No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for the 'Elections' Category

April 28, 2008

Down goes the legal impediment to voter ID requirements

by @ 14:24. Filed under Elections, Politics - National.

(Now, who do I give this H/T to; I could go with Brian Fraley or Matt Lewis, but Katie Favazza and Sister Toldjah have them easily beat in the looks department, I haven’t linked to them in a while, and ST has the link to the decision from SCOTUSblog)

The Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter-ID requirement 6-3. In a bit of an oddity, Mark Sherman, the AP reporter who wrote that piece, pointedly noted that the author of the opinion of the Court, Justice John Paul Stevens, was a dissenter in Bush v Gore in 2000.

A quick, non-lawyer review of Justice Stevens’ opinion of the court and Justice Scalia’s concurrence reveals the idiocy of opposing photo ID from both the liberal and conservative perspective. While I prefer Scalia’s reasoning, Stevens’ broad repudiation of the arguments against a photo ID requirement, specifically including the “partisan”, “undue burden” on the poor, and “undue burden” on the elderly arguments, ought to have Wisconsin’s Democratic Party reconsidering their staunch opposition to a voter ID requirement. Then again, I’m not hopeful that the ‘Rats will give up their permanent advantage of vote fraud made easier by the lack of a voter ID requirement.

Revisions/extensions (11:38 am 4/29/2008) – I would be remiss if I didn’t point you in the direction of a lawyer’s take, specifically Rick Esenberg’s take. He notes that, because it is Justice Stevens’ opinion that is the controlling one instead of Justice Scalia’s, the door is open ever-so-slightly for future challenges to voter ID requirements.

April 2, 2008

When April Fools’ Day and elections collide

by @ 16:58. Filed under Elections.

I guess Clint should have put the April Fools’ disclaimer on his “multiple-voting” post. Kevin Fischer is treating it as though yesterday wasn’t April 1.

March 14, 2008

Dr. Death running for office

by @ 7:43. Filed under Elections.

Jack Kervorkian is running for a congressional seat in Michigan.   I love when people like Jack and Ralph Nader run.   It gives an opportunity for the complete fringe kooks to abandon the Democrats and vote for a kindred spirit.

One suggestion I have for Jack:   consider running for Michigan Governor.   The economy has disintegrated so badly that the only option left may be for Dr. Death to come in and  euthanize it.

March 9, 2008

Why are the ‘Rats are against Voter ID?

by @ 8:22. Filed under Elections, Politics - Wisconsin.

A friend of Kathy Carpenter’s decided to put the question to all 18 ‘Rat State Senators. You can head to Kathy’s site to read all of the responses, but I’ll do some summarizing here (the numbers will not add up because some Senators fall into more than 1 category):

– Against voter ID on general principles: 7
– Following Doyle’s instructions: 3
– Unavailable for comment: 5
– Staff unaware of their bosses’ position: 4
– Claims there was no public hearing, but too chickenshit to call for a public hearing: 2
– Would rather have a law, but too chickenshit to author one: 2
– Admitted (s)he would rather have vote fraud: 1

February 26, 2008

Milwaukee Police Department in favor of voter ID, no same-day registration

I’m a bit late to the party, as Brian, Charlie, Fred, Owen and Jim Geraghty have already jumped all over MPD’s Special Investigations Unit’s report on the November 2004 election, released this morning. The troubling part is that the entire election apparatus in Milwaukee fouled things up so much, it was nigh impossible to prosecute any individual participating in vote fraud. That goes to something John Washburn noted a while back (paraphrase because I can’t find the exact post right now): it’s the entire system, not individual cases.

