Brew City Brawler

WI GOP: A History of Voter Suppression

So how will Wisconsin Republicans try to rig the state electorate in their favor? Will they try to kill same-day registration, even though Gov. Scott Walker has sorta-kinda distanced himself from that? Will they up the ante on voter ID? Will the sabotage the GAB? Will they go for the cherry on top and rig the electoral college to reflect the vote in gerrymandered districts? Or do they have another secret bomb they want to drop?

Tough to say, but rest assured they'll try something. And odds are good that whatever they do will either make it harder for black people to vote or make their votes count for less. After all, it's been a dream of theirs for more than a decade.

Wisconsin Republicans insist that cracking down on voting, whether its voter ID or killing same-day registration, is all about ensuring integrity at the polls. They can't prove there's a problem substantial enough to justify these actions -- but trust them, there are problems out there! Glenn Grothman said just that. Fortunately, their voter suppressing compatriots in other states have been more candid: The laws are about suppressing turnout. Oh: and voter fraud is a myth.

Now one could be generous and say Republicans want to suppress the black vote because of the way they vote, not because of the color of their skin. However, there's no question this issue motivates the Republican base because, let's face it, the Republican base in Wisconsin -- many of them first or second generation white flighters from Milwaukee to Waukesha -- have less than complimentary views of black people. And I would suggest that believing, without evidence, that lots of black people vote illegally  (a view regularly promulgated by Charlie Sykes as he constantly complains about voter fraud in the "central city") is racist on its face.

This case of racial paranoia is nothing new among white people in Wisconsin. Back during the 50s, some white folks speculated that billboards were going up in the south directing black people to move to Milwaukee. During the 1960s and early 1970s white flight was rampant.

Tommy Thompson won his first gubernatorial election by insisting that Milwaukee was a welfare magnet for black people from Chicago who were apparently to shiftless to work but such shrewd economic actors that they would uproot their  lives and families to move north. Thompson's revolting claims were a longstanding urban legend among racist white folks and while many conservatives uphold the "welfare magnet" line to this day, all available research said it was not true.

Put in this light, the Wisconsin GOP's obsession with suppressing the black vote has a long-running and shameful pedigree.

The push to make it harder for black people to vote in Wisconsin has been going on for 12 years. As we wait for the catastrophe that will be the next session of the Wisconsin legislature, I thought it would make sense to provide a handy timeline.

The Bush administration looked for, didn't find voter fraud in Milwaukee

Christian Schneider's column crying voter fraud! in Milwaukee (enabled by Rick Esenberg) is not only embarrassing, it's breathtakingly dishonest.

To wit, Schneider writes:

Furthermore, the areas where vote fraud is most likely to occur are also those where it is least likely to end in prosecution. Vote fraud is most prevalent in big cities with large populations — which are almost uniformly represented by Democratic district attorneys. There likely aren’t a lot of Democratic DA’s who wake up every morning and say, “Gee, I wonder if I can demonstrate to the public that my party is engaging in vote fraud, and in the process, cost myself votes.”

It's almost as if the Bush Administration didn't launch a major investigation into voter fraud in Milwaukee. Remember that, the yearlong investigation where US Attorney Stephen Biskupic said there was no evidence of organized voter fraud in Milwaukee? 

Shamefully dishonest.

Does GAB think GAB's Voter ID ad campaign will be ineffective?

Why say that about the Government Accountability Board's plan to spend $436,100 on a radio, billboard, transit, online, print and  campaign to educate voters about Scott Walker's confusing and contested Voter ID bill? 

Because in July the GAB was saying an effective campaign that included television advertising would cost more than twice that (page 2):

In order to conduct a campaign that also includes television advertisements, staff was informed that a budget of $892,000 would be required, and would generate approximately 117 million impressions. Board staff is not recommending inclusion of paid television advertising for budgetary reasons.

Then as now the budget was $436,100 ($64,000, or 13% less than what the GAB said was necessary). It included the previously mentioned media without TV, and was expected to generate more than 70 million impressions.

How many impressions will this new campaign, as constituted, generate, particularly if the TV ads are running during "unsold" (read, widely unwatched) times of the day (p. 23)? One also has to wonder how the campaign is weighted toward southeastern Wisconsin, where the bulk of people affected by the changes in Voter ID reside.

States that implement voter ID laws are required to engage in substantial education efforts about the changes. Given the GOP's apparent desire to make obtaining a voter ID complicated at every step of the way, one has to wonder at their commitment to that legal obligation.

Also, the GAB has said it may need an additional $250,000 for advertising, depending when the recall elections fall. Will the Republicans let that fly?

 

 

 

Hope progressives have plans to get IDs to potential voters

... as democracy in Wisconsin takes a step backwards.

Note to Journal Sentinel: It's not Democrats who say there "is no evidence of widespread fraud." Steven Biskupic, US Attorney under George W. Bush,  said the same thing. Meanwhile, the head of the State Senate GOP lies about voter fraud and our governor has claimed on the radio that fraud accounts for two or three points of the vote in Wisconsin. A claim, naturally, that's utterly without foundation. 

