Wait And Wait, There's More

 

As the gentle reader probably already knows, GOP activist and election denier Harry Wait has been convicted of two counts of election fraud and one count of identity theft. Wait had asked for and received eight absentee ballots in the 2022 election, including those for Racine Mayor Cory Mason and soon-to-be former Speaker Robbin' Vos.

Ironically, Wait was part of the group that went after Vos for not doing enough about election fraud, just as Wait had committed.

The convictions in themselves are not a surprise. Wait went on social media bragging about his crimes, falsely claiming that the system doesn't work when it clearly does.

However, there are a couple of parts of the story I would have liked to see some follow-up on.

One was whether Sen. Ron Johnson still thinks that Wait is a "white hat hacker."  My guess is that he would say yes. After all, election fraudsters have to stick together.

The other issue I have is with Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmailing. Wait had notified Schmaling via email of his crimes, but instead of arresting Wait, Schmaling joined in on the bragging: 

Schmaling did not arrest Wait and instead publicized the plot on social media as being helpful in rooting out vulnerabilities in the state election system and blamed the Wisconsin Elections Commission, calling on commissioners to remove a way voters can easily request ballots online.

I want to know why Schmaling was not investigated and charged as a party to the crime.  After all, the system will only work if law enforcement enforces the laws, which Schmaling obviously did not.

WISGOP To Launch Yet Another Attack on Democracy

 

So far, democracy, and the election results of 2020 are still standing, despite multiple prongs attacks from all sides.  Although to be honest, the would be assailants, aka Republicans, more resemble the Bungling Brother Circus clown act than a serious threat.

Trump filed lawsuits on both the state and federal levels.  However, his attorneys are incompetent and failed to file the lawsuits properly with each court.  The federal case was rejected outright.  I suppose it didn't help when the attorney, Sidney Powell, submitted blank forms with the petition and outright lied on the parts she did fill in.

The cases on the state level are still pending, but they have only until Monday to resolve them.

Two other cases filed on the state level were denied a hearing by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.  

The best part of the three state level cases being rejected by the Supreme Court was that each was due to Brian Hagedorn siding with the liberals and the Constitution rather than doing whatever his right wing special interest funders to him to do.  This sent almost every Republican into conniptions and made several heads explode.

Currently, Kenny Paxton, the Attorney General of Texas, has filed a federal lawsuit against Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia in an effort to force them to order their electors to vote for Trump despite the fact that Biden had won each of those states. The common belief is that the only reason Paxton filed this lawsuit in the first place is that he fishing for a preemptive pardon from Trump for all of the misconduct while in office that put him under a federal investigation.

But now the Wisconsin Republicans are throwing everything they can - including the kitchen sink - in an effort to enforce fascism and kill off democracy.

Robert Spindell, one of the Republicans on the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which is supposed to be administering and protecting the elections, attended a MAGA "Stop the Steal" rally on Monday.  Not only did he attend, he spoke to his fellow Trumpanzees, using the same twisted logic and nonsensical talking points that is so popular among Republicans these days:

While he did not give any specific examples of voter fraud in Wisconsin, Spindell implied, falsely, that it had happened.

“There’s no evidence vote fraud did not occur,” Spindell said, calling for election officials to prove a negative. 

Also, another member of the commission, Dean Knudson, has filed a complaint with his own commission against Governor Evers for certifying the election results as he is required to do per federal and state laws.

In the center ring of this circus of clowns is State Representative Ron Tusler, the chair of the Assembly's election committee, has scheduled a hearing about the elections for Friday.  Tusler has said that he is "unsure if Biden won the state."  To support his point, he spewed out all the same claims and conspiracy theories that have already been repeatedly debunked.  

To further cement his place in the museum of bad clowns, the hearing he is overseeing is making a mockery of itself.  The witnesses that have been called include a Bradford Foundation-sponsored radio squawker and hack writer; a former right wing Supreme Court justice who was voted out; the two tainted election commissioners mentioned above; and a cast of thousands of no-name right wing puppets.

Notably absent are any nonpartisan election officials and any Democrats.  

In other words, it's not exactly going to be a real hearing but more of a organized right wing echo chamber like Parler but in real time and in person instead of an anonymous antisocial social media platform.

This would be hilarious if it were not for the fact that they are going to try to use this parody of a hearing to change election laws for future elections and even try to change the 2020 results, if they can figure out a way to get it past Evers before Monday, when the Electoral College collects and counts their votes.

The question that I want answered by the likes of Tusler, Joe Sanfelippo and the others would be whether they consider their own election as fraudulent and resign from office because no one is sure they legitimately won their seats.

