Wisconsin Wednesday: Vote Fraud Update

While we all are still holding our breaths for more arrests in the voter fraud mess--as well as real leadership from Madison Republicans on the issue--I thought I would provide a brief summary of some of the fraud-related stuff lately. After a couple of very long posts in the last week, though, I will not be offering much in the way of commentary. I'm a little blogged out.

For starters, Greg Borowski last Sunday laid out the problems and the potential solutions in a simple, easy-to-read format. I clearly can't quote the whole thing, but note, as you read, how often Borowski cites J-Dizzle's election reform plan, followed by Republicans saying, "That seems like something we should pursue."

The Wonder Twins--Walker: Tosa Ranger and Mark (Insert Nickname Here) Green--are planning to make their right to suppress your vote a key campaign issue.

Two smart perspectives on the issue of voter ID. The first from Milwaukee's Gregory Stanford:

Take the argument that, to cash a check at a bank, you need a photo ID, so surely you can show such a card to vote. The counterargument goes like so: Those who lack a photo ID can't and don't cash checks at banks, and that's OK. But are you saying that it's also OK that they be denied the fundamental American right to vote?

The retort shows how the situations are not parallel. Voting is a fundamental right; cashing a check is not. [. . .]

You might then shift the debate to the true common feature in the various ID scenarios: Each entails a balancing act. You have to weigh the good you are pursuing against any harm a photo ID rule might cause. The relative weight of the good and the bad varies in each case. So criticism because the scales tilt different ways in different situations is just not reasonable.

As for mandating a photo ID at the ballot box, the goal is to prevent identification fraud. The harm is that it would make voting more inconvenient and thus less accessible for some people. Reasonable people may disagree, but I give much weight to keeping voting--a basic democratic right, after all--as open as practical.

Worse, of course, is the fact that the level of incompetence and mess and irregularities seems to be purely a Milwaukee phenomenon. Statewide, with the exception of possible felon votes, there's nothing. So why make the whole state suffer? The Wisconsin State Journal agrees:

Preliminary results from an investigation last week showed that most if not all discrepancies with voter registration cards could easily and innocently be explained.

The same cannot be said for Milwaukee, where a large discrepancy in the number of votes cast and counted is troubling and rightly continues to be probed. Milwaukee also allowed a couple hundred felons, released under supervision, to illegally vote. And about 100 people may have somehow voted twice or used fake names or addresses. [. . .]

What the state Legislature shouldn't do is blanket the state with added restrictions on voting to solve a local Milwaukee problem. That could unnecessarily discourage people from voting when everyone seems to agree that more people should be casting ballots.

And remember--that's the WSJ, not the ultra-liberal Capital Times.

We'll see how things move in the next few weeks. As it is, there's kind of, well, nothing doing, as the state busies itself with important things, like affordable health insurance and unemployment . . . or not.