I’m absolutely shocked that there are irregularities from Waukesha. Stunned, even!
Sigh. Shat a clusterfuck. Even if all the results are legit, it’s likely screwed up enough, with such a muddled paper trail, that it’ll be virtually impossible to sort it all out and actually demonstrate that.
On the upside, maybe this will at least result in a few incompetent fools getting kicked out to make room for new, hopefully slightly less incompetent, fools.
Raife
1682
Remember the Utah group who started recall efforts against the eight eligible Democratic State Senators?
Here’s a pretty interesting take on Dan Baltes, the Utah man whose American Patriot Recall Coalition was behind a number of recall efforts targeting Wisconsin Democratic state senators.
The story is in the Deseret News, from Salt Lake City, Utah. It reports complaints about Baltes from conservatives who have had dealings with him, and it also reports that Baltes is not his original name. He’s really Daniel Arthur Elliott, the story says.
The story also says he spent 10 years in the Idaho prison system from the mid-'80s to mid-'90s for grand theft, forgery and writing bad checks.
His emailed response to the Journal Sentinel on that report: “If the best anyone can do is try to smear me with something that happened more than 20 years ago and hasn’t repeated, they have way too much time on their hands.”
Baltes and his coalition filed initial paperwork for many recalls against Wisconsin Democrats, but he’s not connected to any of the three groups that have delivered signatures against Democrats so far to the state Government Accountability Board.
Three of his recall groups missed their deadlines to file signatures this week. One against Sen. Mark Miller (D-Monona) may or may not still be current. But the coalition is connected to a group targeting Sen. Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point).
One other note about Baltes’ coalition: It hasn’t filed campaign finance reports for any of the state recall campaigns with which it’s associated, even though deadlines for doing so have passed. Scott Noble, the local coordinator for the Lassa recall, has said that the coalition has paid for advertising in that area.
The story also says he spent 10 years in the Idaho prison system from the mid-'80s to mid-'90s for grand theft, forgery and writing bad checks.
His emailed response to the Journal Sentinel on that report: “If the best anyone can do is try to smear me with something that happened more than 20 years ago and hasn’t repeated, they have way too much time on their hands.”
I got a laugh out of that. “Ok, so I spent 10 in prison for being a crook and stealing money through forgery and bad checks. Is that the worst you can come up with?”
Kind of implies he managed to hide the bodies really well.
My wife is out on the town.
Can you buy me this one?
Wow. So, they arrested some preschool teacher out there a couple weeks ago, and charged her with making death threats toward the Republican State Senators…
…and it’s someone I totally know. Well, knew. Her family moved to Wisconsin some years ago, but all throughout grade school and into part of high school, we went to church and/or Sunday School together. Never would’ve guessed she’d do something like this.
Raife
1687
Six of the eight recall efforts against Republican State Senators were successful in getting enough signatures to trigger a recall election. Three petitions were turned in against Democrats, but those are pretty fishy. It will be a few months before any of these elections happen because many signatures will be challenged and, when that is over, nomination papers will need to be circulated.
Walker is trying to push a lot of legislation through before these recall elections happen.
Also, Walker had protesters in boats today on his fishing trip. His response was to whine that most people fish to get away from their jobs.
before clicking on that link i was thinking, “man, if i was a republican, i’d tell people the petitions were for recalling republican senators to trick people into signing.”
and lo and behold…
I thought the protesters were pretty clever, but that really wasn’t much of a whine by Walker.
Raife
1690
Did you really just type that out and press Submit?
I dunno if “Annual Governor’s Fish Opener” is really a non-work function.
Raife
1692
So those recall elections? Yeah, the Republicans just passed, in committee, an amended version of a Voter ID bill they were working on that will take effect before the recall elections in July. Yes, in two months.
Voters taking part in the upcoming recall elections would need photo identification, if the latest version of the controversial voter ID bill becomes law.
The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee passed an amended version of the photo ID bill Monday, removing a provision that required student IDs to carry correct addresses and moving up the date of implementation to immediately after the bill passes.
“We were all wondering why there’s such a rush on this bill — now we know,” said state Rep. Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse. “It’s about the recall elections. You feel the rules need to be changed right in the middle of the game.”
Six Republicans and three Democrats face Senate recalls this summer. Republicans hold a 19-14 majority, so a net victory of three seats would give the Democrats control. The first elections are scheduled for July 12.
Photo ID has long been a divisive issue in Wisconsin, with Republicans championing the measure and Democrats saying it would suppress turnout among seniors, minorities, the disabled and college students — voter populations that lean heavily in their favor.
Four other states have photo ID laws on the books: Florida, Georgia, Indiana and Kansas. Implementation of the bill would give Wisconsin arguably one of the most restrictive voter laws in the country.
Meanwhile in the Supreme Court recount, the Democract, Kloppenberg, has picked up only a few hundred votes, nowhere near the 7,000 she needs, with only Waukesha County (natch) not complete. However, in the 30% of the Waukesha that has been recounted, the Republican, Prosser, has picked up a few votes. So it’s virtually impossible for the Dem to win on the recount.