Speaking of the system, I’ll repost the recommendations from the SIU (page 26 of the report), interjecting where necessary:

It is the opinion of the Task Force investigators that more than any other recommendation we could make, our investigation has concluded that the one thing that could eliminate a large percentage of fraud or the appreance of fraudulent voting in any given Election is the elimination of the On-Site or Same Day voter registration system. It is the opinion of the Task Force investigators that given the inability of Election Inspectors to check the eligibility of voters (e.g. felons) or in other cases the reluctance of Election Inspectors to check the eligibility of a voter (e.g. verification of information on cards), on the day of any election, there is no other way to ensure that only eligible voters are voting on Election Day. It is our opinion that as it relates to not only the irregularities encountered with the 1305 ‘un-entered’ cards, but with the 2004 Election overall, a time period for the verification of registering voters prior to any Election must be included to ensure that the person registering is an eligible voter. If a verification period would be provided to the Election Commission before any Election, the majority of the problems detailed in this report would not have existed.

That last assumption is assuming, of course, the Election Commission is interested in honest elections. The facts do not exactly support that assumption. I’ll repeat one particularily-troubling item from that paragraph – “…in other cases the reluctance of Election Inspectors to check the eligibility of a voter….”

As it relates to felons, a verification period would have allowed Election Commission employees to check those potential voters registering with an up to date list that could be provided by the State of Wisconsin Department of Corrections. If this would have been done and those persons who are in the Ward book would only be permitted to vote, felons who are ineligible would not have been included.

Again, that assumes that the Election Commission is interested in honest elections. The good news here is that eventually the state-run voter registration list, with a tie to a list from the Department of Corrections, will be online. The bad is, at last check, it isn’t.

Where the “Not in City” voters are concerned, the same verification period would have allowed to (sic) the Election Commission to do the same thing that the Task Force was able to do: confirm or deny that the registering voter was or was not a City of Milwaukee resident. This system would have registered eligible voters mistakenly omitted by the Election Commission, such as the Appleton Avenue family. All members of this family will have to re-register before voting again. This verification period also would have informed those voters who were simply mistakenly voting in Milwaukee that they are not voting in the proper Ward. But, most important, a verification period could have stopped someone such as the ineligible Chicago resident fromvoting in the City of Milwaukee and now will be eligible to cast future, unchallenged, votes.

I’ll note that the Appleton Ave. family’s story is found on page 15. I am familiar with that area of Milwaukee, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how the Election Commission determined that the 11000 block of W. Appleton Ave. (approximately 6200 north), which is just over a half-mile northeast of that family’s previous residence and about 7/8 mile as the crow flies and over a mile as the car drives inside city limits, is not part of the city of Milwaukee.

That episode also points out a potential problem with the statewide voter registration list. If city of Milwaukee employees can’t determine an address is in the city of Milwaukee when there is no doubt an address is in the city, how is a state employee in Madison going to tell that, say, 7121 W. Bluemound Rd. is in Wauwatosa and 7129 W. Bluemound Rd. is in Milwaukee, or in which city the residents at 7125 W. Bluemound Rd. should vote (both Milwaukee and Wauwatosa have tax records with 7125 W. Bluemound Rd. as the address of record).

That example is of a block that was developed and had its city limits locked decades ago. I won’t even go into areas with new construction, like Oak Creek, or in areas where annexation of parcels is still possible.

As an alternative, if On-Site registration is to continue in its present form, then the presentation of a government issued identification card that includes the voter’s name, address (including city) and date of birth should be presented before that person is allowed to register and vote. The inclusion of identifcation alternatives such as a credit card bill, library card, lease, etc., where no photo is provided, does not ensure that the person presenting these types of documents is in fact the person they are asserting to be.

Why merely an alternative to ending same-day registration?

In the absence of any substantive change, it is recommended that the Election Inspectors be provided with adequate training and resources to ensure that they are not allowing persons who live outside of the City of Milwaukee to vote.

Again, that speaks to the apparent lack of interest on the part of the Election Commission to run honest elections. Given that each polling place includes a rather small section of the city, it should not take a lot of training to check addresses given by new registrants against a list of streets and address ranges to determine whether that address is plausible.

The investigators further recommend that after every election, the City of Milwaukee Election Commission fulfill its mandated responsibility to report those occurrences where persons may have violated Wisconsin State Statutes to the Milwaukee County District Attorney.

