SubscribeMilwaukee voting-rights activist Vincent Knox was convicted Wednesday on three felony counts stemming from irregularities in an absentee-balloting drive he ran during a county recall election last March.This is just one example of the constant scandals and investigations around absentee voting in Milwaukee. In 2002 the now Governor of Wisconsin, Jim Doyle (D) was forced to return absentee ballots collected by his staffers from a mental home. The staffers threw a bingo party for the residents, where they were given food and monetary gifts (25¢ for winning Bingo) and then "helped" the residents fill out their ballots. Not shockingly all of the residents voted in lockstep for Doyle. If it wasn't for an employee of the home video taping the event, and turning the video tape over to the local NBC affiliate, the ballots would have been cast.
A Milwaukee County Circuit Court jury deliberated five hours before agreeing with the state's contention that Knox, a 25-year veteran of voting-rights causes, had criminally mismanaged aspects of the absentee drive.
The absentee drive was run by Knox for an organization known as the African-American Coalition for Empowerment (ACE). The move surfaced just days before the recall campaign won by Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway. Holloway hired ACE to help with his campaign, but he testified that the group's absentee drive was separate from his own campaign work and that he was unaware of it. He has not been charged. The drive, which election officials discouraged Knox from undertaking, put absentee ballots in ACE's hands.
Knox's crew went door to door in Holloway's district getting people to apply to vote absentee and agree to have the ballot sent to ACE, which then returned to the would-be voters' homes, witnessed their votes and turned in the ballots at City Hall. The unusual process - which Knox calls "vote by mail" - is legal under state law if performed correctly.
District Attorney E. Michael McCann responded aggressively when the alleged ballot problems became public. His investigators were at polling places for the March 4 election on Milwaukee's north side and challenged and sealed 10% of the votes cast. A police handwriting expert had labeled as suspicious the signatures on dozens of absentee ballot envelopes.
In all, Knox and eight other ACE workers were charged. One pleaded guilty to a reduced charge last month. The others are standing trial separately in the weeks ahead. For Knox's trial, prosecutors argued that ACE's motive was to get absentee votes for Holloway, an allegation they tried to back up through testimony about absentee ballots cast for Holloway by fictitious voters at non-existent addresses.
Although evidence suggested forgery and other mischief plagued the absentee effort, Knox's case turned on one voter registration card bearing his signature as a deputized voter registrar. The purported voter, Willie Dawson, had his name forged on the card by a girlfriend, testimony showed. And Knox's explanation of how he could have witnessed Dawson sign the card apparently held little weight with jurors.
Knox was convicted of perjury, misconduct as a voter registrar and election fraud, which carry a combined penalty of up to 13 years in prison.
A Milwaukee Rescue Mission employee said that he had to ask democratic campaign volunteers to leave the property after he caught them trying to bribe potential voters with packs of cigarettes.
After viewing WISN 12's video tape, a local representative of the Gore campaign issued a response to the democratic campaigners who distributed the cigarettes.
"This kind of activity described by Channel 12 is not the kind of help we ask for and it's the kind of help we flat-out reject. These volunteers were from out of state, acting on their own and this was not part of any official Democratic 'get out the vote' activity in Wisconsin. They have left the state and we will not invite them to return," wrote Susan Lagana, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Coordinated Campaign.
This is part of the problem with the absentee ballots, as groups like ACE can come around the neighborhood, going door-to-door registering people to vote. This is how ballots got sent to nonexistent people who live at nonexistent addresses.
If you need an ID to register, then it would be illogical for people to fight the requirement of having an ID to vote, as they had to have had an ID to register in the first place. (Poll Tax and all)
I have registered and voted in Milwaukee, and have never once been asked for a photo ID.
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posted by the fire you left me at 3:05 PM on August 16, 2004