The interesting part, however, will be if she files a court challenge to the recount. That could take months, and if Prosser isn’t seated by August 1, his seat becomes vacant until the court challenges are complete and the winner is declared. That would leave six sitting justices who often split 3-3 on political issues. So you just may have the possibility of an evenly divided court when the anti-union bill comes before the court. Assuming it works as in the federal system, that would leave whatever decision the Court of Appeals reaches intact.
eznark
1694
I assumed Prosser would hold his seat as incumbent throughout court challenges? You know damn well that if the court is split 3-3, you know Abrahamson will fast track everything she can to get split rulings.
How is using the court to disenfranchise voters any different from using voter ID laws? Bizarre times in Wisco.
According to today’s Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, his seat becomes vacant if no winner is declared by Aug. 1.
I agree with your argument about the courts, but I’m too cynical to believe either side is reallly interested in advancing democracy.
Anyway, if you’re the unions this has to be your strategy:
- File enough legal challenges to tie up Prosser’s seat until after Aug. 1.
- Get the Court of Appeals to rule against the anti-union law.
- Flip the Senate to Democrat in the recall elections so that the Republican’s can’t pass another version of the law.
Now that’s all a very long shot, but, yeah, bizarre times in WI. Never thought I’d get better political theater by moving from Illinois to Wisconsin, but, damn, this is quite the show.
Raife
1696
As partisan as people have made them in recent years, judicial races are non-partisan. Calling them the Democrat and the Republican isn’t really accurate. Normally I’d let it slide, but you’ve done this more than once.
The recount provision if the difference is within 0.5% is in the state constitution. Ramming through an unfunded voter ID bill, a bill that is probably the most restrictive when compared to the four other states that have them, to take effect for recall elections coming up in two months to protect yourselves when Wisconsin previously had same-day registration and very little evidence of voter fraud is hardly comparable.
The state Legislature appears intent on suppressing Wisconsin’s vote. Given the rarity of the crime that a voter ID measure is attacking, there is little room to interpret the Legislature’s actions as anything else.
Disenfranchisement is the continuing promise of the voter ID bill speeding toward approval in Wisconsin.
The Legislature is about to make it much more difficult to vote for low-income citizens of color (among those most likely to be without photo ID and least likely to get one no matter what mitigating provisions are enacted), college students and those attracted to the ease of voting made possible by absentee ballots. GOP legislators are apparently dissatisfied with success.
Safeguards now in place make voter fraud a rarity. The state Department of Justice and the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office have prosecuted 20 cases from the November 2008 election - 11 of which were cases of felons voting and six the result of special registration deputies improperly registering people.
Changes to absentee voting laws in 2000 removed the requirement that voters provide reasons for voting early. Absentee voting then soared from 6% of voters to 21% in 2008. Such success is apparently unconscionable. The measure would again require residents to give reasons.
The real “crisis” prompting this bill by Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale) is how many Democrats vote in Wisconsin, a state that, under current law, historically posts among the highest voter participation rates in the nation. Another unconscionable success.
The Brennan Center for Justice cites estimates that 21 million Americans - 11% of citizens - do not have current photo IDs. A 2005 study by John Pawasarat at the Employment and Training Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee found only 47% of Milwaukee County African-American adults and 43% of Hispanic adults had a valid driver’s license. This doesn’t compare favorably with the 85% of white adults with licenses in the rest of the state.
eznark
1697
Of course neither side is interested in Democracy, it’s politics. For God’s sakes, Kloppenburg declared herself the winner up 200 votes, now down 7,000 she is going to demand legal challenges ad infinitum. No shame whatsoever. If Prosser had lost…exact same thing would have happened.
The recount provision if the difference is within 0.5% is in the state constitution.
What does that have to do with the ridiculous legal challenges that are being prepared? I’m fine with the recount (not the taxpayer funded aspect but meh…) it’s the absurdity of trying to throw out 7,000 votes to get a win that is ridiculous. (I agree with you, for different reasons, on the voter ID bill by the way)
I hate to say it, but using procedural techniques to block an election whose results you feel represent the votes cast just because you don’t like the person who got voted in…
… is something that I’m not comfortable with in the slightest. If there is evidence that the vote was not legitimate/valid or that there was some significant amount of fraud, then yes, Kloppenberg should file a court challenge; but if its only use is to delay the re-seating of Prosser, I’d want there to be a damn good reason.
There’s non-partisan, and then there’s “non-partisan”. The midwest is full of non-partisan races that are only non-partisan in the sense that they have no parties listed on the ballots.
Raife
1700
I think there have been enough inconsistencies to warrant concern. Kloppenburg admitted to getting a lot of pressure to request the recount, but ultimately said she did it to restore confidence in the system. The recount problems that have come out so far are having the opposite effect.