WISGOP Thwarts Themselves Again

After taking over all the branches of government in Wisconsin in 2011, the Republicans immediately got to work to secure their power and punishing those who tried to hold them accountable. Unfortunately for them, their incompetence has sprung up on them time and time again.

In 2018, Scott Walker lost his bid for reelection by a narrow margin. Normally, he would have been able to call for a recount, but the Republicans had changed that law, making it more difficult to get a recount. And thus, Walker was unable to challenge the vote and is becoming more and more irrelevant every day.

Another thing that the Republicans changed was abolishing the Government Accountability Board (GAB), which acted as a watchdog on Wisconsin elections and investigating any possible infractions of election laws. The Republicans had their undies in a bundle because it was the GAB that approved the John Doe investigation into Walker. They cried that it was all political and a partisan attack. What they wouldn't admit is that board consistent of retired judges, all of whom were Republican.

To replace the GAB, they created the Wisconsin Election Commission, which was comprised of six people, three Democrats and three Republicans. So much for not wanting the watchdog to be political.

This has become an outstanding issue now which again is biting the Republicans in the ass.

The Republicans, through a front group, filed a lawsuit to have nearly a quarter of a million people purged from the voter registration because they might have moved, based on a voter caging stunt. It was purely coincidental [end sarcasm] that the majority of the caging happened in areas that vote Democratic.

The judge granted the petition and went a step further, saying the purge should happen immediately.

Unsurprisingly, the three Democrats on the elections commission are blocking the purge from happening, citing an appeal by the commission and the fact that the League of Women Voters have filed a federal lawsuit to stop the purge:

The Wisconsin Elections Commission deadlocked Monday over whether to remove the voter registrations of more than 200,000 people in response to a judge's order.

The commission's inability to reach a consensus means the voters will stay on the rolls for at least the time being. An appeal in the case is ongoing and the commission faces a separate lawsuit that is trying to make sure people are not pulled from the rolls.

The three Republicans on the commission sought to take many of them off the rolls, but they were blocked by the three Democrats on the commission.

It was the second time in as many weeks that the commission broke down along party lines over the lawsuit, which has drawn national attention because of Wisconsin’s top-tier status in the 2020 presidential race.

As one could expect, Republicans are having meltdowns all across the state, accusing the Democrats in general, and specifically the three on the commission, of breaking the law, being anti-democratic. etc.

At the rate they're going, it won't be long before the Republicans end up suing themselves.

Taxpayer Dollars Used For Voter Suppression In Milwaukee

Milwaukee County Supervisor Deanna Alexander is a Republican's Republican.

Alexander won her office with a late race-baiting flier against her African American opponent. She's appeared at CPAC, was named a "rising star" by dark money group American Majority, illegally accepted free legal representation from a Bradley Foundation funded lawyer, supports gay bashing Chick Fil A and has accused Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis of supporting infanticide.

Yeah, she's a real pip, alright.

So it comes as no surprise to us in Milwaukee that she used taxpayer money to mail out 7,000 copies of her newsletter which included the information that a photo ID would be needed to vote on Election Day:

Here's a close up of the part in question:

The first problem with this is the fact that US Supreme Court blocked the implementation of this voter suppression law for this election.

But wait! There's more. There's always more.

This matter was quickly brought before the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board who ordered her to immediately send out another postcard - again at the taxpayer expense - to correct the misinformation she distributed.

Per her Facebook page, on Friday - just days before the election - she sent out the correction notice. It is doubtful that the postcards will get to the people in time before Election Day.

Despite the fact that it cost taxpayers thousands of dollars to send out the original mailer and thousands of dollars more to send out the correction, I have a feeling that we won't hear from the conservatives about this waste and fraud.

For me, the unanswered question is that why Alexander sent out only 7,000 of these mailers when she represents more than 50,000 people. You don't suppose that these mailers were targeted at a certain class of voters, do you?

Cross posted at Crooks and Liars.

Tamra, You Have Some 'Splaining To Do!

By Jeff Simpson 

What the Heck is happening in the Racine area?   Are things as crazy as Jonathan Steitz appears to be?  Are the republicans as unethical as we all know Robin Vos to be?  Or after gerrymandering and owning all three branches of Government do our friends on the right believe that, like the Governor they all love, the rules do not apply to them?

Sorry I got ahead of myself.   Let's start at the beginning.

Local resident Tamra Varebrook, is very involved in extremist right wing politics.

