jsonline.com
Wisconsin GOP calls for investigation of voting irregularities
By MIKE JOHNSON
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: Nov. 10, 2000
Citing hundreds of accounts of alleged voting irregularities and possible voter fraud "of a kind previously seen only in Chicago," the Wisconsin Republican Party on Friday called on Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann to launch an investigation.
Republican Party Chairman Richard Graber and Republican state lawmakers said at a news conference at the Milwaukee County Courthouse they have received 600 complaints of alleged voting irregularities and potential voter fraud in Tuesday's presidential election.
McCann, a Democrat, later Friday said he was taking the complaints seriously and vowed to conduct a thorough investigation.
He said he already had two assistant district attorneys, three investigators and a paralegal investigating complaints of voting irregularities, including Democratic campaign workers who allegedly offered cigarettes to homeless men in Milwaukee in return for casting their absentee ballots for Al Gore.
"I believe there was wrongdoing. How widespread, I'm not sure," McCann said, adding that other than the cigarettes in exchange for votes case he has not been able to establish "other wrongdoing" yet.
Republicans said they have received complaints since Tuesday that included voters being told that they had already voted when they had not; improper handling of marked ballots; voters being given multiple ballots; improper voting registration procedures; and poll workers telling people to vote for Gore.
The alleged irregularities may have allowed some voters to "vote multiple times at different locations," Graber said.
Republican officials said the majority of the alleged incidents occurred in Milwaukee, but irregularities also were reported in other parts of the state, including Green Bay, Madison and Fond du Lac.
They turned over to McCann a list of 22 first-hand accounts of the Milwaukee County incidents, including the names, addresses and phone numbers of people raising the allegations and willing to testify in court.
At their news conference, GOP officials declined to release the names of those making complaints to the media. Later, however, a GOP official called the Journal Sentinel and gave the names of two people who filed complaints.
Jack Zimmerman, a GOP committeeman from Wauwatosa, said he saw a young man on Tuesday take about an inch worth of unmarked ballots from the polling place at the Highland Park public housing facility on 17th St. over the noon hour. He said he did not see the man return.
GOP officials had dispatched him to the polling place to check on reports that Gore/Lieberman signs were too close to voting booths, Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman, 49, whose name was provided to the newspaper by GOP officials, said he also saw poll workers failing to ask for identification from people coming into Highland Park to register to vote.
Cheryl Sorenson, whose name also was supplied by the GOP, said she witnessed two irregularities at her polling place at the public library on Villard Ave.
She said she saw a man who was registering to vote hesitate twice when he was asked by a poll worker for his address. She said the man had to read the address off a piece of paper which he had earlier taken out of his pocket.
Next, the poll worker handed the man a ballot without making him fill out a registration card, Sorenson, 44, said.
"I was kind of stunned. I didn't know if I should say anything or not," she said.
She also said a man at the library was telling people as they were arriving to vote that "if you're voting for Bush, you might as well leave. Don't even bother to come in."
Sorenson said this activity occurred away from the voting area and she did not believe the man was an election worker.
Other incidents turned over to McCann include reports of Marquette and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students voting "five or six times."
"Wisconsin has a long tradition of fair, clean elections. It has become increasingly clear, however, that the election conducted in Wisconsin on Tuesday is seriously at odds with that great tradition," Graber said.
Rep. Scott Walker (R-Wauwatosa) also cited problems with Gore/Lieberman signs being too close to the polling place at the Highland Park public housing facility. He also said that polling place was understaffed and that several individuals would testify that people had easy access to ballots because of it.
Republicans acknowledged that the had no "direct proof" that the alleged incidents helped Gore or that the incidents could be linked to efforts taken by the Gore campaign. But they noted most of the incidents occurred in the city, which has strongly favored Democrats.
Graber said the large number of complaints was unusual and led him to believe something "improper was going on out there."
During their news conference, the Republicans said their call for an investigation into voting irregularities and fraud was separate from the recount going on in Florida and separate from whether a recount would be sought by Bush in Wisconsin.
Gore won Wisconsin by about 6,000 votes, according to unofficial tallies.
McCann said he did not think that all of the allegations rose to the level of a crime.
But he said there is "criminal intent" in "double voting" and paying for votes. "That is criminal and will be prosecuted," McCann said. |
