Is Chief Flynn covering up for "voter fraud" cops?

Recall that in February an unvetted Milwaukee Police Department report on alleged voter fraud was leaked to Charlies Sykes and other right wingers from someone presumably within or with ties to the department?

Recall that there was very little new in the report -- most of it was a rehash of previously reported information of non-fraud-related problems at the polls -- although it did contain calls for tightened voter regs (end same-day registration, require voter ID) that would depress turnout far beyond the tiny number of actual questionable votes found? The report, hilariously, also said there were "questions" whether Gwen Moore was going to beat Gerry Boyle Jr. in the 2004 election. 

Recall that right-wing talkers and politicians pumped the report -- paid for the taxpayers of Milwaukee -- as the latest evidence for why we need  tougher voter regs. And recall that Chief Ed Flynn made noises about getting to the bottom of this affair -- i.e., why did Charlie Sykes likely know about the report before he did?

Six months later we still don't know who leaked the report or whether the leakers colluded with the RPW or its fellow travelers. It is virtually impossible that Flynn doesn't know who did it. (Shoot, batshit rightwing commentatorMickey claimed to know who did it before he was banned from Badger Blogger). And yet the Chief has not yet told us who did it. When, really,he should given that members of his department injected themselves into an ongoing effort by the GOP to whip up hysteria about massive voter fraud. That report has been cited by members of our state legislature and Congress. The identity of the leakers (who are not necessarily the same as the authors) is not a departmental matter alone. It's a public one.

Now, a real newspaper would have gotten to the bottom of this story. You know: Cops collude with right wing to whip up voter fraud hysteria is a not-insignificant story. But despite the Brawler's urging, the Journal Sentinel has stayed away from this one.

(Hey, Bruce Murphy!  Shouldn't you be looking into this? Or that whole RPW-trying-to-suppress the vote thing?)

But the Brawler has learned, courtesy of a newsletter from the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, that LWVW and the ACLU are trying to figure out what happened. It seems that's been harder than it should be:

ACLU of Wisconsin and LWVWI Education Fund have filed an Open Records Request with the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) about a report on the 2004 election released by the MPD in February.  The report rolled out claims of previously discredited irregularities and recommended changes in state election law which would restrict voting rights and violate the Help America Vote Act. The report was denounced by Chief Ed Flynn, who did not see it before it was released. The League and ACLU want to know who authorized the report and why the MPD was making policy recommendations.  The response to our April 2008 request so far has been disappointing, but we are continuing to negotiate with MPD personnel as we pursue this information.

The MPD is entrusted with investigating whether voting laws are broken. By that token, the public has a right to know whether members of that department were trying to advance a partisan agenda by releasing the report.

Comments

[Anonymous]

Jerry Boyle's big daddy did it.......