Voter Fraud Investigation--Press Conference

You can expect the other side to make a big deal about this:

Investigators today said they had found evidence of fraud in the Nov. 2 election in the City of Milwaukee, including cases of felons voting illegally and people who voted twice.

They found more than 100 instances of suspected double-voting and more than 200 felons who voted improperly in the city. They also found that at least six deputy registrars falsified 65 names in last year's voter registration drives, for which they were paid by the signature solicited. Authorities said there was no evidence those false names were used to cast ballots.

Widespread record-keeping failures will make it difficult to identify fraud and prosecute criminal cases, U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic and Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann said in a statement issued minutes before a 1 p.m. press conference. The two are leading the federal-local investigation that was launched in the wake of Journal Sentinel reports about election irregularities

Republicans in the state, stymied in their attempts to suppress votes with restrictive voter-ID legislation, will find plenty of ammo in here, and it will look good up until the point at which they realize it's all the equivalent of firing blanks.

First of all, even 300 cases of fraud is not anywhere near enough to change Kerry's margin of victory, let alone Russ Feingold's. Second, we have no idea whom the perpetrators voted for or, in the case of the felons, whether they knew they were not allowed to vote--a precondition to its being a crime.

And, third, I would like someone to explain to me how these examples of fraud would have been prevented by voter ID. If the poll workers are dim enough, missing the requisite steps to prevent someone from voting twice, how is that voter's flashing an ID going to make a difference?

In fact, every example of voting problems noted by the paper--and the Republican bloggers have heaped plenty of praise on Greg Borowski's reporting of the irregularities--is a problem that voter ID won't fix. Kind of makes you wonder how those Republicans feel when Borowski quite publicly disses them at the end of his article:

The newspaper's findings have also prompted a statewide audit of voting procedures. Republicans have cited the newspaper's reports in calling for reforms, including a photo ID requirement for voters. The photo ID measure passed the Legislature, but was vetoed by Gov. Jim Doyle.

Doyle, a Democrat, has issued his own package of election reforms, many of which target problems highlighted by the newspaper. Those have not been acted on by the Legislature, which has a task force looking into various reforms.

Makes you wonder whether the fraud isn't Republican in nature, with a concerted effort by them to keep real reform off the map . . .