doyle and Barrett have the dirt of their denials all over themselves. They lost.

It is no longer possible to deny the existence of election fraud in Wisconsin. Finally, the truth has exposed the Democrats’ attempts to obstruct election reform as utterly shameless. They insisted that the Republicans’ suggestion that fraud occurred in Wisconsin during the 2004 election was a myth, that it had no basis in fact. Now, there are facts.

Today is a victory for all Wisconsin voters who were disenfranchised by the Democrats. Because Doyle and other Dems refused to take measures to ensure the integrity of the election, their votes were stolen.

Now, thanks to a federal investigation and no thanks to District Attorney E. Michael McCann, everything has changed. Hopefully, the days of dishonest elections in Wisconsin are over and Republican reforms to protect voters will be made law soon.

Then, every LEGITIMATE vote in Wisconsin will count.