I just had to touch that rock

I have been going round with the legal council for the State Elections Board. He wants clarification on the nature of my March 9, 2005 complaint. My main complaint is less with the corrupt/incompetent poll inspectors failing to do local board canvasses which conform to State statutes in 7.51. My complaint is more that the SEB has been so focused on chapter 11 issues (campaign finance) that the Board has neglected chapter 7 issues (election administration).

So I wanted to bolster my case that these 7.51 canvassing issues are widespread. I called the City of West Allis because it is a large city (#11 in the state) which is near me. I made a request to see the usual paperwork (Inspectors' report, poll list signature page, and the machine tape report of ballots cast).

In the course of setting the appointment, I was asked what was I looking for. I said I was checking to see if there were any polling places with more ballots than electors voting. The clerk said: "oh yeah, things like that happen with a big election." I then mentioned that ballot box stuffing is illegal and there is a remedy in the statutes for removing the extra ballots. The converstation was:

Clerk: "How would you know which ballots to remove?"
Me: "First, all ballots without an inspector initial are removed. If that is not enought then by random draw."
Clerk: "I did not know that. Are you sure?"

After the call and after I brought my blood pressure back under control, I am left with 3 thoughts:
1) The Board has been remiss in its duty to see to the adminstration of chapter 7 of the state statute. This clerk has been there 10+ years.
2) West Allis has stuffed ballot boxes.
3) The top 10 or 15 cities in Wisconsin need to be checked for this.

After Milwaukee the next 9 largest municipalities by population in Wisconsin are the cities of Madison, Green Bay, Kenosha, Racine, Appleton, Waukesha, Oshkosh, Eau Claire, and Janesville.

The town that forgot to vote

More on the town of Monticello. The official position of the Governor and the State Election Board is that the 4 officials are now out of office. Their terms expired on April 11, 2005 and there were no elected successors. Thus, the 4 posistions are now vacant.

The Governor has order the special election for May 24, 2005. The SEB will order the special election on its authority if Governor Doyle's authority to call the special election is challenged.

State Election Board Meeting

I just found out this is happening tomorrow.

On the agenda is the town which forgot to vote, Monticello, Wisconsin.

What is weird is that on this agenda are most of the items originally scheduled to be on the agenda of the May 18, 2005 meeting.

I will see if I can make this.

Now I feel really stupid

I need to pay closer attention to the footnotes. Sub-paragraphs 5.91(15) through 5.91(18) do not take effect until January 1, 2006.

This is clearly stated in the footnote(s) I failed to read.

5.91 - ANNOT.
NOTE: Sub. (18) is created eff. 1-1-06 by 2003 Wis. Act 265.

Thus, the Harford machinery is legal, certifiable and certified until the end of the year. My deepest appologies to Keven Kennedy and the WI SEB for my implication of sleepiness.

All that is left to say is:

DOH!!

Uncertified Voting Equiptment?

What is really bugging me now that I am digging into it is the phrase: "...except for those from the city of Hartford, where voters still push a lever to select a candidate and a machine tallies the votes." from this article in the Washington / Ozaukee section of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

WI state statute 5.91(18) clearly states no voting machine can be certified if it does not produce a piece of paper. Chapter 5.91 sets the minimum standards for certification of ballots and machines used in Wisconsin.

How this piece of uncertifable equipment even in use?

Is this the WI State Election Board and Kevin Kennedy asleep at the switch?

Washington County canvass may not be done

For those of you who think I only pick on the City and county of Milwaukee, here is the ongoing story of the mid-Moraine judicial race.

The same things in this race. Bags of ballots were not secured as required by law. Germantown district #1 had a legally faulty canvass which could have affected the margin by up to 3 votes.

Canvass: Quick hits on today and beyond

The county canvass is still not done as of 11:30 am today. No reason was given as to the delay.

I finally got copies of the machine tapes for my 5 targeted wards (39, 44, 258, 260, and 312). The numbers on the ballot tapes printed on April 5, 2004 matched those in all 10 poll lists. No ballots box stuffing in those 5 wards.

No explanation yet why the 2 poll lists for City Ward 260 are not signed properly or why some of the numbers in the 10 poll lists are in pencil and some are in pen.

There is a write-in tally sheet for City of Milwaukee ward 188. It is signed by 3 people. At no time during the 20 minutes I was allowed to observe the canvass was this tally performed. Further, the 4 non-chief inspectors left at 8:20 pm. Who are the 3 people who signed this part of the record of the offical canvass? Creating false canvass records is a felony in Wisconsin which can get you 3-1/2 years.

