What's that, you say? You mean there was fraud outside of Milwaukee? Oh, yes indeedy. And gosh, it sure was nice to see Republicans falling all over themselves to investigate it, eh? I won't belabor the details--others have, just check here--but I do want to pull in the newspaper's sidebar of the LAB's recommendations for improving voting accuracy:
Recommendations for improvementNotice what's missing from that list? Anyone? Anyone? Buel-ler? Bingo: photo ID.
The Legislative Audit Bureau recommended lawmakers consider changes that would:
- Move up the cutoff date for registration so clerks have more time to prepare voter lists.
- Establish tighter requirements for special registration deputies and prohibit them from being paid by the number of people registered.
- Create uniform, statewide requirements for demonstrating proof of residence.
- Authorize civil penalties for local election officials and municipalities not complying with the law.
- Require mandatory election training for municipal clerks.
Oh, sure, I suppose you could make that case that voter ID fits in to number three, there, the "uniform" requirements for "proof of address." But the non-partisan (I can't stress that enough) LAB did not say it had to be photo ID, proving once again that Republicans are pursuing an agenda based on stopping Democratic-voting minorities in Milwaukee from exercising the franchise. More than that, though, take a moment to skim over the recommendations of (Democratic) Governor Jim Doyle and (Democrat but elected non-partisanly) Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Both of them saw the same problems the LAB did and recommended the same sloutions--more and better-trained poll workers, restrictions on deputy registrars, and so on--at the same time Republicans were flogging voter ID bills. So one of two things is true:
- Republican legilsators are wrong.
- Everyone else--Democrat, independent, non-partisan--is wrong.
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