No Runny Eggs

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that a self-identified Obama campaign worker delievered food and bottled water to poll workers at Hampton School and presumably other North Side polling locations this afternoon. The individual, who left without identifying himself, at first said the bounty at Hampton School was for the poll workers, then said it was for voters waiting in line. While the law is apparently silent on delivery of food to poll workers (at least according to the Milwaukee Election Commission), it expressly prohibits the giving of “anything of value” to a voter to influence that voter’s choices.

I somehow missed this one earlier, but the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that between 20 and 50 voters in Wauwatosa’s District 22 received ballots for District 24. Susan Van Hoven, the deputy city clerk, says that the votes for the races common to both districts will be transfered to new ballots by poll workers and then recorded. There are two issues here:

– The two Districts are in different Assembly districts, with a contested race between incumbent Leah Vukmir and challenger Dave Hucke in District 22. The “solution” offered by Wauwatosa will disenfranchise those voters in that race. That is unacceptable, especially since a shift of, depending on the caucusing whims of freshly-“independent” Jeff Wood, two or three seats will change the balance of power in the Assembly.

– Mark Belling pointed out, even as I type, that Wauwatosa’s city clerk, Carla Ledesma, altered official election records to remove evidence of double voting by state Senator Jim Sullivan. I do not trust Wauwatosa’s election officials to correctly remark the ballots for the races that are common to the two districts.

I’ll repost the Tweets from gopfolk, who is monitoring the Racine polls. I do not know the Racine area all that well, so I don’t know where the polling locations are. I do recall problems in Racine in the past, so I will keep this updated. Any typos are in the Tweets, which came via text message (so don’t knock gopfolk for them)

(7:14 am) Goodland school is OK. 2 other election observers
(7:41 am) MLK potential issue – obama volunteer working for clerks office – no issue noted
(8:09 am) Mckinley – election observers for obama – helping register voters – been corrected will monitor
(9:14 am) Johnson – no hard issues but there is an obama supporter outside of building directing people how to vote – watch?this
(9:49 am) Mitchel – 2 election protection – 2 dem attorneys – no issues
(10:35 am) Fine arts – poll works great – issue with unsworn person registering people – cmplaint filed
(10:44 am) Tyler domer – 2 vol sitting in their vehicle – not talking to anyone – copied plate num
(11:40 am) Lakeview – nothing here – very slow
(12:03 pm) Cesar Chaves – no issues – state chairman was here – moderate line
(12:56 pm) Faith united – dems handing out registration forms – told?them to?seace – called their attny upheld and they stopped – no issues
(1:24 pm) Jerstad – dems handing out reg forms asked?to cease chief inspector called city clerk and verified – dem attorney sees things diff
(1:25 pm) Work force dev ctr – machine down early – quickly replaced – very small for 2 voting wards
(1:27 pm) Humble?park – no issues – moderate line – dem poll checkers
(1:55 pm) Fest hall – no major issues – 2 attornys – abs ballots del to wrong loc
(1:59 pm) Emmanuel luthern – not busy – very well run – no issues – 2 dem attorneys
(2:13 pm) St andrews – 2 dems 1 is an attny – no issues have been noted – steady flow of people
(2:25 pm) Prince of peace – no issues
(2:38 pm) Eastside – busy but no issues

Item #1 – WISN-AM reported Obama flyers present at a polling place at W. Villard and N. 68th St. Since I did not hear the report first-hand, I believe it is the Byron Kilbourn School at 5354 N. 68th St, which is the voting location for the 22nd ward of the 2nd aldermanic district. It is illegal to have any electioneering materials within 100 feet of a polling place in Wisconsin.

Item #2 – WTMJ-AM reported police are involved in a challenge of votes at a remote absentee ballot counting location in the 4200 block of N. Holton St.

We hope to have more information shortly.

John Fund reports that the head of the Milwaukee Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit has been told to send any investigators to the polls today, and that his unit will be disbanded. The unit’s crimes? Issuing a 67-page report that illustrated systemic vote fraud in Milwaukee in 2004, suggesting that same-day registration be eliminated and photo ID be required of voters, and uncovering evidence that the same will be going on this time, including GOTV groups having out-of-state workers register to vote in Wisconsin, a college dorm with 60 people who are not students, and at least 7 (probable-)illegal absentee ballots.

Un-fragging-believable. Actually, it’s all-too-believable because while city government is supposedly non-partisan, it is dominated by Democrats.

Revisions/extensions (11:09 am 11/4/2008) – Charlie Sykes interviewed Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn, who categorically denied the main parts of the report from Fund. While the Special Investigations Unit will not be assigned to the polls directly, they, as well as a 50-officer response squad, are on standby. I’ll leave it to you to decide what’s what.