Tamra is a single mom of one daughter. After many years standing on the sidelines of the political scene, she realized things were not headed in the right direction and decided to step up.
For the last three years, Tamra has been extremely active in politics in both Racine County and Statewide. She is an elected member of the Racine County GOP board. She also sits on the public relations committee, and chairs the programs and activities committee.
During the historic recall election of the Wisconsin Governor and six Senators, Tamra and her daughter put hundreds of hours fighting against the local, state, and national union machines; even agreeing to be the protest candidate for her Senator under recall, making it necessary to force primaries in all races.

Ms. Varebrook is so involved in the extremist politics she ran as a fake democrat in the recall elections, costing local taxpayers needless thousands of dollars.   No price is too high to elect republicans!

Ms. Varebrook also sees herself as a defender of the Constitution.   '

Tamra is no stranger to the local media. You can see her often speaking out in support of our constitutional rights, against big government, and most recently against the indoctrination of our children in public schools. She appeared locally and nationally on “Fox and Friends”, after discovering a Civics lesson of her eighth-grade daughter’s defining ‘conservatism’ as restricting personal freedoms.
As Tamra’s daughter grows up, and is only a few short years from adulthood, she feels the need to fight for not only hers, but her daughter’s future and freedom.

 The problem for Ms. Varebrook, is that she put the same attention to detail in reading the Constitution as she did in memorizing her address.   It appears that Ms. Varebrook may possibly have voted illegally and misrepresented her address to polling officials.  

Whoops!  

We at CogDis obtained a very well documented and sourced complaint that has been filed with the GAB! The alleged charges are as follows:

I allege that: Tamra L. Varebrook, who voted in the Presidential Preference & SpringElection of 2012 (April 3, 2013) in the city of Racine at the St. Edwards polling location,was not a qualified elector at that location and municipality and intentionally used a falseresidential address, which is a violation of Wisconsin State Statute 12:13(1)(a).Further, I allege that Tamra L. Varebrook worked as a paid poll worker at the HumblePark Community Center polling location for the Spring Primary Election on February 21,2012, in the city of Racine and was at the time, a resident of Union Grove. TamraVarebrook misrepresented herself as a qualified elections inspector to the Clerk of theCity of Racine, and to the Chief Inspector at the Humble Park polling location in violationof Wisconsin State Statute 12:13(1)(b).

I allege Tamra L. Varebrook voted at St. Edwards polling location on that same electionday (February 21, 2012) and was not a qualified elector in the city of Racine but insteada resident of Union Grove, a violation of Wisconsin State Statute 12:13(1)(a).

I allege Aubrey Willms knew Tamra Varebrook was using her address as her legal votingaddress and lied to protect Ms. Varebrook and herself from responsibility in violation ofWisconsin State Statute 12:13(1)(h).

I believe Tamra Varebrook may have voted illegally from this address before these twodates, no less than on six occasions according to VPA records.

See according to her receipt for being a POLL WORKER, she listed her address as:

According to Tamra Varebrook’s pay receipt from the Racine Clerk’s office, she listedher address as 1414 Orchard Street Racine, Wisconsin 53405.

Yet her actual address was in Union Grove, WI!  

OOPS!  

That leaves us Inquiring minds at CogDis to ask a few questions.   

*   "Has Tamra Varebrook been lying about her address to vote?"*   Does she not know where she lives?  *  Does she think that her one vote in a place where she does not even live will have        any kind of effect on the actual outcome?*  Does she support voter ID to keep herself from voting?*  Does she have a getaway planned if she gets caught?*  Will Ms. Varebrook be on "Fox and Friends" to tell people how to vote illegally?
*  Can I be on "Fox and Friends" for breaking the story of the tea party (alleged) outlaw?*  Is she also fighting for her daughter's freedom to vote in any ward she feels like voting that day?
*  How would she handle it if she were to ever catch someone on the left illegally voting?*  Will the GAB do anything about this?*  Why are these stories always always always about hardcore far right republicans?*  Was Glenn Grothman referring to Ms. Varebrook specifically when he discussed single mothers?
*  Would voting in the wrong precinct and lying about where you live to poll workers, officially be considered a Bozo No - No?
*  Since Ms. Varebrook is such a strong supporter of "school choice" could she just be supporting "voter choice" here?
*  Are there any laws that you feel applies to both Democrats and Republicans alike?*  If you spent time in prison, heaven forbid, what is the one food you would hate having to give up?
*  Finally, if you are a "conservative" what exactly are you conserving?

We at CogDis await with bated breath to see how this plays out and will bring you more details as they become available!

Fact or Fiction?

By Jeff Simpson

I stumbled upon a discussion on facebook recently between a few people on the far right fringe of WI.  In it, they were discussing the popularity of different republicans in taking back the White House in 2016.  

