A new push to repair elections
Evidence of voter fraud heightens pressure to overhaul process
By GREG J. BOROWSKI  May 14, 2005   Milwaukee Journal

After two consecutive photo-finish presidential races, and with state voters still split down the middle, Wisconsin is a recount waiting to happen.  

That Florida-style spectacle was averted last fall, though a Journal Sentinel investigation of the Nov. 2 election found a system replete with problems.

The newspaper found that laws were ignored, ballots unaccounted for, felons voted illegally, other people voted twice and a Milwaukee vote total was never double-checked.

Now, after last week's announcement that investigators found evidence of voter fraud in Milwaukee, the push to reform the state's election system - among the most open in the nation - has taken on a new urgency.

Here is a look at where the system broke down, and the various proposals to fix it, starting at the beginning:
List of voters

In most states, the poll list is everything. Those who don't register by the cutoff date, usually weeks before an election, don't get to vote.

In Wisconsin, one of six states where same-day registration is allowed, the list doesn't govern who can vote. Voters who arrive at the polls can register there.

Identification is expected, such as a driver's license or a utility bill. But the system allows one voter to "vouch" for another who has no ID at all.

In any case, at least in Milwaukee, the voter list is a mess.

It contains names of dead people. People who have moved. Addresses of buildings that have been torn down. Even addresses that never existed, whether listed because of data entry errors or false information submitted by voters.

Take Mayor Tom Barrett and the west side home where he has lived for six years.

He has noted that the list, in place before he was elected in April 2004, still includes "the people we bought the house from and the people they bought it from."

State law requires voter lists to be purged every two years, after each November election, with postcards sent to anyone who had not voted in the previous period. It is unclear when Milwaukee's was last purged.

In recent years, Barrett aides speculate, efforts to clean up the list may have been put off because, starting next year, the responsibility of maintaining a single statewide list will fall to the state Elections Board.

Days before the Nov. 2 election, the state Republican Party challenged 5,619 addresses on Milwaukee voter rolls as invalid, including vacant lots and a gyros stand. The challenge was rejected, but officials agreed to seek ID from anyone voting from those addresses.

The Journal Sentinel found that some 1,200 votes were cast from invalid addresses, including 186 on the GOP list. Some of the address issues could be blamed on data entry errors, such as numbers that were transposed, but others could not easily be explained.

Why is a clean list important?

In theory, if someone moves to a new address, he or she could vote at that address and the old address undetected.

Or, if bad names and dead people are listed, someone bent on fraud could vote simply by stating that name and address, since no ID requirements apply to those on the list.

Under the existing system, this sort of fraud is virtually impossible to detect.
Reforms on the table:

Statewide voter list. The state is spending $26 million to create the list, mostly from federal money. The list should result in cleaner information and eliminate many outdated addresses. It will be linked to death records and information on felons.

Photo ID. Republicans have twice passed the bill, aimed at forcing those who vote to establish their identity. Last week, Gov. Jim Doyle said he'd support an ID requirement that is not limited to a photo ID, such as utility bills now allowed for same-day registrants. The GOP plan would eliminate the practice of vouching.

Would these work? While the statewide list will be an improvement, particularly in keeping addresses up to date, it has limits.

Because it would unify thousands of separate lists, it would be easier - after the election - to detect anyone who votes twice in the same name. But it would not correct any problems tied to same-day registration, or confirming on the spot whether addresses exist.

Polls show wide support for photo ID. Backers say it will help eliminate fraud. Critics say it won't, since people could use outdated or fake photo IDs to scam the system.
Pre-election

Even before the record turnout on election day, officials in Milwaukee and elsewhere struggled to deal with massive voter registration drives and a crush of absentee voters.

Befitting the state's battleground status, the foot soldiers were registration workers armed with clipboards who patrolled busy intersections and knocked on doors to sign up voters. Many were volunteers; others were paid by the signature.

In Racine, two men working for the group Project Vote were charged in October with felony election fraud after it was found that false signatures had been submitted. Last week, two more workers were charged in Milwaukee County on allegations of doing the same thing.

Last week's charges were the first to come from the probe into voter fraud in Milwaukee. As part of the effort, investigators found dozens of fake names that had been submitted as part of voter registration drives.

Officials said no one voted from those addresses. But it underscores how easy it is for an unscrupulous person to get a fake name on the rolls.

What's more, the volume of cards - more than 40,000 by Project Vote in Milwaukee County alone - means they get little scrutiny from officials.

Indeed, in Milwaukee 20,000 cards had not been processed by the day before the election, prompting a frantic late-night effort by workers and volunteers to sort them by wards.

The city was also stretched by a crush of people who wanted to vote by absentee ballot - some 25,000, either in person at City Hall or by mail. So many requests came in that some were never processed, and voters never received a ballot.

Although voting absentee was billed as a way to decrease election day lines, the process actually increases the workload for election workers by adding numerous steps.

In the end, city officials had to use police and firefighters to get late-arriving absentee ballots to the polls, but 238 ballots were not delivered before polls closed at 8 p.m.

They were counted four weeks later. If the state had not granted permission for the late count, voters who did everything right would not have had their ballots counted.
Reforms on the table:

No pay by signature. Doyle's reform plan would bar this practice, which creates an incentive to submit fake names.

Earlier cutoff. Milwaukee officials have suggested an earlier cutoff date for submitting new registrations, now 13 days before the election, and for absentee ballot requests.

Absentee ballots. A change in 2000 expanded the availability of the ballots, with voters no longer having to state a need for them, such as being out of town on election day. Some want a return to the tighter rules.