I believe mhking has the right phrase for this smackdown – “Just damn.” Of course, it also assumes that the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office has a serious interest in honest elections, and history has shown that it doesn’t under the leadership of both former DA E. Michael McCann (known around these parts as McCan’t) and current DA John Chisholm.

February 5, 2008

My little corner of the world

by @ 20:59. Filed under Elections, Miscellaneous.

I just got back from my precinct caucus.   According to those that have been a part of this process over the past many years we had more people at the caucus tonight than they have had in the last 5 or 6 caucuses (we caucus every 2 years) combined.   Rumor has it that throughout MN caucus locations are overflowing with people at both R and D locations (haven’t heard anything about the I’s).

 After electing a president a secretary, talliers etc. etc. we finally got around to the straw poll.   Surprising to me the results of the straw poll was that Romney accumulated more votes than the Huckabee, McCain and Paul together.   Being we are a caucus state and this is a straw poll it’s hard to say how this will translate into actual delegates when all is said and done.

So other than being reaffirmed about the general quality of my neighbor’s thinking, what does all this mean?

 First, while MN nice was in full force (over crowded caucus building, shortage of supplies etc.) there was defnitely a passion in the group.     People weren’t there just doing their civic duty.   The large turnout was driven by people who are genuinely concerned about this election.   This was NOT a group of Republican zombies.

Second, I was really encouraged by the age demographics within the group.   With all the talk about young folks scrambling toward BO you’d think there would not be any R folks under the age of 30!   I’m happy to report that about 15% of our caucus were folks that were 25 or younger.

Third, I think the McCain folks anticipated getting whacked at least in this area of the burbs.   We have been strong Bush supporters and have House representation that is VERY conservative.   We had one (likely) McCain supporter who made a speech telling each of us that we needed to support the R party nominee whoever that ultimately was!   Sitting out the election, according to this person, was never acceptable.  

I’ll wait and see but it sounds like MN might go for Romney.   However, I don’t know if that’s going to matter in the end.   I just don’t know that he can overcome McCain especially if you assume that Huckabee’s delegates are likely going his way also.  

I’ll end with a piece of advice for the McCain campaign that comes from my experience tonight….Rush and Ann Coulter are not the only two people who have no confidence in you as a conservative.   In fact, I’m no longer the only person in my little corner of the world that agrees with them.   There are lots of R people out here who have grave concerns about electing you President.   Remember  that we got our “You must vote for the nominee” lecture?   At the end of that lecture a lady looked back at the party zombie and told him politely but directly, “There are breaking points for me which I can not go beyond.   I will not vote for a candidate who goes beyond that breaking point.   I will either sit it out or I may even vote for the other candidate.”  

My advice for McCain is that there are many people who believe you have gone beyond the breaking point.   Maybe you don’t care.   Maybe you think that you can get enough of the I’s, the middle R’s and a few D’s  to get you elected.   If you’re interested in those of us who believe you’ve passed on, don’t tell us how we need to support the R, don’t tell us what a great conservative you are, don’t invoke Reagan’s name EVER again.   If you’re interested in us, show us, between now and November show us by your action that you value our vote.   If you show us, there’s a lot of people out here who are really concerned about this election and will help you.   If you don’t show us, don’t be suprised when a large group of us just sit this one out.

 Update……

 McCain ought to be taking my advice but it appears he isn’t:

By Jed Babbin at HumanEvents.Com                     http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=24859

 According to my source, McCain has prepared a video featuring President Ronald Reagan to make the introduction. If McCain uses this video, it is very likely to backfire badly.   This is the group before which Ronald Reagan said in 1975 that, "A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers."  

January 14, 2008

Voluntary voter ID – where do I sign up?

by @ 13:18. Filed under Elections, Politics - Wisconsin.

(H/T – Owen)

I do not know how anybody who is not interested in stealing votes from legitimately-registered voters can be opposed to AB547, a bill that would allow registered voters to request that they be required to produce identification to cast a ballot. Indeed, this is a bipartisan proposal, with Christine Sinicki among those introducing the bill and Julie Lassa and Jeff Plale (my state Senator) among the Senate co-sponsors.