I was told by the Melanie Swank, from the Milwaukee City Attorney's office, the city election commission cannot fulfill my open records request because the Federal Prosecutor and the Milwaukee District Attorney's office have taken physical possession of every record held by the City of Milwaukee Election Commission for the general election of November 2, 2004. I re-submitted my OR request to the DA's office asking for polling list log pages, inspectors' reports (EB-104's) and machine tape reports for 8 wards of the City of Milwaukee.

I am looking forward to the next demonstration of the touch-screen fraud machines by Diebold, Sequoia and ES & S. None of the 3 machines meet the requirement of 5.91(18). I would argue neither does the Populex system since the ballot printed is printed only in the machine-readable barcode PDF417.

I am pursuing my lobbying of the Wisconsin State Senate Special Committee on Election Law Review to add language to the requirements of voting machines prohibit internet-enabled voting machinery.

An last is my update of the testing guidelines I promised

Happy Patriots' Day

Most do not know this, but today is Patriots' Day.

On April 19, 1775 the British government was out enforcing its reasonable gun-control laws. During the night of the 18th Paul Revere rode out to warn the people in northern Massachusetts and Connecticut that the British were coming to confiscate assault rifles as is now the case in California. The minute men then assembled on the Lexington Green and met the British in armed rebellion. These minute men were dispersed, but the confiscation of the assault rifles failed. The British march was later repelled at Concord and the British retreat was harried all the way back to their secured Green Zone, the City of Boston.

A month later, Patrick Henry in his famous "Give Liberty, or give me death" speech referred to this as the northern gale which brings "clash of resounding arms".

Remember to shoot straight, and, when the time comes, be certain Knotch the "V" like a minute man.

Happy Patriots' Day

Another problem in the canvass of a city ward

Neither of the 2 poll lists for City of Milwaukee ward 260 contained the required 3 signatures.

The local board canvassing statute 7.51(2)(a) requires the that after the all the poll lists are reconciled, every poll list is to be signed by the chief inspector an all poll inspectors who were in charge of a poll list. Becuse there must be at least 2 poll lists, there must be the signatures of least 2, non-chief poll inspectors. The 2 poll lists ofr ward 260 only had 2 signatures. I do not know at this time which signature is missing.

I was inspecting the pairs of poll lists for the 5 city wards: 39, 44, 258, 260, and 312. These 5 wards (and 3 others)I selected as my targets of opportunity because of the exceptional consistent fraud record over 5 elections (now 6) in these wards.

I think I need to add this to my list of election woes. The woe currently listed that no recording of the last elector number was done. Not signing the log book in order toattest to the correctness of the poll lists is another and separate problem.

Another irregularity found was the number of electors voting (actually the number issued to the last elector voting) was recorded in pencil. The signatures of every inspector in every one of the 8 poll lists I examined though were in pen.

The more you tug at this thread the more the election process in Milwaukee unravels like a cheap suit. But, the 5th largest city, Appleton, has none of these problems.

Milwaukee County Canvass will not be on time

It is offical. The county canvass for Milwaukee County will not be completed today as required by state statute 7.60(5)(a).

I was just told by Janice Dunn, the director of the Milwaukee County Election Commission, the county canvass will be completed sometime early next week. Because of this my open records requests will not be fulfilled until late next week after the county canvass is complete.

But, I was assured all is well and that the State Elections Board is aware of and approved the delay. I feel better. Don't you? Calm blue oceans fill my view now.
The election on April 5, 2005 had 1/3 the turnout of the election on November 2, 2004and
Ten calendar days are not enough!
To be fair it is actually 7 working days (2:00 pm April 6, 2005 to 2:00 pm April 15, 2005) since it may be too much to expect county employees to work on weekends. If it takes 9 business days (next Tuesday) to complete the canvass, how long would the county canvass for the November 2, 2004 taken had the law been followed back in November as it is now being followed in April? The county and city election commissions will be meeting again today to work out the problems in the city canvass. The county and city interests are not the same. The city election commission interest here is to "put this behind us" and "move on". The county interest is to not become more entangled with the city election problems than is absolutely required by law.

I would love to be a fly on the wall of the room where the county election commission, the city election commission and the city attorney's office have been holding meetings over the last 2 days and later today. No meeting is going well when legal council is involved.

County Canvass Deadline

Wisconsin state statute 7.60(5)(a) requires the Milwuakee county election commission to submit the county canvass to the state elections board by the end of day tomorrow. The deadline is 10 days from April 5, 2005.