This was the original discussion post:

Good news for Wisconsin Republican and Conservatives! Paul Ryan has the highest approval number and Walker comes in 7th. Also 2 Floridian's Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush at 3rd an 4th most favorable.

I am beginning to believe that Ryan is still our best shot..but Rand Paul does have a chance...I'll still need to see how he contrasts with the Dem's candidate and how the centrists take to Rand Paul. My fear is the press will force him into defending or denying his Father's ideas and positions, which will take up a lot of the energy Rand would need to make his positive case.

Thoughts?

Which of course led to them lamenting amongst themselves that the only way a democrat can win is election fraud and that no republican can win statewide until we enact voter ID because despite the republicans massive popularity in our state, the democrats just cheat.

Without taking the time to point out that the republicans control every branch of government in WI or a myriad of other facts, someone posted this as "proof" -

Mark Lahti Well Jeff. Just for starters. I followed three different vans with out of state plates carrying around the same groups of people from one polling place to another. They all went in and same day registered then voted. While inside watching same day registrants I observed them all using a letter that appeared to be a form letter as some some proof of residency. This went on all day. That was just one polling place in one city. These type of reports were coming in from all areas. Fraud was RAMPANT. I saw it first hand. The problem with the system is that there is vertically nothing you can do after the fact. Voter ID will go a long way to curtail this.

Monday at 11:35pm via mobile · Like · 1

Ken Brown Mark is correct, until we get a Statewide election for Governor or President with full Voter ID in place, we'll not get a good handle on just who much fraud is going on out there.

So my question to YOU is....do you really think that van loads of people with "out of state" plates were driving polling place to polling place and voting in the last election?  

Fact or fiction?   

The Dirty Little Secret About Election Fraud

Over the summer, I wrote about Thaddeus McCotter, the rather bizarre congressmen from Michigan, who wanted to be president but couldn't even get enough legitimate signatures on his nomination papers to stay on the ballot for his current seat. Because of allegations of improprieties with his nomination signatures, McCotter not only withdrew from all of his races but immediately resigned from his seat.

Now we know why.

Four of McCotter's staffers were charged with a total of 36 counts of falsifying the nomination papers:

Four staffers of former U.S. Rep. Thad McCotter, R-Livonia were charged today in connection with the false nominating petitions that led to McCotter's departure from Congress.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette described the four as "not simply Keystone Kops running amok ... criminal acts were committed."

He said the petition forgeries and cut-and-paste jobs on the petitions "would make an elementary art teacher cringe."

Schuette said the McCotter staffers also likely did the same thing in the 2008 elections, using 2006 petition signatures.

In a eerily similar path as we're seeing here in Fitzwalkerstan, one of the staffers already entered a plea of no contest.

Can you imagine that? The party so worried about election fraud is again the party that commits it.

I would point the gentle reader to this article which my friend pointed out to me, which points out what the Republicans don't want you to know:

This incident perfectly highlights the dirty little secret about election fraud. Election fraud overwhelmingly happens on the campaign side, not the voter side. It’s far easier – and more rewarding – to cheat while working from within the system than it is to commit in-person voter fraud. The GOP is legislating against cases of voter fraud in which a person would have to give someone else’s name at the correct polling place in order to falsely vote once; meanwhile a Republican Congressman and his staff fabricated 1,756 signatures so that he could run illegally.

And this is the truth about so many Republican policies: rules and regulations are put in place to scapegoat people who aren’t causing problems. In Florida, drug testing welfare recipients showed that less than 3% of those receiving welfare were using drugs illegally, while that discriminatory testing cost the state nearly $120,000. Mitt Romney has evoked the “47% of people [who] pay no income tax,” conveniently ignoring that collecting income tax from all of those households would bring in less than than the president’s Buffett Rule which would slightly raise taxes for the country’s wealthiest. Reagan’s racist welfare queen myth still looms large in the conservative narrative, despite the fact that the Bush-era bailout for corrupt and irresponsible banks cost far more than years of welfare programs.

The cognitive dissonance bordering on willful delusion has become the hallmark of Republican policies and rhetoric. Expecting this heinous fraud to bring the GOP back to reality would be wishful thinking at this point, but at least one corrupt Congressman is now out of a job.

I do believe I've mentioned before that when the Republicans start squawking like wet hens about something, like election fraud, it's best to start looking at where they're not pointing.

Voter Fraud - Part 2

We covered many of the cases of Voter Fraud in the country pointing out that to make elections fair, we need to keep republican elected officials away from the ballot box.

Sarah Silverman gives us some more information on the voter fraud BS happening throughout the country!

