Brew City Brawler

Thanks Senate Democrats for holding the line against voter ID -- and some advice

The Brawler wishes to thank state Senate Democrats for holding strong against a constitutional amendment requiring voter identification. It's a naked effort by Republicans -- supported by rightwing talkers ginning up a false perception that Milwaukee has a "voter fraud" problem -- to make it harder for lower income (which, often, means African American) and elderly people to vote in hopes of suppressing turnout.

(If you read the 67-page "Milwaukee Police Department" report on "voter fraud," you actually find a great deal of griping about sloppy paperwork and comparatively few cases of apparent fraud -- which is why the report's call for voter ID/end to same day registration went far beyond the evidence presented. Then again, the investigators also say, with a straight face, that there was a question whether Gwen Moore would win her congressional race, so there's no accounting for judgment.)

The Republican establishment is determined to overturn a law enacted more than thirty years ago to make it easier for all to vote. And, in a sense, you can't blame them: same day registration and not requiring a drivers license or photo ID makes it easier for all to vote more easily. High turnout, as the past eight years have show, is not good for the RPW.

That said, the Brawler thinks the talking points out of the Senate Dems -- at least the ones he's seen -- haven't been the strongest. Here are some suggestions (and I realize they reveal I know f-all of how biz is done in Madison):

1.  Point out that this effort is part and parcel of a broad, national effort by Republicans to suppress the vote, an effort that started when George Bush's brother purged eligible black voter from the rolls in Florida and continued through the Administration firing US attorneys who wouldn't prosecute bogus voter fraud cases. The RPW's push isn't happening in isolation and people need to be reminded of that. This isn't just a local story; it's part of the greater Karl Rove agenda. This isn't about justice or protecting the vote; it's about voter suppression.

2. Point out that Republicans were fine with the rules when they held the power. Now that they don't, they want to change the rules in their favor.

3. Every time someone mentions the Milwaukee Police Department report on voter fraud point out that it is not, in fact, a MPD report. It was a report issued by an anonymous rogue cop, possibly in complicity with the RPW (why did Sykes know about it before the mayor?), that blindsided the chief who disowned its recommendations.

4. Every time someone says we need voter ID because the MPD report says so, point out it also encourages ending same-day registration. Strangely, the RPW isn't calling for an end to that. That's because it recognizes it as a useful GOTV tool -- hell, Karl Rove has praised same-day registration -- that they don't want to eliminate. They want voter ID because they know it skews against Dem constituencies.

5. Point out that despite endless investigations, no one has proved extensive voter fraud took place in Milwaukee. You had some people who voted at the wrong place -- people who the cops say did so innocently -- you had a lot of paperwork f-ups, you had a lot of sloppy work at the polling stations. But the amount of actual illegal activity that appeared to have happened was minuscule -- far fewer people than those who might be disenfranchised by voter ID.

6. Point out that the RPW has had a history of making shit up about voter fraud. Remember its claims of 5,619 invalid addresses in 2004? According to the police report the RPW likes to cite, "the database used by the RPW ... conainted an error in the address field, causing valid addresses to be unrecognized." Whoops! Was that a bug or a feature? Did Sykes talk about this?

As it turns out, a whopping 61 of the addresses were invalid. The report says 66 people voted under irregular conditions. Conditions include -- though not numerically delineated -- voting from an address where they did not live ( i.e. they didn't re-up their registration after moving, not necessarily voting twice); or the address did not exis; or they voted in Milwaukee but lived outside the city; or some appeared (the report's itals) to have voted multiple times; and one apparent case of a dead person voting. C0uld some bad stuff have happened? Possibly. But it's more than likely only a small number of those 66 cases represent actual fraud -- as opposed to honest mistakes (as with some Tosa voters going to a nearby polling place in Milwaukee). Indeed,  if the investigators had had a lot of juicy stuff to reporty you can bet they would have as opposed to glossing over it.