From my conversations on the phone and my visit there today, it will be interesting to see if the state elections board gets their material by end of day tomorrow.

Perhaps Janice Dunn will be forced to use the "not canvassed" option available to her under 7.60(4)(c). The operative words in the paragraph are: ...,whether the votes are canvassed or not,....

This is a kind of rude option. But, it has the virtue of extricating Ms. Dunn from the corruption in the City of Milwaukee. After all Milwaukee County and the City of Milwaukee are not "in this together".

Searching for the next Commissioner

The City of Milwaukee is looking to fill the position of Executive Director of the City of Milwaukee Election Commission. This position has been vacant since the resignation of Lisa Artison.

The job posting by the city clearly upgrades the candidate requirements from "wife of campaign worker for Tom Barret" to something more substantial; experience administering elections.

On to the county canvass

Last month Kevin Kennedy was quoted as: "..there is nothing the voters can do now [about the November 2, 2005 election]"

He is correct. Correcting errors caused by bad procedures (my pet peeve) is hard to correct 4 months after the fact. But, spring elections are here. The canvassing processes in 7.51, 7.53, 7.60, and 7.70 is upon us. Those statutes are desigend to obviate errors and prevent the propagation of those errors upwards. To that end. here is the first page of the letter I delivered to Janice Dunn of the Milwaukee County Election Commission. I was shocked she recognized my name. Apparently, my name came up in discussions yesterday and this morning between her and Kevin Kennedy. I hope that is a good thing.

Janice Dunn , Clerk of Milwaukee County
Office Address: Courthouse
901 N. 9th Street, RM G-3
Milwaukee, WI 53233-1458

Dear Ms. Dunn:

I have been trying to schedule time with the City of Milwaukee Election in order to compare the poll lists, machine tape totals and inspectors’ reports (form EB-104). The City Election Commission informed me Wednesday that the machine tapes are with your office as part of the county canvass under WI statutes 7.60.

I called this morning to see when I could schedule my inspection. I was told sometime after next Friday, April 15, 2005. The nice lady on the phone informed me that your office is checking and double checking the paperwork and records provided by the City of Milwaukee.

Since, this has been my interest for the 5 prior elections, I asked about city wards were the number of ballots cast exceeds the number of electors voting. I asked if any such wards are found, will those wards have the excess ballots removed and the ward canvassed properly as required by state law? The clerk informed me this is not state law to do this.

I am writing you to inform your office that this is incorrect. Please check with the state election board on this at 608-266-8005 or fax them at 608-267-0500. Feel free to include this letter in any communication with the state elections board.

The canvassing procedures to be conducted by election inspectors at the polling location are laid out in detail in WI state statutes 7.51 as modified by 5.77 and 5.85. In each of the last 5 elections (spring primary 2004 through spring primary 2005) the election inspectors of the City of Milwaukee have failed to perform proper local board canvasses in many polling places. Depending on the election, the wards with improper local canvasses have been most wards or a sizable minority or wards within the city.

I would petition you as Clerk of Milwaukee County to use your authority under 7.60(4)(c) carefully examine any material sent to you by the City of Milwaukee Election Commission. I would also urge you to use your authority under 7.60(4)(c) to designate as uncanvassed any ward which failed to conduct a proper local board canvass. I would urge you to use your authority to keep such wards designated as uncanvassed until the City of Milwaukee has had conducted local board canvasses to which your office is willing certify under 7.60(5).

Page 2 is really wonkish stuff on election statutes. And, yes, I know I got the title wrong. But it is the typo on the letter I deliverd.

Over lunch I wrote the above and delivered it to room G-3. Ms. Dunn was in. So, the leter was hand delivered. She seemed dubious that a status of uncanvassed was allowed. But, she was curteous and we even discussed damnable touch screens. I gave the heads up on wards 188 and 189.

The county is split 3 or 4 people for everything which is not the City of Milwaukee and a room full of county and city elections officials working on the City. Ms. Dunn's stated goal is let the City "smooth" out the irrgularities found. I infer some have been found. But, Ms. Dunn declined to say what or how many.

I actually think the City canvass is being checked in some detail. This is a good thing even if the operating assumption is incompetence and not fraud.

No Inspection Today

I was unable to keep my appointment with the City of Milwaukee Election Commission this morning. I wish at times my life was more in the fat part of the bell curve so the following would be fiction.

