Republican fraud charges untrue, but they keep right on making them

So there stands Republican Chairman Rick Graber, egg on his face, vowing to keep ordering more eggs.

After pulling off a major case of fraud on Milwaukee media, holding a news conference which offered no facts and, it turns out, nine false claims of voter fraud, Graber & Co. say they plan to keep right on with their campaign to make the rest of the state think there is something rotten in Milwaukee.

From their perspective, what's rotten in Milwaukee is that there are too many Democrats there every time we hold an election. So the GOP has set out to find ways to keep as many of them as possible away from the polls. Their favorite idea is to require photo ID cards, despite clear indications it would disenfranchise many of the poor, elderly and minorities -- all of whom vote disproportionately Democratic in Milwaukee.

It was in support of photo IDs that Graber, State Rep. Jeff Stone and State Sen. Joe Leibham held a news conference, in front of the home of a family that turned out to be totally innocent of any voter fraud.

The GOP said it was turning over "evidence" of nine cases of double voting to the US attorney, another Republican appointed by George w. Bush. (They didn't mention that they had previously turned over 49 other cases, of which 48 proved to be unfounded.)

The Republican prosecutor, Steven Biskupic, investigated and announced that there was not a single case of fraud or of double voting among the nine new cases the GOP sent him. Biskupic's letter.

The newspaper story:

In a letter issued Monday, Biskupic's office outlines what it found in each of the nine cases.

Six of the names were incorrectly included in the city Election Commission's database of Nov. 2 voters because of clerical errors. For instance, names were not recorded correctly in polling place logbooks. Or the wrong name was recorded when names from the books were later scanned into a computer.

In the other three cases, the letter says, the individuals voted only in Milwaukee. For instance, someone with a similar name but different birth date voted in the other city.

The letter underscores the level of recordkeeping problems in the Election Commission office. During its investigation, the newspaper found hundreds of cases where people were listed in the database as voting twice, something city officials blamed on a computer glitch. The newspaper also found dozens of cases where the number of voters recorded in logbooks was different from the votes counted in the precinct.

"These raised a flag with us because of everything that has gone on over there," said Rick Wiley, executive director of the state Republican Party. "We're going to continue our investigation into what we consider a mess over there."

Wiley said the party last week sent 10 more names of potential double voters to investigators. He also said before holding its news conference, the party had sent 49 cases of potential double voting within the city of Milwaukee to investigators. Of those, Wiley said, investigators had indicated 48 of the cases were not cases of fraud, while the other is being looked at as a fraudulent vote.

"The governor continues to blame this on clerical errors," Wiley said. "But the investigation has made it clear. People have been charged with voting fraudulently in this election."

There is a mess in Milwaukee's election system. All sorts of efforts are underway to fix it. But it is the US attorney -- not the governor -- who says clerical errors were to blame in these false charges, brought by the GOP, of double voting.

And, yes, a small number of people have been charged, after thousands of hours of investigations, which are continuing. The GOP's batting record seems to be 1 for 58 on double voting charges. Back to the minors, wouldn't you say?

In the last presidential election, 277,535 people voted in the city of Milwaukee. The massive turned created all sorts of problems, most of them clerical and record-keeping problems.

The Journal Sentinel, which has written volumes about problems in Milwaukee's voting system in the presidential election, continues to write as though there is some kind of massive fraud involved.

What are the results of the investigation so far? Fourteen people charged, including 10 felons who should not have voted. None of these 14 cases have anything to do with photo IDs.

The paper reports:

So far, 10 felons have been charged with voting illegally. Two others have been charged with double voting. In addition to those federal cases, two were charged in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with falsifying voter registration cards. None of the cases has gone to trial.

"There still is no evidence of a widespread conspiracy," Biskupic said. "But there still is plenty of evidence of double voting and the like."

Based on that, and one other comment from Biskupic, the paper was able to write a headline that said:

Nothing points to fraud in 9 double voting cases;
But U.S. attorney expects other charges in election investigation

With the amount of investigating going on, there no doubt will be more charges. How many? Fourteen more? Four more? Forty more? There will not be massive numbers, and there will be no charges of any kind of organized voter fraud. It simply isn't there.

But it serves the Republicans to keep beating that dying horse. They'll never admit they lost Wisconsin to John Kerry last year; it had to be fraud, they say.

We're still waiting for that evidence, and no avalanche of news releases and press conferences will cover up the fact that there isn't any such evidence.

While we're giving out demerits, Mark Green should get in line. Here's what he had to say when Graber held his news conference to make his false charges:

In yet another shot to the core of our democratic system of government, the Republican Party of Wisconsin revealed late this afternoon that they have found a number of additional cases of apparent double voting in last Fall's election -- including people who voted in both Illinois and Wisconsin. Read more here.

These latest revelations are another black eye for Milwaukee, Wisconsin and further proof that we need a wholesale reform of our election laws -- including requiring voters to show photo identification before they vote.

Actually, Congressman Green, they are another black eye for the Republican Party, which needs to clean up its act.