If you are allowed to vote in our  constitutionally limited representative democratic republic then  the cast from the West Wing, reminds us to make sure and vote on the whole ballot! 

Nothing To See Here - Especially Not Voting Records

While up north, I saw an article of interest in the Waupaca County Post (wholly owned subsidiary of Journal Communications), regarding the problem with verifying the recall election results. The gist of the article is that there are a number of groups that have filed open records requests regarding the vote due to the questionable reliability of the electronic voting machines that have been popping up all over Northern Wisconsin and the kind that Kathy Nickolaus has admitted to tampering with. Now there's a new problem:

Robbins told the County Post that she wanted to uphold the integrity of the elections at the lowest cost possible. She said she will need to have staff available when the groups inspect the election materials and she hopes she can schedule both requests at the same time.

Robbins said she is unable to comply with some aspects of the open records request.

According to guidelines provided by the state Government Accountability Board, ballots must be preserved at least 30 days after a state and local election, tally sheets, inspectors' statements and used absentee ballot envelopes for 90 days.

However, the detachable recording units in voting machines must be preserved only for 14 days in a state election.

Robbins has already returned the memory cartridges for the June 5 recall election to Command Central, the private vendor in St. Cloud, Minn. responsible for programming the machines.

It's unbelievable that the most unreliable method of voting has the shorting amount of time to verify it's accuracy, or lack thereof.

It's even more outrageous that this is going on and the mainstream media isn't covering this story, but had dedicated days and weeks to a bunch of liars in Racine making crap up in order to try to cast doubt on the validity of Senator Lehman's recall victory. I am still of the opinion that the right is so upset about Lehman's victory because they thought they had bought that one as well.

For a more in-depth look at the problems with the electronic voting machines and the difficulty in trying to get any verification of their accuracy, check out Free Wisconsin, where the author has been doing a yeoman's job in chronicling his struggles with this very issue.

GAB Investigating Recall Fraud

Illegal campaigners of a feather,
 flock together

By golly, the Republicans were right after all. There apparently was some election fraud going on during the recalls. Just not the ones they meant.

WTAQ has the story:

Fradette says he left and started the Committee to Recall Dave Hansen after things got strange with VanderLeest.

“We founded a second one because David VanderLeest was hording all the signatures, wouldn’t let anyone look at them or to verify them if they were real or not or keep count of what we had and it got really strange, so we broke off,” Fradette said in a phone conversation.

Fradette formed a group with David Steffen, who ran against Hansen in 2004 and lost.

Fradette says the GAB is investigating signature collectors that came from out of state, fraudulent signatures, forgeries, and try to ascertain who paid for them.

Fradette says questions also arose about VanderLeest’s involvement.

Fradette mentioned that his second group received help from the Republican Party of Wisconsin as well as the Republican National Committee and says they may have been involved in hiring the out of state petition circulators.

When initially asked about the investigation VanderLeest claimed that the investigation was focused on signatures gathered by the other group.

“It doesn’t appear that any of my signatures collected by my grassroots volunteers are the ones in question”, VanderLeest said.

VanderLeest then stated he didn’t know why this was coming up after more than a year later and labeled this as a “fishing exhibition” and then abruptly hung up the phone after just over a minute.

VanderLeest, if the Gentle Reader will remember, was the default candidate to run against Hansen when the GOP's favored candidate, John Nygren, couldn't even raise the 400 signatures to get on the ballot.

VanderLeest also as a bit of a criminal past that, until now, didn't include committing this kind of fraud.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: When the Republicans started showing their selective outrage, look at what they are complaining about and how that fits into what they have done or are doing. That's more often than not where you are going to find the real issue.

H/T Democurmudgeon

Voter Fraud And Voter Fraud Fraud

There's desperation and then there's frantic flailing.

What we are seeing from the right wing falls more into the latter category, most notably fixated on the race in Racine in which former Senator Von "Double Dipper Donut Boy" Wanggaard lost to Senator-elect John Lehman.

The latest thing is a MacIver "news report" which says an unnamed conservative "just happened" to find a bag full of blank, but pre-certified registration forms.  Yet when Channel 6 News looked into the story, they found that no complaint had been made to the election commission, but someone had gone to the DA's Office, but even then, didn't make any allegations regarding the mysterious find.

This reminds me of two things.

One is when the misnamed, teacher-hating Citizens for Responsible Government filed their false criminal complaint against me in retaliation for Walker's staff getting busted and kicking off Walkergate.  After the initial hullabaloo, it was pretty obvious that there was nothing there and that CRG's antics were just a distraction from the real story.

The other is also Walkergate related, wondering if they found Scott Walker's missing files in that dumpster too.