Yesterday (Wednesday), I agreed to a matched platelet donation for the SE Wisconsin blood center. The significance of the matched donation is that I was called because my blood work already matched a patient who needs platelets. Most likely cancer, AIDS or organ transplantation has compromised the immune system of the patient to whom I match. The donation portion of this takes about 90 to 100 minutes.

I arrived at about 2:45 and within 20 minutes was on the chair about to be stuck for a stranger. With the needle about 6 inches from my arm, lightning strikes nearby. The lights flicker and all the platelet machines reset and alarm. While we are looking perplexed a second lightning strike flickers everything again.

The staff asks: "Can we postpone this? We would not like for that to happen in the middle of your donation."

I am thinking yes, postponement sounds good; perhaps even cancellation. As an ex-electrical engineering student at MSOE, I did not like the idea of being connected to an electrical device by tubes filled with viscous salt water (blood) and a metal needle in my vein. I found out later that the staff's concern was that any platelets in the machine would be contaminated or damaged if the machine resets.

I am thinking lightning to the vein. They are thinking spoiled donation.

After the storm seemed to have quieted a bit, I was willing to go for it. It is a matched donation. I almost have the staff convinced to go for it. The platelet lady is on the phone with the main center on 18th street to see if there are any other matches for this patient. Just how acute is the need for my platelets? As she is speaking, the power goes out. Everything is dark and no phones.

Even worse the backup power did not kick in. I was the only donor in the facility. But, the backup power is supposed to kick in to keep the refrigerators working. I decided at this point, in for a penny in for a pound.

About the time I should have been leaving the center (4:30) the power is back on, the weather channel looks good, and there are no other matches in the system at this time for the target patient. We are a go. I move to a new chair since the first chair has contaminated tubing in it from the power problems.

I am comfy. Koss headphones are on. The Sci-fi channel is on the direct TV. And, she missed the vein in my left arm. I suggested taking the needle out and try again. This is a matched donation. But, I must admit there was a not-so-small voice at this time asking: Are you really meant to donate today?

No second chance on the left arm though. There is policy of only one stick per arm. I move to a 3rd chair. The second set of tubing is contaminated with blood. Not much. But the blood center is fastidious about all things blood.

I am still the only donor in the place. So they agree to let a particular nurse of the 6 present try for a vein in my right arm. I guess she is the most skilled with a needle. Anyway, this insertion went better than nearly any other I can remember. I donate without further incident.

With all this weirdness my 2.5 hour donation took nearly 4.5 hours. With the transit to and from my employer I called it an even 5 hours.

Because of my Wednesday donation I canceled my Thursday appointment this morning with the City Election Commission. I needed to make up for lost time.

Who ever heard of weather-related donation problems? Like I said life in the tails of the bell curve can be strange.

Random thoughts about April 5, 2005

First, the the difference in the dedication to excellence between the Milwaukee polling place and the 2 Germantown districts to an accurate and correct canvass is staggering. Even the smooth as silk canvass of district #3 took 1 hour and 40 minutes to do. If what I saw at Lyon's park pavilion is an example of a "good crew" in the City of Milwaukee, I shudder to think what a bad crew of inspectors looks like.

Second, in the tallying of write-in for Supreme Court Justice (against Ann Walsh Bradley) there were 2 familiar names; Charles Sykes and Bill Pangman.

Third, Clearly the Germantown pool referendum (no new tax 56/44%) was the hot-button race for Germantown. There were 5033 ballots cast in Germantown for a 36.21% turn-out among registered voters. Of those 5033, only 22 people across the 4 districts failed to cast a vote on this referendum. This is a voting ratio of 99.56%. For superintendant there were 4,635 votes tallied for a paltry voting rate of only 92.09%.

Fourth, I do not think Jane Wilms or her deputy clerk, Christine Micka, get enough recognition for the work they do to make voting in Germantown such a pleasure. They gave every poll worker the chief inspector training. This is good sense in case the chief is ill, injured or otherise unavailable. Then both were on the job from 7:00 am (setup) until 10:15 pm (canvassing). Plus the next day is hectic because of the reporting to the Washington county clerk by 2:00 pm.

In summary:

For a municipality the character of the chief election official certainly sets the tone, character and, dare I say, legality of the election they supervise.

The Canvassing of Districts 1 and 3

The canvassing of Germantown districts 1 and 3 was remarkably different than the canvassing of Milwaukee City Wards 188 and 189.

I arrived at the school in Germantown at about 8:55 pm after being shown the door at the Lyon’s Park Pavilion at 8:21 pm. I will neither confirm nor deny whether I was exceeding the speed limit.