But of course this law isn't about fair elections, it's about suppressing the vote.

The Brawler also hopes progressives actively send voting monitors to GOP strongholds to ensure IDs are shown there as well.

Does the Journal Sentinel care that the RPW is seeking to suppress the African American vote for 4 straight election cycles?

The watchdogs at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel care very deeply about identifying what restaurants have cockroaches.

Do they care that the Republican Party of Wisconsin is seeking to suppress the African American vote for the fourth straight election cycle?

That remains unclear.

Despite the claims of a leading Wisconsin teabagger -- seconded by the haplessly clueless Patrick McIlerhan -- an effort to suppress the African American vote in Milwaukee in the upcoming election is alive and well. We know this thanks to the hardworking folks at One Wisconsin Now, not the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Hey JS -- if people tell you that they're not planning on doing something -- and then it turns out they actually are -- that just might be a story! It's even worse than Charlene Hardin smoking in a non-smoking hotel room! Or, I dunno, Lena Taylor pulling the "do you know who I am" card with the cops!

The wholly gullible Patrick McIlheran (does he care he was lied to? Or will he accept it like a good soldier?) says:

Want to know what it was? The Journal Sentinel did, so it asked. And the tea partier answered: “He said his group had planned to turn over any questionable voters or evidence of voter fraud to district attorneys for them to evaluate.”

Actually, as the knowingly dishonest Patrick McIlheran knows, this is only half the story. The teabaggers were -- are? -- planning to send their paunchily angry legions to voting spots across the state to challenge voters they deemed suspicious.

What would this look like? Probably like 2004, when Republican operatives created havoc at the polls, mounting specious challenges without penalty and misdirecting voters.

Indeed, in 2006 the Brawler recalls watching a big, loud, obnoxious white guy witlessly challenging and intimidating African American voters at Washington High School, relentlessly getting in peoples faces until finally the cops were called in. So far as I can recall this episode was reported exclusively on black radio.

Moreover, in 2004, the RPW sought to purge voters from the rolls based on a wildly inaccurate database. 

Imagine if, I don't know, Lee Holloway tried to do the same to Waukesha County. Maybe the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel would deem that worthy of a deep investigative piece.

 

Will the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel finally take GOP voter suppression seriously?

For literally years the Brawler has bemoaned the fact that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel would expend significant resources pursuing the will-o-wisp of a vast voter fraud conspiracy but give a pass to the RPW's obvious efforts at voter suppression.

Shoot, Dan Bice couldn't even figure out who leaked a moldy, rehash of a Police Voter Fraud report that was obviously timed to do maximum damage before the last election!

But now that One Wisconsin Now has done the hard work, the Journal Sentinel has no excuse. They've done one story. Are they going to follow up or are they going to let it drop?

WI Republicans return to the voter suppression playbook

For the fourth straight election season, the Republican Party of Wisconsin is reverting to the voter suppression playbook, this time in cahoots with Americans for Prosperity and the Tea Baggers, One Wisconsin Now says. 

The plan this time, as in previous instances, is to engage in voter caging and mount spurious challenges to likely Dem voters at polling stations. 

It's analogous to actions taken in 2004, and to a lesser degree in subsequent years. In 2004 the RPW sought to strike thousands of voters from the rolls based on flimsy evidence and then sent bully boys to the polls to cause havok and create long lines in hopes of turning people away. 

Exposed, the parties either lied about their involvement (the ethically challenged Mark Block, the inept RPW) or sought to downplay the significance of OWN's revelation. The lead teabagger in the conspiracy claims it's been shelved.

Color the Brawler skeptical on that. Charlie Sykes has been raising the specter of voter suppression for months now and his conspiracy mongering has only increased as November approaches. Charlie might not have principles, but he is disciplined in softening up the herd with preapproved messages from the RPW.

And one can't help recall that earlier this summer AG J.B. van Hollen, who's been more than sympathetic to GOP "concerns" about alleged voter fraud in the past, announced an expanded effort to crack down on said fraud this election season. It would be conspiratorial to suggest that that announcement was somehow related to this latest revelation were it not for the fact that he's taken direction before.

It's been, what, six years since Steven Biskupic declared there was no evidence of a voter fraud conspiracy in Milwaukee? But that hasn't stopped Sykes, Patrick McIlheran, Jeff Wagner, Reince Priebus making the (rather racist) claim that voting fraud is a powerful force in Milwaukee politics. And their efforts appear to be successful, as the transcript of the planning session contains phantasmagoric claims of buses going from polling station to polling station (what was the license plate of the bus?) and the assertion that 5% to 8% of the Wisconsin vote is fraudulent. Paranoid much? It's like Biskupic never happened.

 

Deep thought*

How does one square a) the assertion that Milwaukee is home to massive, election-swaying voter fraud and b) the fact that Scott Walker has consistently won low turnout (and thus easier to sway) elections in Milwaukee County?

