The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Wisconsin SC Recount Insanity.

    By kgb999 on Sat, 05/07/2011 - 8:55pm |

    If you haven't been following the recount for the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court race, you probably should be. It keeps getting crazier and crazier. This is pretty much a highlight of the past week's coverage by Brad Friedman at Bradblog. His coverage opens....

    Where Minnesota's post-election hand count of the 2008 U.S. Senate election between then Sen. Norm Coleman and now Sen. Al Franken was, as we wrote at the UK's Guardian at the time, "one of the longest and most transparent election hand-counts in the history of the US," Wisconsin has made it extremely difficult (putting it nicely) to know what the hell is actually going on in their statewide "recount" of the April 5th, 2011, state Supreme Court election between Justice David Prosser and Asst. Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg.

    From there, things have just gone downhill.

    There have been unsecured ballots found in clerk's offices stacked beneath office supplies. The precinct where the votes were "found" to flip a Kloppenburg win into Prosser's column is a mess that reeks of vote tampering with modified serial numbers, ballot bags ripped open - all sorts of insanity. One thing for sure, calling the situation a mess is an understatement.

    Koss had some good posts on the topic as well, most of those got a highlight in the following articles. Presented from newest to oldest, if you want to see some screwed up vote handling, check out the coverage.

    http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8511

    http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8510

    http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8507

    Comments

    Thanks. Prosser's margin seemed to large to be overturned so I tuned out.But election maniupulation should be at least publicized if not actually punished even if that doesn''t overturn the result.


    by Flavius on Sat, 05/07/2011 - 9:28pm

    What happens when the decisive ballots in a race show the clear potential of having been tampered with? The critical ballot bags are all torn wide-open. Do they toss the ballots ... do overs ...what?

    If I lived in Wisconsin I'd be considering another sit-in. It sure looks like the GOP unapologetically committed a blatant fraud. The only explanation these clerks who were supposed to be in charge of securing the ballots can come up with is "I don't know."


    by kgb999 on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 12:50am

    If results remain unchanged it's a slap on the wrist. We will get a big bag of votes thrown out, he, he, he.


    by RedTailedDuck (not verified) on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 3:23am

    You people must be brain dead.  There were not, I repeat were not any ballots found that had not counted.  The votes had been counted, they just didn't get transfered to the UNOFFICIAL total for the news media.  There is no fraud involved in an unofficial count!.  The votes were recorced by The Brookfield Patch, and updated an hour later by The Huffington Post, and the total of votes that were not entered into the UNOFFICIAL count were the exact same number as The Patch and Huffington reported and came from the same source.  You people are lying through your teeth and you know it!  It's real funny that the GAB did not bring any of this up, or are you going to claim that they are crooked too, especially since your own people were there and didn't report any problems.  How stupid do you really think the people are, because thankfully they are a lot smarter than you!


    by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 9:29am

    You are addressing an issue that actually has not even been raised. Nobody has gotten in to the statistical analysis of the counts themselves yet.

    It looks like what has happened is that the physical ballots have been tampered with - or at least not handled according to standards and the law. The compromised ballot problem is especially egregious in the county that magically found all those votes. That is a simple demonstrative fact. Look at the bags - they've been torn into and the serial numbers modified. 

    If this is a case of fraud, the entire *point* would be to try to make the physical ballots match the fraudulent unofficial count. What you describe would only indicate they have been reasonably successful in accomplishing the physical aspect of ballot tampering.

    As for the GAB, this is their response:

    When we queried the G.A.B. about incidents of ballot bags with missing or scratched out numbers from Waukesha's Town of Delafield, in violation of chain of custody procedures, a spokesperson told The BRAD BLOG they would not be offering a response on such issues until after the "recount" was completed in the county.

    Not exactly an exhoneration.

    At this point, it is just something highly suspicious to watch. Even if fraud isn't proved, at the very minimum this proves once again how incompetent Republicans are at anything related to governance or democracy.


    by kgb999 on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 1:37pm

    And this sounds like the kind of scorched earth policy employed by a defeated army while retreating.

    In Wisconsin, the Republicans in the state government are hoping to rush a packed slate of radical measures through the Legislature within the next eight weeks. Critics accuse them of accelerating the ratification process to get ahead of this summer's recall elections and the possibility of Democrats taking a majority of seats in the state Legislature.

    Republican lawmakers have proposed measures that will "legalize concealed weapons, deregulate the telephone industry, require voters to show photo identification at the polls, expand school vouchers and undo an early release for prisoners", says the Wisconsin State Journal. Also looming is the threat of a rewritten version of Governor Scott Walker's controversial budget plan limiting the collective bargaining rights of public employees.

    Democratic Assembly Leader Peter Barca says the Republicans are reacting to the stiff backlash against Governor Walker's proposals and the fact that six Republican senators will be forced to defend their seats in recall votes this summer. "They know there's a very strong possibility their days of controlling every level of government are numbered," he says. Barca went on to say that the new laws will "dramatically change the direction and traditions and values of this state".


    by cmaukonen on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 3:33pm

    Only a democrat would call these laws radical! Since when is being able to get a concealed weapons permit radical? Or getting the goverment out of regulating your cell phone and god knows you shouldn't have to show ID to vote should you? How would democrats win any election if only registered voters were the only ones voting.


    by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 4:26pm

    1. It really depends on who's getting the permit and what the regulations are. You may not think changing the laws so it's easier for someone like Loughner to carry a concealed firearm is radical, but it sure as hell would be moronic.

    2. It also takes a moron to not want commercial standards set for the national communications infrastructure. I take it you don't care much about national security ... or a working cell phone?

    3. Today's Republicans seem to view preventing American citizens from gaining access to democracy as necessary to win. I'm not sure I'd be bragging so much about that one, sparky.


    by kgb999 on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 5:10pm

    Saying that requiring a person to have a voting ID card would prevent American citizens from gaining access to democracy is like saying requiring a person to have a drivers license would prevent American citizens from gaining access to driving.

    No, a voter ID card won't prevent any legally authorized citizen from voting once per election, but it will prevent non-citizens from voting, and prevent citizens from voting twice or at multiple voting stations.

    Something as simple as buying beer or cigarettes requires an ID, but something as important as voting is open to anyone who says they're qualified; am I the only one who thinks that voting is important enough to verify who votes? What are you afraid of in requiring voters to have an ID?


    by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 8:21pm

    Traditionally, this country has had an abhorrence of requiring it's citizens to show their papers.

    Why do you think that would be?


    by bwakfat on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 8:28pm

    It is simply notable that the Republican method for holding on to office is passing laws that prevent people from voting.

    Three paragraphs of spin doesn't change the intent and practical outcome of the law you love so well. For example, many Libertarians don't believe in taking state-issued ID cards (or license plates) does that mean we aren't citizens? That you can just steal our vote?

    A drivers license is a special-use permit allowing the holder to operate potentially dangerous heavy machenary in a public environment. American citizenship is a product of being American. No permit necessary.


    by kgb999 on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 8:55pm

    "Your papers please."

    "I'm sorry man, I've only got a pipe."

    "Then you'd better come with me."


    by cmaukonen on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 9:00pm