I want my vote protected whether I show up at the polls at 7 am or 7 pm, and this is a good way to do so.

January 9, 2008

A transparent effort – to turn Wisconsin into Illinois

It’s been a while since I grabbed the chainsaw and pruned a Journtinel idiotorial, but I believe I’m still in practice. Besides, they made it so easy with their rabid, partisan opposition to voter ID, so let the fisking begin:

The U.S. Supreme Court will take up the issue of voter identification today. It should side with the position that enables as many people as possible to vote.

Translation – it should side with the theft of elections. To that, I say, “Foxtrot Tango Sierra.”

It should see the effort to impose voter ID as a transparent attempt by Republicans to dampen voter turnout by a segment of the electorate that tends to vote Democratic. Fraud – what supporters say a requirement to show photo ID when voting is intended to combat – simply isn’t such a problem that it demands this solution. Milwaukee’s election problems in 2004 were principally about resources and record-keeping, not about voter identification.

Translation – it’s more important that DhimmiRATs win by every means necessary than to have honest elections. Once again, I say, “Foxtrot Tango Sierra.”

Regarding Milwaukee’s problems, they’re systematic, and there is no willingness at any level to deal with the big problem. That, however, is no excuse to not deal with the smaller problem.

Today, the justices will consider an Indiana law that requires voters to produce a state ID or a passport before being allowed to cast a ballot. Most states allow some other form of identification – a utility bill or a bank statement, for instance.

A state ID isn’t exactly fool-proof (it does not state whether one is a US citizen, which is a requirement to exercise one’s right to vote), but at least it’s better than a no-picture utility bill/bank statement.

In Wisconsin, which has same-day registration, registered voters need not show any photo ID at the polls. But to register, they need to produce a document that shows they live in the ward or district in which they are voting. If they can’t provide a driver’s license number, they can, for instance, give the last four digits of their Social Security number. Or they can attest that they have none of that and still get to vote.

Which proves that Wisconsin is ripe for fraud. Considering that there is, outside of the soon-to-be-ousted US Attorney for Eastern Wisconsin, nobody willing to prosecute any level of fraud, it’s just going to get worse.

Surprise, Wisconsin traditionally ranks high among the states in voter turnout. That turnout, we suspect, is what proponents of voter ID are really targeting. Sure, that likely means opponents want to get more Democrats to the polls. But one direction could lead to fewer people voting and the other more. It’s that simple.

Oh, really? I can’t speak for anybody else that is part of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (charter member here), but my goal is to make sure that every legitimately-cast vote is counted once and only once. By the way, thanks for admitting your goal of a permanent-‘Rat majority by every means available, Pimentel.

In Wisconsin, the Republican-controlled state Assembly has voted to put the matter of voter ID on the ballot as a constitutional amendment. The Democrat-controlled state Senate is unlikely to go along.

Gee, I wonder why. Is it that they’re afraid they can’t manufacture votes?

Indiana is among the strictest of the handful of states – Arizona, Georgia, Florida and Missouri – that enacted voter ID, though the state cannot produce much evidence of voter fraud of the kind that this law would erase. Yes, those who challenged the law could not produce anyone harmed by the law, but that was, they say, because they filed the suit before it went into effect. In the interim, they point to 32 legal voters whose votes could not be counted because of the law.

Simple math should convince the justices to overturn the Indiana law. About 10% – or 20 million voting age citizens – don’t have a driver’s license or passport.

Do we really want to go into the math game? I can just as easily point to dozens of people that would probably be alive if Wisconsin had a concealed-carry law.

So go get one is the usual retort. But cost (unless they’re free) and transportation to do that are obstacles for many. In any case, why would we want to provide any disincentive for those eligible to vote in the first place?

Given that they need IDs to get government welfare, cash those government checks, and generally participate in society, that’s a bunch of freshly-dumped Bravo Sierra. To counter the disincentive, why should government do absolutely, positively nothing to ensure the integrity of said vote?