Early voting. Doyle says Wisconsin should join the 26 states with early voting, which is more streamlined than voting by absentee ballot. Critics say that would just leave more time to scam the system.

Would these work? While election day brought its own chaos, the pre-election period was just as bad at the city. A crisis was narrowly averted by an all-nighter to sort the 20,000 cards.

With same-day registration allowed, an earlier cutoff for pre-registering doesn't lock anyone out, but would allow cards to be better scrutinized for flaws before names are added to the list.

Even Barrett says an issue lost among the many problems is the people - no one knows how many - who never got the absentee ballots they requested.
Election Day

Amid fears of voter fraud and voter disenfranchisement, Republicans and Democrats dispatched thousands of volunteers as poll watchers, with many sent to Milwaukee.

At the same time, city officials pleaded for more poll workers. In the end, city workers were sent out to fill slots or assist at high-traffic wards.

Some city wards reported a smooth day. Others reported long lines and waits of two or more hours. Some sites were still counting absentee ballots as midnight approached.

Who came to the polls?

A Journal Sentinel statewide review found that at least 278 felons illegally voted, while still on probation or parole, with most concentrated in the city. The actual number, though, is likely far higher. The newspaper could analyze only 38% of the state's 2.98 million voters because a 2002 law bars public access to birth dates.

In Milwaukee, the newspaper also found numerous cases of people who appeared to have voted twice - though the birth date restriction and jumbled records made confirmation a near impossibility.

Last week, investigators said they found more than 200 felons who voted illegally in the city and at least 100 cases where people voted twice, or used fake names, false addresses or the names of dead people.

Charges are expected to be filed in the coming weeks, though authorities say the records are so bad it will be hard to prove many cases in court.

Investigators focused on the more than 70,000 people who registered at the polls, since those records were deemed more reliable than computerized ones compiled later.

Even without the investigation, problems were clear at this stage of the process.

When the city sent address verification cards to same-day registrants, more than 3,600 came back as undeliverable. Another 1,300 cards could not be processed, because they were missing addresses, names or signatures, or had illegible writing.

As the system stands, it is virtually impossible for a poll worker to determine on the spot if an address is real - or if the person actually lives there.

Backers of a photo ID believe it would reduce errors, in addition to helping assure that voters are who they say they are. Such a requirement, though, would not have had an effect on the felons who voted illegally.

In fact, the current system leaves the door open for that illegal voting to occur.

The longstanding practice in Milwaukee and elsewhere has been to strike the names of felons from the voter list. But those not on the list can simply reregister at the polls.

Critics say the best way to stop felons from voting is to include them on the rolls, but with a designation that they are felons.

As envisioned, the new statewide voter list would strike the names of felons from the list.
Reforms on the table:

Poll workers. Doyle is calling for mandatory training and more efforts to increase the number of workers.

Better planning. The governor would mandate plans from each municipality for handling large crowds, with a goal of limiting waits to 30 minutes.

Birth dates. Leaders on both sides agree the rule barring public access to birth dates, passed with little discussion in 2002, should be rescinded.

Felons. Likewise, both sides agree that felons should be designated on the voting rolls. Moves are under way to require voters to state on registration cards that they understand the felon rules, which would make it easier to prosecute cases later.

Would these work? Some of the proposals are obvious changes. And many have general support, though there always are questions about who will pay for costs, such as poll worker training.

But a central difference remains: The GOP and some Democrats back a photo ID requirement, which would make it easier to prevent some of the fraud investigators found, such as those voting in the name of dead people. Doyle has vetoed the bill twice, saying it creates unnecessary barriers to voting.
Counting and verification

To assure an accurate count, state law lays out specific rules, with a simple aim: Everything should add up.

Throughout the day, poll workers are to keep track of everyone who votes, assigning each a number and recording it in duplicate books. At day's end, the number of voters recorded should match the number of ballots in the machine.

Still, there were problems.

In Medford, officials overlooked a computer problem that left some 600 votes, more than 25% of the total, uncounted.

In Milwaukee, the Journal Sentinel found a gap of 7,000 votes, with more ballots cast than people listed as voting. Officials said it was a post-election data entry problem.

But the newspaper identified dozens of wards where the polling place logbooks were also off and did not match the ballots counted.

In some cases, workers had not written in the final number - an important safeguard to prevent any ballots from being added to the mix later.

Despite efforts by election officials since January to resolve the gap, investigators said last week it remains at about 4,600 votes. While that represents less than 2% of the 277,000 votes cast in the city, any discrepancy is a concern in a tight race.

The problems should have been caught almost immediately. State law requires local officials to submit key materials - including polling place logbooks and printouts from voting machines - to the county the day after the election.

The idea is that the county board of canvassers will double-check all results.

That never happened.

The city never submitted the documents, yet the county certified the results and sent them to the state, which did the same.

And the election was final.

Thanks to a strong showing in Milwaukee, Democrat John Kerry topped President Bush by about 11,000 votes in Wisconsin, one of the tightest margins in the country.
Reforms on the table:

State audit. The state Audit Bureau is looking at how well laws and procedures were followed statewide. It was launched after the newspaper found spotty compliance with the requirement to send verification cards to new registrants.

Local task force. City officials are reviewing the Milwaukee problems and all existing procedures. Its recommendations could be issued this month.

Would these work? In some cases, the newspaper's review found the problem is that existing laws were not followed. For instance, some communities do not send the mandatory verification cards, and others don't forward the ones that are returned as undeliverable to the district attorney, also required.

To deal with the question of results being properly verified, the state Elections Board plans to implement procedures that require local officials to document they followed each of the required steps - in effect, a new set of rules on how to follow the existing rules.