Friday, October 17, 2008

Ron Hoppus Sentenced for Voting Twice

We know that for a long time Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was in a convenient state of denial about voter fraud in the city.

He asked for "just one name."

Of course, we know there have been many.

In terms of a quote that will forever be attached to Milwaukee's mayor, "Give me just one name" is Barrett's "Read my lips: no new taxes."

For you, Tom Barrett--


One name: Ron Hoppus

From TMJ 4:

We’re still a few weeks away from the election, and already, local prosecutors have busted two people for voting twice.

In court, Ron Hoppus admitted during the November 2006 election, he voted twice.

He told the judge because he owned properties in Brookfield and Milwaukee counties, he thought it was okay.

Hoppus might have thought it was okay, but Judge Thomas Donnegan says…

“It seems to be shocking to me that a citizen of this country would think, you seem to be saying you think you could vote twice. Are you saying you thought that was okay?” Judge Donnegan said.

Judge Donnegan says it was shocking that Hoppus didn’t know it was illegal for him to vote more than once on Election Day.

“You never heard that concept of one vote per person? Each person gets one vote?” Judge Donnegan said.

Hoppus admitted he did.

It happened back in 2006. In the morning, he voted in Milwaukee, where he owns a house. Later that night, he voted again in Brookfield.

Hoppus says he didn’t know he was breaking the law.

BS. It's BS that he didn't know. If he doesn't know that he has the right to cast only one vote, then he doesn't have the mental capacity to vote at all.
...Hoppus was facing three and a half years in prison. Instead, he got nine months in the House of Correction.

The judge said he had to send the message to Hoppus and the community at large that no one gets to vote twice.

I think Hoppus should have received three and a half years in prison, but nine months in the House of Correction is better than nothing.

Wisconsin's voter rolls must be cleaned up.

5 comments:

J. Gravelle said...

Painfully absent from every story on Mr. Hoppus is mention as to whether any reporters has bothered to ask him who he voted for.

Or perhaps it's one of those facts that are just so blatantly obvious that it goes without saying nowadays...


-jjg
DailyScoff.com

Mary said...

True.

August Danowski said...

Yes, there is voter fraud, but which is the greater evil - a handful of people voting two or three times, or hundreds of thousands of citizens being prevented from voting at all? This is a democracy and it fails if everyone who is eligible, and wants to, can't vote. There will always be criminals who try to take advantage of the system and that is why we have law enforcement and courts - to track them down, arrest and punish them. But that does not justify republican efforts to wipe millions of people off the voter rolls.

And Mary, where are your concerns about corporate interference in the election process? Where is your outrage at the ease with which Diebold could rig an entire election, or the evidence that they have in fact done so? That convicted felons have been hired as executives and programmers at the company that made the voting machines used across the country?

Oh wait - I know what the difference is: those millions of people are poor or minorities who will probably vote for Obama, while the evidence of vote rigging involving electronic voting machines have all benefited the republicans. Hmmm.

August Danowski said...

Case in point, West Virginia, where early voting has already begun. According to the Charleston Gazette:

WINFIELD, W.Va. -- Three Putnam County voters say electronic voting machines changed their votes from Democrats to Republicans when they cast early ballots last week.

This is the second West Virginia county where voters have reported this problem. Last week, three voters in Jackson County told The Charleston Gazette their electronic vote for "Barack Obama" kept flipping to "John McCain".

In both counties, Republicans are responsible for overseeing elections. Both county clerks said the problem is isolated.

They also blamed voters for not being more careful.

"People make mistakes more than machines," said Jackson County Clerk Jeff Waybright.

Shelba Ketchum, a 69-year-old nurse retired from Thomas Memorial Hospital, described what happened Friday at the Putnam County Courthouse in Winfield.

"I pushed buttons and they all came up Republican," she said. "I hit Obama and it switched to McCain. I am really concerned about that. If McCain wins, there was something wrong with the machines.

"I asked them for a printout of my votes," Ketchum said. "But they said it was in the machine and I could not get it. I did not feel right when I left the courthouse. My son felt the same way.


So which is worse, one guy voting twice, or the wholesale rigging of an election by reprogramming the machines that count the votes?

You can read the whole story here:

http://wvgazette.com/News/200810180251

August Danowski said...

Here's a story being reported in a number of places (except in the mainstream media):

Earlier this month that a judge in New Jersey barred some researchers [from Princeton University] from releasing their report into the security vulnerabilities found in e-voting machines from Sequoia that were being used in the state. Sequoia had fought hard to stop the research from even being done in the first place, let alone released, even threatening the researchers with lawsuits. Now, one of the researchers who did the research, Andrew Appel, has released a long report detailing a ridiculous number of security problems with Sequoia's machines.

You can read the full report is here:

http://citp.princeton.edu/voting/advantage/

and see video showing vulnerabilities here:

http://citp.princeton.edu/voting/advantage/video.html