(Sorry, RWNJs, but there is only one Mystery Dumpster'O'Fun.)

In other words, this looks like some concocted stunt to delay Lehman's swearing in and try to get a do over in that election.  And here we thought they were against that sort of thing...

It's not surprising that the Republicans and their supporters/apologists would want to prevent, or at least delay, a Democratic majority in the Senate.  They recognize the fact that Walker has, at best, two or three months before he does the perp walk into a federal court near you, and they still have things like the mining bill and right-to-work-for-less to ram through while they still have their puppet.  And to do that, they would need to call a special session, but they also need a majority in both houses of the legislature.

But what I find to be really interesting is that the right wing "news services" did, at one point, report on a more likely source of voter irregularities and fraud.

Wisconsin Reporter wrote an extensive article about the electronic voting machines that were quietly brought in to the northern counties of the state.  Koch employee Kevin Binversie cited that article and again brought up the specter of voter fraud and the possibility of a recount.

But their focus was on the gubernatorial race and their concern that it might actually have not been bought for Scott Walker.

As it turns out, these propagandists were right for once.  There is some peculiar things that happened where these machines were introduced.

After the recall election, it shows that many northern counties, where they've been decimated by job losses directly due to Walker's budget and policies, suddenly turned from blue to red.  Other reports indicate that the electronic voting machines did not pass muster when the verification process was completed.

Another peculiarity is that 5,000 registered voters in Wausau disappeared in one month's time.

So now the question becomes is the right's questionable stunts in Racine an efforts to try to prevent the Democrats to get a majority in the state senate or a stunt to take everyone's attention off of the northern counties and their irregularities?  Or even both?

All Six Fake Democrats Named, Complaints Filed

I first told you about three of the fake Democratic candidates. The next day I told you of the fourth one identified. Now, thanks to an astute friend of Cog Dis, we know the names of all six reprobates as the GOP shamelessly boasts about their lack of respect for the voters:

GOP spokesman Ben Sparks says Gladys Huber will run for governor; Isaac Weix will run for lieutenant governor; and Gary Ellerman, Tamara Varebrook, James Engel and James Buckley will run in four state Senate recalls.

Engel will be running as a fake Democrat against former state representative Kristen Dexter, an Eau Claire Democrat who declared her candidacy against Republican State Sen. Terry Moulton in Chippewa Falls in January.

The real kicker is when the GOP claims they won't spend any money on these races. Based on their past practice, that's a bunch of bull manure.

We know this from the press release issued by One Wisconsin Now who filed complaints against them for violating campaign laws:

Mike Browne, spokesperson for One Wisconsin Now commented, "In sworn statements submitted to the GAB, these candidates declared that they intended to represent the Democratic Party. Yet the public statements and actions of these candidates and Republican Party leaders suggest just the opposite."

Wisconsin Statutes 12.13 (3) (a) states that no person may "falsify any information in respect to ... [a] declaration of candidacy", and 12.13 (3)(am) states that no person may "... file a false declaration of candidacy or amended declaration of candidacy." A violation of 12.13(3)(a) is a Class I Felony punishable by fines of up to $10,000 and 3 ½ years in prison and a violation of 12.13(3)(am) is punishable by a forfeiture of up to $500.

[...]

Significant evidence suggests the intention of these candidates was to represent the interests of the Republican Party. Senate Republican leader Scott Fitzgerald was reported as saying the candidates were "a tool to help Republican candidates".

One candidate received an in-kind contribution of over $5,200 for a phone bank from the St. Croix County Republican Party and five of the "fake" candidates only source of campaign funds was the Republican Party of Wisconsin, and their only expenditure was to the Republican Party for printing and postage. Three letters authorized and paid for by fake candidates say: "Please help maintain our Republican legislative majority today! We can't stress enough how important it is to have (CANDIDATE NAME) on the ballot today to combat the shady maneuvers of Madison liberals and their out-of-state allies."

Now, if you don't feel that One Wisconsin Now is enough of an authority to prove that there is possible violations of campaign laws, this was also run past attorney Jeremy Levinson and this is conclusion:

It is uncommon for this type of election fraud to present the serious legal issues created by Republican Party’s acknowledged and documented plans to run “fake” Democrats in Democratic Primaries to bend the electoral process in favor of Republican incumbents and against Democratic challengers. This scheme, carried out during the recalls of 2011 and underway for the ongoing recalls does not fall in a grey area. This does not reflect disputes among a party’s factions or debates over who “truly” represents a particular party. Nor does it require law enforcement to attempt to determine the intentions of “fake” Democratic primary candidates.