Election workers for both districts were still there. District 1 was in the west half of the gymnasium. District 3 was in the east half. The machine in district 1 screwed up again. There is more on that later. That is not why the canvassing was ongoing at 8:55 pm.

In both districts the following steps were taken.

Step 1	The numbers of electors between the poll list were reconciled. (I did not see this). There were 1617 electors for district 1 and 1024 electors for district 3.
Step 2	The numbers of ballots cast reported by the machines was compared to the number of electors. For district 3 these numbers matched perfectly. For district 1 the machine reported 1614 ballots cast. This corresponded with the 3 jams reported in the incident log.
Step 3	The election workers split into two groups of 2 and 5.
Step 4a	The ballots were removed from the lock box and examined for write-ins. The group of 5 examined for write-ins. In district 1 I saw a ballot with no marks (ovals) for the trustee race, but a name clearly written in. This ballot was counted by the machine as no vote cast for trustee. But, this ballot was sorted out by hand for later tallying. In district 1, 41 ballots had at least 1 write-in. In both districts each ballot was checked for any write-ins the machine may have missed. ( I did not see this for district 3. I saw some of it for district 1)
Step 4b	The 2 poll lists were reconciled. This was done by having one of the 2 inspectors read off each number on each page. The second inspector would follow along in his poll list. Except for one swap in District 3 (same address), every page of both poll list agreed exactly for both districts. (I saw the end of this for both districts)
Step 5	The whole group of inspectors (7 per district) then tallied the votes on the ballots with write-ins.
Step 6	There was much signing of paperwork (Machine tapes, incident logs and ballot bags)
Step 7	The ballots were secured in the bags and sealed with plastic cable ties

District 3 was done by about 9:40 pm.

District 1 had an additional step between steps 4b and step 5. They counted every ballot in the box. This was done by separating the ballots into groups of 50 and then counting the groups of 50. This was done 3 times as several groups did not actually have 50 ballots in them. But the machine lock box did indeed contain 1617 ballots. The machine failed to tally the votes on 3 of them. District 1 spent at least 40 extra minutes in this process. The counting was aided and supervised by the village clerk, Jane Wilms.

Given the diligence with which the poll inspectors reconciled the ballots, tapes and poll lists, it seems almost spiteful to point out that 1617 ballots were tallied by the machine as 1614 ballots cast. Is it not reasonable to assume that the 731 votes tallied for Burmaster may be off by 0, 1, 2, or 3 votes? This is why I say the 1614 tape tally is enough to throw out the tape numbers under 7.51(2)(h)

This error was propagated upward to the county canvass. The election results published by Washington county for Germantown District 1 show the incorrect number of ballots cast as, 1614, not the correct number of 1617.

Even here in Germantown we are Eloi's to the voting machine Morlocks.

The Canvassing of Wards 188 and 189

I watched the part of the canvass of wards 188 and 189 which took place at the polling place, 3301 S. 55th. It was different than the local canvasses I have observed in Hales Corners or Germantown. I am not sure if it was illegal.

The chief inspector (Wendy I believe) stated there were 196 electors for ward 189 and 246 electors for ward 188. This is a total of 442 electors for the polling place. The Opti-Tech III machine clearly displayed 440 ballots cast. There was no effort to reconcile these numbers. When as the machine tape was read, the tape contained a report for each ward. I asked what was the numer of ballots casts for each ward as reported on the tape. I was rebuffed and was directed to look at the LED display of 440. There was no effort by the chief inspector that I saw to determine the number of ballots cast or that those numbers reconcile to the number of electors for the ward. Statute 7.51(2)(a)

I asked again what were the numbers of ballots cast in each ward and why the numbers (electors and ballots cast) have not been reconciled. I was told "I have a good crew here." and "you are interfering with my closing this poll." She then took my name and day phone number so she could turn it over to the city attorney. Poll watching can be intimidating is you ask questions.

The second thing I noticed is that the ballots were never secured. I saw no counting of write-ins, no separation of ballots (write-in, damaged, challenged, etc.). In fact what I saw was that the lock box to the opti-tech III was opened. Into this chamber were added the several hundred unused ballots. This does not seem to be the usual meaning of secured.

It seemed the canvass was ajourning to a central counting location. But, I was told there was no central counting location. I then asked where they (the 4 non-chief inspectors) were going. I was told home. Even if the canvass is adjourned to a central counting location, the counting of write-ins must still be done at the polling place. I am confused as to when and by whom were the write-in ballots counted.

By 8:21 the Lyon's Park pavillion was empty and locked.