.And there's little question voter ID would impede the votes of more than 66 people.

7.  Point out that a significant amount of voter intimidation and misdirection took place in the city in 2004 -- committed by the RPW (see above). What can we do to prevent that?

Finally, you might want to offer up your own voter ID proposal. Only yours calls upon the state of Wisconsin to register every eligible adult in the state to vote and assigns them a voter ID number that follows them everywhere they go in the state (i.e., no registering everytime you move).*  Universal voter registration. Yes, this would be expensive and some folks may raise, legitimately, privacy issues. And there should be some sort of provisional ballot provision for people who slip through the cracks. But this way everybody in the state will be eligible to vote, a move that could drive turnout (good for Dems) and make sure nobody is committing fraud (allegedly the RPW's concern). It gives you the moral highground in making clear that you want to make sure the vote is extended to all even as the vote is secure. You want to protect access and integrity.

If the RPW suggests it's too expensive, point out that freedom ain't free and there could be savings down the line.

Anyway, you guys are fighting the good fight. People, like the Brawler, who believe that access to the polls is critical for our democracy applaud you.

* This idea is inspired by a federal level proposal by election law expert Rick Hasen. It seems this should be doable at the state level. He writes in a report:

This Article’s proposal for registration reform is straightforward and has the potential to appeal to both Democrats and Republicans. The federal government—perhaps the Department of the Census—should undertake the universal registration of eligible voters,¹³³ and issue each voter a voter identification card that contains a name, signature, photograph, and biometric identification (such as a fingerprint).¹³⁴ Voters would not need to bring the card in order to vote, but voters who fail to do so would supply a fingerprint or other valid form of biometric identification which could then be checked against official records.¹³⁵ By cross-referencing information with Postal Service change-of-address cards, federal officials can insure that voter registration information is transferred to the appropriate electoral jurisdiction.¹³⁶ By cooperating with local entities that issue death certificates, the government can purge dead voters from the rolls efficiently. The federal government need not start from scratch. It can begin by verifying the information in HAVA-mandated state databases, adding information to insure that voters are not registered in more than one state.

Republicans punk voters, MPD with "Voter fraud" report; does the Journal-Sentinel care?

Senate Republican leader Scott Fitzgerald, in calling for voter ID, on March 6 said this:

This refusal is particularly troubling given a recent report from the Milwaukee Police Department detailing numerous instances of voter fraud, including the discovery that nearly 7,000 more votes were counted than there were voters recorded as voting. The report also found that more than one hundred people residing outside of Milwaukee were nonetheless allowed to register and cast ballots in the city.

This statement is bogus, of course, because the report wasn't from the MPD. It was issued without the sanction of police chief Ed Flynn, who was blindsided by it. And the "nearly 7,000 more votes were counted" is more attributable to bad paperwork than it is to fraud. Fitz: where in the report does it say the 7,000 votes are the result of fraud?

The Republican Party of Wisconsin continues to twist the facts to try to whip up fear of voter fraud with the ultimate goal of making it harder for poor folk (particularly African Americans in Milwaukee) and elderly to vote.

Meanwhile, to judge from Saturday's paper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel doesn't see a story.

What if the RPW tainted an election and the Journal Sentinel didn't care?

We may find out, as it seems there's frightfully little interest on the part of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to get to the bottom of who leaked the "police" report on "voter fraud" that the RPW has been using as a rallying point on the need for voter ID.

Daniel Bice's column on Sunday, revealing that the report was issued without the chief's knowledge, gave the Brawler hope. But since then: Nothing. Perhaps the Journal Sentinel is just waiting for Favremania to pass so it can give the story the space it deserves.

The Brawler has said for some time that the Journal Sentinel has glossed over the biggest political story in Wisconsin: the effort by the RPW to suppress the black vote through any means necessary.  It never looked at the machinations behind the RPW's scare tactics of "phantom addresses" (which, to its credit, the report demolishes). It pointed out how former RPW big wig Rick Wiley urged the White House to can Steven Biskupic for not vigorously pursuing voter fraud cases (after much prompting from the Brawler, who even cited Wiley as the likely culprit weeks before Bice confirmed it). But it never dug deeper.