* With apologies to Jay Bullock, who's been riffing on this internet tradition of late.

Rove pimps debunked MU voter fraud story

Rove is not a genius, or even very clever: He's totally and completely immoral. It doesn't take genius to claim, as Rove ludicrously did last fall, that it was the Democrats in Congress and not George W. Bush who pushed the Iraq War resolution in 2002. It doesn't take brains to compare a triple-amputee war veteran to Osama bin Laden; you just have to be a mean, rotten cocksucker.

--Matt Taibbi, "The Return of Rove"

Indeed, Karl Rove is not a genius, as is borne out in his depositions. Milwaukee, and the allegations of voter fraud, fill up a considerable number of pages. One aspect that caught the Brawler's eye was Rove's concern about voter fraud at Marquette University in 2000 (p 256):

[Biskupic] was the one who in the aftermath of 2000 or 2004, you know, prodded -- prodded the State and local officials into doing something about the Marquette students who openly boasted of having voted multiple times ...

Thing is, those claims were pretty solidly debunked in 2000 and Rove is repeating them 9 years later:

A story appeared in the Marquette University student paper that 174 of 1,000 students surveyed said they voted more than once in the November 2000 presidential election. Another 170 claimed to have voted for write-in candidates, but the official canvass of the voting precincts surrounding the Marquette campus recorded only 12 write-in votes for president. One student told ABCNews, the and the Marquette student paper that he voted four times. He later recanted when a list of voters from his precinct did not include his name at all. The Milwaukee County District Attorney said he had no evidence of any student voting more than once. The student who told the media he voted four times was later charged with selling other students fake Ohio drivers licenses he printed using his dorm room computer.23

One marvels at the winger mindset that can claim, contrary to all evidence, that there is massive voter fraud (let alone massive coordinated voter fraud) taking place in Milwaukee. The Brawler recalls that when Biskupic resigned, Sykes conspicuously abstained from mentioning that Bisk failed to find any evidence of a voter fraud conspiracy. The rogue MPD report broke little ground (although it did reveal the extent to which the RPW's list of 5,619 shadow voters was bogus).  Reince Priebus griping he's tired of losing elections because of voter fraud. Patrick McIlheran decries vote fraud denialists as if there is evidence voter fraud is taking place -- and he still has a job while people with far more reporting skills are on the street. Do they know they're lying or are they just wrapped up in their paranoid fantasies?

Documents Point to Bush Aides' Involvement in Prosecutor Firings.

"Voter fraud" cop pals with lunatic right-wing blog commenter!

Hilarious ... if it wasn't.

Remember the Milwaukee Police Department "voter fraud" report -- a musty collection of previously shot-down insinuations, over-the-top policy recommendations (banish same-day registration!"), hilarious counterfactuals (Gerry Boyle Jr. coulda beat Gwen Moore!) and overwrought hyperbole ("I wonder if my vote counted!" says the conclusion) -- that was leaked, blindsiding MPD Chief Ed Flynn, last spring?

As noted earlier this week, it seems the author and leaker of the report was one Mike Sandvick, who has since resigned. (Note that Dan Bice failed, utterly, to identify the leaker.) Sandvick did his part to fight the massive voter fraud conspiracy he fingered by challenging 7 absentee ballots. So far as we can tell,  this massive fraud did not sway the election.

Perusing the Badger Blogger site, the Brawler was appalled -- but not shocked -- to find that Sandvick, whose leaking of the report was clearly a political act, is friends with a lunatic right wing blog commenter. Which makes sense, given the voter fraud report had the paranoid trappings one would suspect from a right wing blog commenter.

And he's not friends with just any lunatic right wing blog commenter, my friends.

He's friends with Gus. That's right. He's friends with the commenter formerly known as Mickey -- before he was banned under that moniker on multiple sites for his sub-literate, intemperate rants. (The Brawler seems to recall that even Badger Blogger banned him.)

Here's what "Gus" had to say on Badger Blogger (in comments):

  gus Says:
November 4th, 2008 at 2:56 pm

Folks, I kept my mouth shut at the time, but Mike Sandvick is the Detective that Barrett wanted out after he filed his report last spring on voter fraud.
Mike is a friend of mine and is a man of character.

LOLZ!

So, in short, the cop voter fraud report -- decried by Bruce Murphy as a stink bomb -- that influenced state legislation, public discourse, a lawsuit by J.B. Van Hollen, and numerous rants by Charlie Sykes et al was composed and leaked by a guy who's friends with Mickey, a lunatic right wing blog commenter.

Think about that, let it sink in, and remind yourself that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel failed utterly to report the identity of the leaker or his agenda. I dunno, maybe people would have wanted to know he was a KA of a lunatic right wing blog commenter.

Again -- it'd be hilarious that this is what our discourse has been reduced to. If it wasn't sad and pathetic.

Shoot, even the Brawler knew that if you wanted to ID the leaker,just ask Mickey.