The Republican Party and their “fake” candidates have repeatedly and clearly acknowledged that these efforts seek to represent Republican Party interests and to disadvantage Democratic efforts and challengers. The statements on the “fake” primary candidates Declarations of Candidacy and nomination papers can only be understood as fraudulent.

And if one takes into consideration the mailer that I and many other people received from the Republican Party of Wisconsin in which they boast of running Gladys Huber and Isaac Weix in order to interfere with the electoral system, I think they've got a pretty solid case against them.

I wouldn't be surprised if more formal complaints weren't filed soon.

Other Politicians Can Abide By The Law, Why Can't Walker? -- UPDATED

I pointed out a while ago that Scott Walker was showing his absolute corruption by feeling that he should have the right to have taxpayer dollars be spent on doing his campaign work.  Walker wants the Government Accountability Board, a nonpartisan group formed to enforce election laws, to violate state laws by going through the recall petitions instead of having his campaign do that, as is required by law.

Indeed, at the time, I consulted with Michael Maistelman, one of the state's leading election law attorneys.  Maistelman has recently been awarded the honor of being one Wisconsin's Leaders in the Law, so he obviously knows what he's talking about.  When I consulted with him on this matter, he told me this:

I called Attorney Michael Maistelman, one of the state's leading election attorneys, to confirm my suspicion that this was another bogus complaint.  Attorney Maistelman confirmed that it has always been the responsibility of the candidate and his or her campaign to challenge the signatures of their opponent, whether it is for a recall or even just for nomination papers to get on the ballot.  He also told me that he has bumped a number of Republicans off of ballots by having invalid signatures stricken leaving his client's opponent with not enough to get on the ballot.  He said that the Republicans have done that to a number of Democrats as well. 

Maistelman also confirmed that it was always the campaign that paid for that legal work to be done. He added that Scott Walker's campaign would have much more funding than what would be needed to review and challenge the signatures of the recall.  

Despite this, Walker went running to Waukesha County Judge Mac Davis, a dyed in the wool Republican, who subsequently chose to ignore the law and not only deny the recall petitioners their right to be heard in court, but then ruled that the GAB must violate state law.

Funny thing is, just this weekend, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported about some local races here in Milwaukee.  The gist of the report is that some candidates got bounced off the petition for not having enough valid signatures (emphasis mine:

Sue Edman, the commission's executive director, said nominating petitions submitted by 1st District candidate Virgie Wynn, 4th District candidate William Crowley and 6th District candidate Duffy Holloway were disqualified because they didn't have enough signatures with valid addresses within their respective districts, while 7th District candidate Roosevelt Sanders was disqualified for not filling out his papers properly. Holloway also had been disqualified from the 6th District ballot in 2008.

The disqualified candidates can appeal those decisions to the three-member commission. That panel could meet Tuesday to rule on any appeals and on challenges to candidates' papers. 

Ald. Willie Wade is challenging 7th District candidate Jason Hargis' papers and Ald. Bob Donovan is challenging 8th District candidate Chez Ordonez's papers. Ald. Bob Bauman also filed a challenge to Crowley's papers in case Crowley successfully appeals the disqualification ruling, said Mike Maistelman, attorney for Bauman and Wade.

Mayoral candidate Ieshuh Griffin tried to file two separate challenges to nomination papers filed by rival Edward McDonald, a University of Wisconsin Extension faculty member, but both were rejected because they were filed incorrectly, Edman said. Had Griffin succeeded in disqualifying McDonald, she would have eliminated the mayoral primary and faced Mayor Tom Barrett alone.

Similarly, Wynn tried to challenge Ald. Ashanti Hamilton's papers, but her complaint also was rejected because it was filed incorrectly, Edman said.

So, the aldermen and the candidates either hired an attorney to challenge their opponents forms or they did so themselves.  And these candidates don't pull in anywhere the amount of money raised by Walker over the last two months as he has spent as much time traveling the state to kiss up to special interest groups for their big money donations.

I'm just wondering where all the conservatives that are worried about government waste, government ethics and election integrity have gone too.  Not one of them is standing up for any of those issues in this matter.

That speaks as loudly for them as Walker's corruption of the legal system does.

ADDENDUM:  My friend Jay Bullock has already touched on this subject as well, citing actual law in doing so.

This is supported and enhanced by Ed Fallone at the Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog in which he writes:

One merely has to read the statute as a whole. For example, Section 9.10(2)(g) states “[t]he burden of proof for any challenge rests with the individual bringing the challenge.” The grounds for a challenge are listed in Section 9.10(2). Under the statute, a challenge may be brought and the signature removed if the challenger establishes by affidavit or other evidence that the signature is duplicative (Section 9.10(2)(i)) or that the signature is of an ineligible individual (Section 9.10(2)(l)). Under Section 9.10(2)(q), challenges may be brought for grounds other than those specifically listed. That would include challenges based on the assertion that the name on the petition is fictitious or unrecognizable. 