Room 501 is scrambling

I just called to confirm my appointment with the Milwaukee City Election Commission (made last week) to inspect the EB-104's (inspectors' reports), the poll books and the machine tapes. Apparently, the office is scrambling to get materials to Milwaukee County by the 2:00 pm dead line today.

Sounds like complying with the law can be a hassle if you are out of practice.

First meeting of poll-worker sub-committee

I just got off the phone with Frank Cumberbatch regarding the meeting of the poll worker sub-committee of the Milwaukee Election Task Force held on March 4, 2005. First, the meeting was about an hour long of the scheduled 3 hours.

You will rest at ease to know this first meeting worked out the organizational details of how the sub-committee will report to task force as a whole. As of this time there is no second meeting scheduled nor has the determinination been made if a second meeting is needed. I did find out of whom to make the open records request for the minutes of this meeting.

Oh, this is going to be a delightful thread to follow.

Robinson sees no fraud

In her testimony (a 72 Mb mp3 file) before the state senate sub-committee on election law, Ms robinson stated she has seen no evidence of fraud; Voter inconvienence yes, but no fraud. But, Ms. Robinson has been reading of the stories of fraud in Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Sharon Robinson wanted the sub-committe and the public to believe that the chairwoman of the Milwaukee Election Task force and the interim Executive Directory of the Milwaukee Election Commission has to read the newspaper to determine if any fraud was committed by an election official.

That is simply preposterous.

Is the Milwauke Election Task Force meeting?

How is this notice the state senate sub-committee on election law
on January 19th 2005 different than this report to the same sub-committe on March 23, 2005?

Have any meetings actually been held?

I want to see the minutes from the meeting on poll workers which was supposedly held on March 4, 2005. I guess I have another open records request to file.

Update: Ms. Robinson stated to the sub-committee that the task force report is due June 30, 2005. But, that she is personally pushing for a report by mid to late May, 2005. She is advocating 3 months instead 4 months of study.

Election Task Force at work

More from the web-site of the state senate sub-commitee on election legislation.

The usual solution to a scandal is to form a task force to study the problem until the public's attention wanes. The city of Milwaukee election commission is following this old, but, very successfull strategy for the present scandal. If you read the mission and objectives of the task force you will notice neither eliminating fraud nor complying with state election law is the mission nor an objective of this task force.

The Milwaukee Election Task Force is using the, now thread-bare, excuse that November 2, 2004 election issues were all caused by exceptionally high voter turnout. That does not explain the illegal canvasses in September 14, 2004, the illegal poll inspector for ward 13 on February 15, 2005 or the still corrupted poll lists to be used this Tuesday on April 5, 2005.

That mendacity aside, The Milwaukee Election Task Force reported to the state senate sub-commitee on election legislation on March 23, 2005. What has the task force has been doing? Why meeting with each other. And only once at that.

Now, I make no secret my obssession is the illegal local board canvasses performed by poll inspectors. There are other problems and there is a sub-commitee for each. But, I focused on the sub-committee which addresses poll workers. Here are the agenda items for this sub-committe as reported by Sharon Robinson.

Poll Worker Recruitment
Orientation and Training
Compensation

Compensation!! I expect PAID workers to be fired for breaking the law, not get a RAISE for breaking it!

Recalls in Wisconsin are too EASY?

This from the web-site for the state senate sub-commitee on election law is this gem buried in the minutes from February 23, 2005.

Apparently, recall elections in Wisconsin are too easy. Getting 1 voter in 4 to sign a recall petition within 30 days is just too darn inconvienient for those in office. The proposal calls for:

Suggestions for Modifications to the Law
The committee should consider modifying the law so that recall petitions should state the grounds that constitute cause for a recall of officials, e.g., neglect of duty or official misconduct. Also,the number of signatures required on recall petitions should be increased.

If 25% of the voters are signing a petition within 30 days, I suspect the grounds for recall are well known. The extra boiler plate requirement will become a new way to dismiss whole pages of signatures when contesting a recall petition. And why is 25% of the voters too low? For a city-wide office in the city of Milwaukee the recall number until September 2, 2006 is about 55,000. This is too small a group of citizens to be listened to?

State Senator Joe Leibham, 9th Senate District, heads this sub-committee. Remember, if you contact him, this item is a proposal for legislation. It is not legislation. It is not a bill which has even been enrolled. It is not even a proposal for legislation from this sub-commitee. It is just a proposal someone gave the sub-committee to consider passing on to the state senate as a whole.

Again, be nice if you contact the senator.