The message, intended or not, is that some eligible people don’t deserve the vote. That’s unacceptable.

What is unacceptable is that those votes can easily be stolen because we refuse to allow any safeguards whatsoever.

Wisconsin may or may not be a permanent-‘Rat majority state. I want to find out honestly, not through stolen elections.

December 12, 2007

Last pre-caucus Republican debate – live thread

by @ 12:51. Filed under Elections, Politics - National.

Once again, I’ll be using the CoverItLive software. Since it appears that TownHall likes the code, I’ll be double-barrelling the coverage on the TownHall version of this place, so don’t expect the usual A-, S-, D- and F-bombs. Also as usual, the rest of the rules of the live-blog:

– I paraphrase a lot because I’m not the fastest typist.
– Questions are in italics.
– Candidates’ answers are in normal text.
– My comments, at least those in-line with either questions or answers, are in parentheses.

Also live-blogging:
Brian at Liberty Pundit
Free Republic
Allahpundit at Hot Air (he’s calling for a dog pile on Huck)
John Hawkins at Right Wing News

I’m sure the gang at Little Green Footballs, RedState and TownHall will also be on the case.

December 11, 2007

Thompson, Clinton on top in Wisconsin

(H/T – Mary Katharine Ham)

I have no idea how the December Badger Poll slipped through both the southeast Wisconsin media filter and my bloated blogroll for nearly 26 hours until MKH included it as a tossaway item in the piece linked to above, but it won’t be the exclusive province of the UW Survey Center and select outstate news sources any longer. I’ll cut straight to the take-home numbers on the poll taken between 11/27 and 12/5:

Republican Presidential Primary

(margin of error 7.4% – 174 respondents)

Fred Thompson – 30%
Rudy Giuliani – 25%
John McCain – 15%
Mike Huckabee – 8%
Mitt Romney – 5%
Don’t know – 5%
Ron Paul – 4%
Everybody else – under 1% each

Democratic Presidential Primary

(margin of error 6.0% – 260 respondents)

Hillary Clinton – 39%
Barack Obama – 26%
John Edwards – 16%
Don’t know – 6%
Bill Richardson – 4%
Dennis Kucinich – 3%
Joe Biden – 2%
Everybody else – under 1% each

Revisions/extensions (3:20 pm 12/11/2007) – It was briefly mentioned in this morning’s briefing at the Fred File. I apologize to Sean for missing it. Everybody else, you have no excuse.

December 1, 2007

Stupid Pubbie Tricks – Virginia edition reversed

by @ 15:41. Filed under Elections.

(H/T – Allahpundit)

Wednesday, I brought you the news that the Virginia Republican Party was planning to have voters in its Presidential primary sign “loyalty oaths” promising to vote for whoever the Republican candidate was come November. Never mind (from the Washington Post):

Virginia Republican leaders decided yesterday to scrap plans to require voters to sign a loyalty pledge before they cast their ballots in the Feb. 12 presidential primary.

The decision by the 86-member Virginia Republican State Central Committee, meeting in Crystal City, came after a public outcry over the pledge and mounting concern among party leaders that it could drive independents and moderate Republicans away from GOP candidates.

The story goes on to note previous Virginia Republican efforts to require “loyalty oaths”. It would be interesting to see if the Virginia Democrats have had a similar bent. As I said before, if they can’t stand an open primary paid for by the taxpayers of Virginia, go to caucuses paid for by the parties.

November 13, 2007

Ron Paul? 15-18 percent in New Hampshire?

by @ 18:41. Filed under Elections, Politics - National.

Jim Geraghty caught a segment on the Sean Hannity radio program where John Zogby made just such a claim. The last Zogby poll, in September, had Paul at 3 percent, while more-recent polls bumped him up to 7.

Since the Democrats have not taken away any delegates from the New Hampshire delegation, the only way that Paul gets even 5 percent in the primary is if the Democratic field is settled by Iowa. Given Barack Obama’s recent surge there, that’s looking less likely, at least without a trip into Ft. Marcy Park.