In other words, at the prompting of the Friends of Scott Walker, Judge Davis has interpreted the words “careful examination” in Section 9.10(3)(b) so that they require the GAB to affirmatively seek out duplicative, fictitious and unrecognizable signatures when the language of Section 9.10(2) clearly places the burden of removing signatures that fall into these categories on the challenging party and not on the GAB.

In the comments section of the same blog, Mr. Fallone further points out that the reason Scott Walker is allowed to raise unlimited funds is for the singular purpose of going through and challenging the petitions.

I would simply add that if Scott Walker foolishly spent all of the money he raised on easily refuted commercials instead of challenging the petitions, that is not GAB's fault, nor is it the fault of the taxpayers, and neither are obliged to pay for the myopic way Walker chooses to run his campaign.

Election Fraud Found!

And it was right where one would expect it - Waukesha County:

The Menomonee Falls student apparently running for Waukesha County Clerk has announced he will not run and that he was the victim of a senior prank.

This comes in stark contrast to The Waukesha Freeman's report of an interview with 17-year-old Kurt Heins, published Saturday, in which he was quoted as saying, "I guess I just really got into politics, so I figured the first thing I could probably have a good shot at running for would be Waukesha County clerk."

NOW spoke with Kurt's mother, Karen, who said she wasn't sure if it was actually Kurt who gave that interview. She further said that she'd been informed by Kurt's twin sister, Melodie, that Kurt did not plan to run for office and that someone else had turned in a registration statement on his behalf.

Shortly thereafter there was a post on the 'Kurt Heins for Waukesha County Clerk' Facebook page: "After extensive media coverage I, Kurt Heins, must inform you that I will not be running for county clerk. This decision was made from the victim of a well-planned senior prank. I have no intentions to run and will not be taking any future steps to run."

In a television interview Monday night, Kurt's father, Keith, signaled that Kurt did, in fact, intend to run. Now, less than 24 hours later, the story seems to be that all of this was a prank.

Whether Kurt ever planned to run remains a question. It's possible he realized he had been pranked and simply thought it might actually be a good idea to follow through.

I fully expect that Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, who abhors all sorts of election fraud, will immediately investigate this and have the culprit(s) arrested and charged in no time.

I further expect that the Republican legislators - who are so diligent about the potential of voter fraud that they are willing to keep the elderly, the disabled and the poor from voting, just in case, you know, there might be some voter fraud that they just know is there but cannot prove - will also spring into action during their "special session" and pass a law that no one in Waukesha County is allowed to vote. Better yet, they might want to err on the side of caution and pass a law banning all Republicans from voting, since they seem to be the ones doing all the fraud.

H/T Waukesha Wonk on the Twitter

Teahadists, WISGOP Colluding To Break Election Laws

Via Mother Jones, We Are Wisconsin filed a complaint with the GAB today alleging violation of Wisconsin election laws by the Teahadists and WISGOP:

In a complaint filed with Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board Tuesday morning, We Are Wisconsin alleges the two groups violated Wisconsin campaign law that prohibits coordination between independent expenditure groups and candidates or groups working on behalf of candidates. The complaint points to an August 8th email from the Tea Party Express to its supporters urging supporters to volunteer in its "Phone From Home program with the Wisconsin Republican Party" to make calls in support of GOP candidates. The link in the email leads to an online volunteering site that lists Tom Dickens, the WI GOP's political director, as the contact person. The Phone From Home page also presents volunteers with a call script praising GOP Sen. Randy Hopper's record creating jobs and "working to fix the state budget shortfall without raising taxes."

We Are Wisconsin's complaint depicts all this as a joint effort between TPE and the WI GOP. "Scott Walker and his national right-wing backers have proven time and again that no tactic—however despicable or illegal—is off limits in their quest to maintain absolute power and push their corporate-backed attacks on Wisconsin's working families," says Kelly Steele, a spokesman for We Are Wisconsin. A spokeswoman for the WI GOP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The complaint also alleges that the Tea Party Express violated a different part of Wisconsin law by engaging in electioneering without registering with the Government Accountability Board, which oversees campaign finance in Wisconsin.

You can see the report by clicking here.

H/T muttmutt

Don't Use Them

Remember those questionable absentee ballot requests that the RGA sent out?

The state's election chief says "Don't use 'em."

Trust me, I wasn't going to.