No rational person can think the report -- with its conclusions calling for radical change to how elections are conducted in this state -- was released for any other reason than to help the Republicans. There's little doubt some in the RPW knew about the report. It's hard to imagine that there wasn't some level of coordination to issue the document -- which, mind you, was paid for by the good people of Milwaukee. And all this went on without the police chief's knowledge.

I dunno. Some newspapers might think this is  a story worth pursuing.

Who leaked the "police" "voter fraud" report?

Crackpot conservative commenter Mickey claims to know! Maybe Flynn should give him a call!

From Badger Blogger:

Gentlemen, I know exactly who released this report to the media. So does Ed Flynn.
I e-mailed Patrick and Bruce last week and told them so. It’s completely political.
Tom Van Winkle has a black eye, and he’s angry the Mr.Flynn didn’t have a chance to kill or sanitize the story. I listened to Belling, his take was accurate. Good honest peoples careers may be totally ruined because of Barrett. It sucks.
Barrett wanted the truth shushed up. Simple as that.

The Journal Sentinel swallows a stink bomb with voter fraud report

Milwaukee Magazine editor -- and MJS alum -- Bruce Murphy goes after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for being the party of a partisan dirty trick in publishing the "police" report on "voter fraud":

The fact that no one claimed responsibility for the study makes it impossible to question the “researchers” or their results. That would be an obvious red flag to any news publication, not to mention that it’s bizarre to have the police department telling the state of Wisconsin how to handle its elections. But the red flags were ignored and the report was deemed the top story of the day.

On Sunday, JS columnist Dan Bice did a piece that covered the real story here: This report was purely political and was leaked to the press before Police Chief Ed Flynn or Mayor Tom Barrett had a chance to review it. Flynn said the report was unsigned, pretty moldy (it was largely finished some 18 months ago), hadn’t been officially authorized and had nothing to do with the mission of the police department. “We’re not the Department of Making Policy Recommendations,” he noted.

In short, the report was an anonymous stink bomb intended to rile up people about alleged voter fraud, and the JS provided a nice front page to explode it. Why? Because Borowski was the reporter who wrote countless stories about alleged voter fraud, pushed by editors bent on a crusade. This dusty report by a few cops reiterated the findings in Borowski’s stories, and this gave him and his editors yet another chance to repeat their by-now discredited stories and show everybody how right they were.

But of course, they weren’t. Their alarmist stories in 2004 and 2005 overplayed the situation, convincing readers there was wholesale voter fraud. But since then, a joint investigation by U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic and former District Attorney E. Michael McCann found there was no widespread fraud. Nationally, as The New York Times has reported, there were few successful prosecutions for voter fraud, and Biskupic was particularly unsuccessful at prosecuting anyone. Furthermore, since 2004, there have been no snafus in how the city has handled elections.

Amusingly, since Bice's report came out, there's been a narrative spun by rightwingers that the leakers were righteous whistleblowers who knew their conclusions would only be squelched by the politicians -- so they had to leak it without telling MPD Chief Flynn or Mayor Barrett. And they also had to do it without it getting vetted by the other investigative bodies who looked into fraud...right?

It's a laughable counternarrative...all the more so because it trusts the analytic powers of "investigators" who thought Gerry Boyle's kid had a shot at beating Gwen Moore.

Hey Journal Sentinel: Why did Charlie Sykes get "voter fraud" report before the mayor?

Dear Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Daniel Bice had an interesting column the other day about how both the police chief and the mayor were blindsided by the release of an 18-month old report on voter fraud that -- weakly -- made the case WI should adopt voter ID laws and dump same-day registration.

It didn't answer the question of why the report was leaked to Charlie Sykes and his apparatchiks.