October 16, 2007

No Christmas vacation for the Pubbies and probably the ‘Rats

by @ 20:33. Filed under Elections, Politics - National.

The Iowa Republican Party moved up their Iowa Presidential caucus to Thursday, January 3, 2008 from Monday, January 14, 2008. Meanwhile, the Dems are still vascilating between the 3rd and the 5th, which would be a Saturday. Guess they haven’t decided whether to meddle in the Pubbie caucus or keep the Pubbies from crashing their party.

Since New Hampshire and their insane “first-primary-in-the-nation” law is forcing them to hold their primary no later than January 8 (or so claims their Secretary of State, who is responsible for setting the date) and quite possibly earlier, and the corn-a-hole crowd in Iowa has an irrational desire to best even New Hampshire, we could still see things kick off in mid-December 2007.

Words, at least those that aren’t R-rated, fail me, and I’ve hit my weekly quota on vulgarity.

October 10, 2007

Down goes Bolender’s and DeGrave’s attempt to consolidate power

by @ 15:15. Filed under Elections, Politics - Wisconsin.

The vote totals from yesterday’s election:

Should city ordinances be changed to allow the city clerk position to be appointed by the mayor, subject to confirmation by the Common Council?

No: 956
Yes: 490

Should city ordinances be changed to allow the city treasurer position to be appointed by the mayor, subject to confirmation by the Common Council?

No: 955
Yes: 492

Good work, voters.

October 9, 2007

Under-the-radar election in Oak Creek TODAY!

by @ 7:36. Filed under Elections, Politics - Wisconsin.

If you’re in Oak Creek, like me, there is an election today. The mayor and city administrator want to turn the city clerk and city treasurer from elected to appointed positions, and already managed to get the Common Council to agree. Fortunately for us taxpayers, they had to do it via the Charter Ordinance route, and enough of us signed petitions to force this to a referendum:

– Shall Charter Ordinance No. 12, which provides that the method of selection of the City Clerk be by appointment by the Mayor, subject to cofirmation by a majority of the members of the Common Council, be enacted?
– Shall Charter Ordinance No. 13, which provides that the method of selection of the City Treasurer be by appointment by the Mayor, subject to confirmation by a majority of the members of the Common Council, be enacted?

I recommend NO votes on both questions. The current system has served this city very well for the last 52 years. If the positions become appointments, the pay required to attract “qualified” candidates will increase substantially for no appreciable benefit.

October 3, 2007

No wonder Craps and Spitzer are competing for the illegal aliens

by @ 21:49. Filed under Elections, Immigration, Politics - National.

(H/T – Asian Badger)

It seems that illegal aliens are counted in the census for the purpose of Representative apportionment. UPI reports on a University of Connecticut study that says that states with fewer invaders, like New York, Illinois and Ohio, are likely to lose House seats to states that have more invaders, like Arizona, Texas and Florida.

September 7, 2007

Election fraud update

by @ 15:40. Filed under Elections.

Even though nobody in the county or federal court houses, or on the corner of Fourth and State seem to be interested in this, John Washburn continues to keep on digging into what went wrong in Milwaukee on November 2, 2004, and it isn’t good:

  • 107 of 314 wards had a variance between ballots handed out and ballots scanned of more than 10.
  • Each half of the Joint Task Force has refused to issue a final report.
  • There is now an open complaint to the State Elections Board and its successor, the Government Accountability Board, over the falsehood perpetrated by the Milwaukee Election Commission that the records of the 11/2/2004 election were seized by the Joint Task Force.
  • 42 of 624 poll books, official election records, disappeared between 11/2/2004 and 7/10/2007.

Richard M. Daley would be jealous.

September 1, 2007

Photo ID – still not “good enough” for Wisconsin’s polling places,…

by @ 7:01. Filed under Elections, Politics - Wisconsin.

…but good enough for visitors to MPS.

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