>>Drudge is a proven serial liar.<<
LOL Drudge has ten times -- no make that 100 times -- the credibility of American Spirit. So are you denying that the Democratic manaul exists?
The Democrats, who have historically short-changed the African-American community when it comes time to actually share power, are using scare tactics to energize their base.
Both parties will attempt to supress the base voters of the other party. It is not an issue of race.
jsonline.com
Walker-Barrett ballot dispute heats up
County, city accuse the other of trying to make election day controversy
By GREG J. BOROWSKI and DAVE UMHOEFER
gborowski@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Oct. 13, 2004
As a ballot dispute heated up Wednesday, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett accused Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker of inviting election-night chaos by not printing as many ballots as city officials requested.
Walker said, in turn, that the blitz of accusations against him made him suspicious that somebody might invent shortages just to prove the argument that the city is being shorted ballots.
"They may try to create troubles," Walker said.
Barrett said that the city may have to pay to print extra ballots in anticipation of a record turnout in the Nov. 2 election. In the September primary, the city spent about $42,000 to cover the printing of extra ballots.
"Why is the city being treated differently than the suburbs?" Barrett asked at a news conference, noting that it is the county's responsibility to provide the ballots.
Barrett was joined at the news conference by Lisa Artison, head of the city Election Commission, Common Council President Willie Hines and Aldermen Ashanti Hamilton and Michael McGee.
Hines repeated his charge that Walker, by holding down the number of ballots printed for the city, is attempting to depress turnout, particularly in central city neighborhoods expected to back Democrat John Kerry in the presidential race.
"We're preparing for a record voter turnout, and we're accused of fraudulent activity," said Hines. "I'm insulted by that."
Feeling shorted
Although the city has requested more ballots than there are eligible voters in Milwaukee, officials say that the base number the county will provide for each ward is lower than in the presidential election of 2000.
In addition, they say, the county is providing fewer ballots per ward than in the November 2002 election, which featured the governor's race and state and local contests.
Walker concedes those points - but says that the county is providing many more absentee ballots than in past years, making the per-ward total higher than in 2000. Those could be used as supplements if unused as absentee ballots. He also emphasized that county election officials had granted 1,000 extra regular ballots in 22 of the city's wards, as requested by Artison.
"At some point, we have to question, why is it that the city needs to request three times as many ballots as there were people who actually voted in the last presidential election?" Walker said.
He said that his guess was that with Barrett and Artison new on the job, they wanted to make sure they did not run out of ballots.
Asked why he would take the risk of having that happen, Walker said that he was trying to avoid controversy about extra ballots that might arise if the presidential race is extremely close and questions linger about whether certain voters were registered properly.
In a letter to Artison on Monday, Walker questioned the city's request for extra ballots in areas where strong voter registration drives are under way. He cited investigations by the district attorney into possible fraud by some of the workers in those drives.
Walker said that he was confident that no legal voter would be denied access to vote.
City election officials requested 938,000 ballots. The county Election Commission staff, in response, proposed giving the city 574,000 ballots, then compromised on printing 679,000. The county provided 669,000 ballots in the November 2000 election, Walker said.
High number defended
City officials say that it is more important to look at the ward-by-ward numbers than the overall tally, since Wisconsin allows same-day registration and there is little flexibility to move ballots around on election day.
Artison said that there are 312 different ballots printed for the city's wards, with coding to identify them by ward. In theory, two neighboring wards with the same slate of candidates may be able to use the same ballot if one of those wards ran out, but those votes may have to be counted by hand, instead of by scanners.
Also, some ballots wind up being filled out improperly and deemed "spoiled." The fear, officials said, is that if ballots are short at the end of election day - and new ones must be photocopied - long lines will result, discouraging some people from voting.
Barrett said: "Are we going to screw up the election in the City of Milwaukee - become the next Florida of the nation - because of this dispute? To me, it's not worth it."
In the city, much of the overall increase in the request is due to thousands more absentee ballots. Both sides are encouraging supporters to vote early and, as of Wednesday, nearly 12,000 people had voted early in the city.
That compares with about 8,000 in all of the 2002 gubernatorial race, the last fall contest.
Barrett is a co-chair of the Kerry campaign in Wisconsin. Walker is a co-chair of the statewide Bush campaign.
Walker asked all municipal election clerks in the county to come to his office today to discuss ballot costs and related issues. The district attorney's office and state elections officials also were invited.
Linda Spice, Annysa Johnson, Marie Rohde and Steve Schultze of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report. |