Patrick McIlheran, demonstrating he's more a copy editor than reporter at heart, hails the leak as "whistleblowing." Which might be true if it exposed wrongdoing by MKE leaders or revealed something that the good people of Milwaukee didn't already know (that there were problems with the 2004 election).

The report's stealthy release didn't do either of those things. What it did do is keep the meme of extensive voter fraud alive .... even if the facts reported are old news and don't demonstrate a compelling need to overhaul the state's election laws. (And to what extent do we trust the judgment of investigators who say -- with a straight face -- that there was a question whether Gwen Moore would be elected to Congress?)

The report's release does fit in with the RPW's efforts to raise the specter of voter fraud -- often based on zero or crap evidence, It's done so in the past two election cycles. And none other than the Brawler predicted they would do so just in time for the County Executive race. Is the Brawler a prophet? No! He just knows a pattern when he sees one.

Some questions you might want to ask:

1. Was there any contact between the RPW/RPW surrogates and the people who leaked the report?

2. Was there any contact between Scott Walker/his surrogates and the people who leaked the report?

3. Who actually wrote the recommendations in the report?

4. Was anyone given a sneak peek of the report?

5. Why the timing of the report?

The Brawler suspects the people of Milwaukee would be interested in finding out whether their tax dollars funded a report that, through the cooperation of some rogue cops and the RPW, was aimed at making it more difficult for people in Milwaukee to vote.

But that's just a hunch.

Chief Flynn not happy about police "voter fraud" report

As was obvious to anyone who can parse a news story -- even the Brawler! -- MPD Chief Ed Flynn was both blindsided and displeased by a recent report by the department's Special Investigations Unit. You know, the one that explored voting problems in the 2004 election and recommended rather sweeping changes.

Daniel Bice (who, you may recall, once followed the Brawler's suggestion as to who within the RPW was pushing for US Attorney Steven Biskupic's ouster for not vigorously pursuing bogus voter fraud cases) answers some of the questions the Brawler raised way back on February 27:

Flynn said he first read the Milwaukee Police Department report when he was presented with a bound copy Tuesday night - just hours before it was made public. He launched an internal investigation Wednesday to find out who decided to distribute the study as it was.

"There have been chain-of-command failures of a very significant type, and I've got to track it down," he said Friday. "I have people who. . . should know what's going on and report to higher authorities. I don't feel I was served by it."

Flynn doesn't like it that some in his department are inserting themselves in partisan politics and policy recommendations:

But Flynn said it is not up to his agency to pick a side in partisan fights. To some, the report made it look like his agency was doing just that.

"We're not the Department of Making Policy Recommendations," Flynn said. "That's where this thing got out of control."

All of which prompts a couple of questions:

Couldn't it be that some MPD staffers avoided giving the chief and mayor a heads-up specifically because they feared the two might alter or delete the legislative proposals?

Bice also quotes Flynn as saying he understands the report was essentially completed a year and a half ago -- i.e. shortly before the 06 election and after US attorney Steven Biskupic said there was no evidence of a voter fraud conspiracy.

Which seems to lend credence to the Brawler's theory that this thing was released to keep the issue alive, after all but right wingers had moved on, and for maximum political impact.

The Brawler's new question is: Will Charlie Sykes and other law-and-order types who have praised Ed Flynn mention that he's gone after this report and its pretenses of policy making? Tune in Monday!

UPDATE: It's not often that the Brawler and Glenn Frankovis agree on a point...but we do here!

From Badger Blogger:

Sounds like the Chief is none too happy about this either and rightfully so. Nothing of this magnitude should ever be released for public consumption without first being approved by the Chief (and the Mayor in this specific case). This is a matter of proper protocol, and this Chief is conducting an Internal Investigation as is THE RIGHT THING to do WHENEVER an internal document is improperly released to anyone outside the Department without the Police Chief’s approval.

Did police "voter fraud" investigators collaborate with GOP?

