Doyle joins rift over ballot supply
Governor seeks state inquiry; after protest, Walker agrees to review city's request
By DAVE UMHOEFER and STEVE SCHULTZE
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   Posted: Oct. 14, 2004

The Milwaukee election ballot flap escalated Thursday, with Gov. Jim Doyle calling for a state probe and County Executive Scott Walker agreeing after a noisy protest to reconsider the City of Milwaukee's request for more ballots.
Surprised by a demonstration led by African-American residents expressing concern about poll access, Walker and county election officials scheduled a meeting tonight on the ballot issue.

Doyle said later, however, that he wanted the state Elections Board to promptly investigate and determine how many ballots are needed by Milwaukee, which requested 938,000 from the county. The county agreed to provide 679,000, noting that the city had only 382,000 registered voters as of September.

If cost is a problem, the state will help pay for extra ballots for the Nov. 2 election, Doyle said. Each ballot costs about 15 cents to print.

"I've personally never seen or heard anything like this in all of the years that I have been in politics, that anybody is somehow suggesting that we shouldn't have enough ballots for people," said Doyle, a Democrat.

The state ultimately has the authority to ensure that elections are run properly, and part of the state Elections Board's job will be to determine whether "the county has abused its authority" by limiting the number of ballots for Milwaukee, Doyle said.

Walker said late Thursday, however, that he understood that the state Elections Board can get involved only after the county elections panel considers the issue. The county will go ahead with its review today, he said.

While making no promises of providing the additional ballots, Walker during a morning meeting in his office invited City Elections chief Lisa Artison to make her best case at today's meeting.

Doyle said the eyes of the nation might be focused on Wisconsin on election day because of its swing-state status in a tight presidential contest, and he wants to make sure things run smoothly.

"We don't want to become another Florida," he said, referring to that state's pivotal role in determining the outcome of the 2000 presidential election and multiple voting problems that surfaced there.

"This is a pretty simple matter - just have enough ballots there so everybody who shows up has a chance to vote," Doyle said.

Earlier in the day, about 100 angry students, union activists and voter-registration leaders barged into a meeting in Walker's office with municipal elections clerks, chanting "Let the people have their voice!" They overflowed Walker's conference room, demanding that Walker err on the safe side and recognize that newly energized black voters could overwhelm polling places.

"You must respect it whether you like it or not," state Rep. Lena Taylor yelled at Walker. Voter registration drives will bring tens of thousands of new voters out in Milwaukee next month, speakers predicted.

As Mayor Tom Barrett carefully laid out a statistical and practical case for more ballots, Taylor and others blistered Walker with questions and called for a decision.

Former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt pointed at Walker and said: "Mr. County Executive, this meeting should be over! Isn't it better to be safe than sorry?"

Walker said any change would not be his decision but that of the county Election Commission.
Problems predicted

Rashad Younger, president of the Marquette University Black Student Council, told Walker that he and other first-time voters might mess up their ballots and need to revote. Ballot supplies should reflect that, he said.

In fliers for their march to the courthouse for Thursday's meeting, Marquette and Milwaukee Area Technical College students accused Walker of following the path of others in history who have tried to suppress the black vote. The flier mentioned black voters disenfranchised in the Florida election in the disputed 2000 presidential race.

Walker has raised fraud concerns related to excess ballots possibly being grabbed by voters. Doug Haag, chairman of the county commission, said he worried about a repeat of an incident in 2000 when some ballots flew off the back of a city truck.

District Attorney E. Michael McCann, who attended the meeting, said he saw no connection between excess ballots and fraud because of security measures at the polls. But he added he was concerned about the propriety of some turnout drives that pay workers for registering voters.

Several suburban election clerks have complained that many voters who registered by mail did not provide proof of residency - a driver's license, for example. Because disputes could arise at the polls if people falsely believed they were registered, everyone should bring identification when they vote, McCann said.

Many of the suburbs order 15% to 25% more ballots than they have registered voters, far below the cushion Milwaukee requested.

Barrett said a key anti-fraud measure instituted by the city partly explained why it wanted such a large number of extra ballots.

City ballots are programmed by ward number so that electronic counting machines can read ballots only for that ward. That means leftover ballots from any of the 314 city wards cannot be moved to meet shortages, unless they are hand counted, a slower process more open to fraud, Barrett said.

Barrett questioned why the county was providing fewer ballots per ward for November than it did in the November 2002 elections. Milwaukee turnout in 2002 was 42% of pre-registered voters. This November, predictions are for a 75% statewide turnout, and Milwaukee could be as high as 80% to 85%, state Elections Board chief Kevin Kennedy told the group at Walker's meeting.

"That's my entire argument," Barrett said.

Barrett said the city might pay for extra ballots if the county doesn't.
More facts sought

Walker questioned whether the city had been close to running out of ballots at any wards in 2002. That's what he wants to learn from Artison, he said.

Walker repeated his belief that the 679,000 ballots printed for the city were enough. Audience members repeatedly asked how he knew where intense voter interest would inflate turnout in some wards.

After the meeting, Walker told reporters: "We want this decided on the facts, not based on what a group of people showing up at a meeting said."

He noted that for the September primary, Milwaukee requested 841,357 ballots. Ultimately, 94,643 votes were cast in that election in the city. The city and county could not reach an agreement for that election, and the city wound up paying for some ballots on its own.

Walker opened the door slightly to a compromise, but he suggested that the city would have to show past shortages and make a detailed case.

The county's Haag sounded a skeptical note about increasing the ballots. "The city of Milwaukee's population is declining," he said. "Something is wrong here."

Barrett approached Walker about the ballot issue after the city did not receive its full request. The dispute is being played out against a partisan back, with several key players having a stake in the presidential contest.

Walker, a Republican, is a state co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Wisconsin, and Barrett and Doyle hold similar positions with the Kerry-Edwards campaign. Haag is the chairman of the Milwaukee County Republican Party.

County Elections manager Janice Dunn is a non-partisan civil servant who first recommended 574,000 ballots for Milwaukee but agreed to 679,500 upon further review. Dunn has said she made the ballot decisions on her own without input from county officials or the Election Commission.

Though Doyle said he didn't know the right number of ballots that were needed for Milwaukee, he came down strongly for erring on the side of having plenty on hand.

Elections experts are seeing similar disputes around they country.

Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist, said Republicans are right to be wary of the possibility of fraud. Democrats are correct to want to be prepared for a record turnout for this election, Sabato said.

"The obvious compromise is to have ballots on hand but to increase the security of those ballots," he said.