It's weird. The Special Investigations Unit of the Milwaukee Police Department releases its much belated report on allegations of voter fraud in the 2008 election just as the Assembly is back in session.

Now, clearly it was released at this time to maximize impact. The only real question is did the investigators proceed on their own or did they communicate with the RPW about the timing?

As noted by the Brawler earlier, in wondering whether the report blindsided MPD Chief Flynn, Flynn has said:

In a statement, Police Chief Edward Flynn said the report's findings are the views of the investigators, and the department would not take a stand on the policy issues.

Whether Flynn likes it ir not, in the public eye the department has taken a stand on the policy issues. You have legislators referring to the Milwaukee police report, callers to Sykes referring to the "Milwaukee police investigative report" (Charlie doing nothing to say, no, actually its the view of the investigators) and other examples too numerous to mention.

UPDATE: In comments, Xoff makes a point:

Whether there was collusion or not, it's pretty clear these rogue cops released it to the right-wing and the GOP for maximum effect.  Did you notice that there was no official release by the department, but it was announced by Sykes and National Review? 

Interesting, that. Was Flynn blindsided by the report -- so much so that he had to issue a statement? Is Flynn going to tolerate metaphoric "broken windows" in his department?

Obama: They still call it the White House, but that's a temporary condition

Conservative commentators, including Milwaukee's own Rick Esenberg, are falling all over themselves trying to figure out ways to tar Barack Obama. He's a totalifascist! A false messiah! A guevarista! A member of the "hard left" who swapped ladies with Bill Ayers! A dark instrument of Louis Farrakhan who's going to ban pork, make us read the Final Call and eat bean pies!

Yes, the mounting hysteria is amusing to behold. But is it because they know the truth, as imparted by the illumanati at the Federalist Society, aka Fed Soc (h/t illusory) is too disturbing to reveal? That Barack is no mere earthling at all? That he in fact comes to us from something called a "mothership"? And an awesomely powerful fully operational mothership at that?

Behold this video, revealing the hidden truth,  obtained by the Fed Soc:

Dig  the blue print, as laid down by George Clinton, here:

Bow wow wow yippie yo yippie yay.

How did the WI Assembly GOP celebrate MLK's birthday?

Republicans on an Assembly committe on Tuesday pushed through a bill that, if enacted (it won't be), would likely depress voter turnout.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had details of the commemoration:

Madison - Republicans today pushed through a state Assembly committee a bill that would end Wisconsin's decades-old practice of letting voters register on Election Day, saying it invites fraud.

The party-line, 5-3 vote of the Assembly Elections and Constitutional Law sent the bill to the full Assembly for debate. It is not expected to be taken up by Democrats who control the state Senate.

The bill would require voters to prove their residency and register 14 days before a general election.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal board last week did a fine job of explaining what's wrong with such laws:

... Wisconsin traditionally ranks high among the states in voter turnout. That turnout, we suspect, is what proponents of voter ID are really targeting. Sure, that likely means opponents want to get more Democrats to the polls. But one direction could lead to fewer people voting and the other more. It's that simple.

But Robin "The Brain Trust" Vos fears fraud might be afoot!

Republican Rep. Robin Vos of Racine said the current system invites fraud, since it allows anyone to register to vote on election day by simply providing nothing more conclusive than a utility bill.

It's a good thing he only said "invites fraud" -- because Vos has no evidence -- none, zip, nada -- that voter fraud is a problem in Milwaukee or the state, let alone enough of a problem to make it more difficult for people who do want to vote. (For more detail, please see the Brawler's classic post, "Voter Fraud in Wisconsin, a primer.")

Just because there's no way the Senate will take up this noxious bill, doesn't mean that this party is over. You can expect the RPW to cry "fraud" all year, on the most specious of grounds, as Wisconsinites head to the polls. It says something about the content of their character.

Cory Liebmann at One Wisconsin Now was on this last week.