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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mac Con Ulaidh who wrote (61133)	10/16/2004 7:23:39 PM
From: SiouxPal	Respond to of 89467

The best "read" I've seen today. Thanks a ton. :•) Siouxs-another

To: Mac Con Ulaidh who wrote (61133)	10/16/2004 7:39:04 PM
From: Mac Con Ulaidh	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

Ballot flap could be a motivating force Last Updated: Oct. 16, 2004 Eugene Kane When a sleeping giant wakes up, some people start worrying about big footprints showing up all over the place. That's my take on the current flap over how many ballots to give to the city of Milwaukee, which for the first time in history is a majority-minority community. The most recent U.S. Census figures told the story: There are more non-whites in Milwaukee than whites, a figure that, potentially, makes African-Americans and Hispanics the people with the biggest club when it comes to the electoral process. It's the kind of creeping demographic change that frightens some but emboldens others. It's also the kind of subtle transformation that isn't immediately discernible while traveling the streets of ordinary Milwaukee. Soul food restaurants haven't started popping up all over town to replace the traditional German and Italian favorites. Salsa music hasn't replaced polka in the city's traditional identity. Most Milwaukee taverns still retain their particular ethnic flavor. Being designated as a majority-minority community didn't bring any fundamental changes in the local power structure, either. The people who run the city, private businesses, the school system, and other powerful institutions in town remain largely the same. Becoming a majority-minority city didn't change the color of Milwaukee. It just expanded the choices on the palette. But voting is an area where the changing demographics could have immediate impact. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett beat a popular black candidate who was badly wounded by his own financial mismanagement and a constant negative drumbeat in the media. Stung by that defeat, many black voters - along with progressive whites - revved up the engines again to help state Sen. Gwen Moore sail through the primary in her attempt to become the first black in Wisconsin elected to Congress. Clearly, these new voting muscles are ready to be exercised even further come Nov. 2. Even the most optimistic conservatives know President Bush has little chance of capturing the minority vote in a city like Milwaukee. Which is what gave the move by Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker to curtail the number of Milwaukee ballots the look of Republicans running scared. Walker wisely agreed to a compromise late last week that allowed Milwaukee to receive its requested number of ballots. But what lingers is the cynical message Walker was willing to send to new minority voters. Walker and other Republicans who sounded the ballot alarm essentially were saying they didn't trust Milwaukee voters, particularly those in the central city. It was an assumption most of these voters were either willing to break the law or too stupid not to be conned by political operatives. The idea that Milwaukee didn't need significantly more ballots than the number of probable voters failed to acknowledge the reality that even the most intelligent voter messes up a ballot now and then, and no one can predict where turnout will increase. During the last primary, I almost entered the wrong vote due to the confusing language on my ballot. And as most of my readers can attest, I'm usually sharp as a whip. What made Walker's concerns even more curious was the lack of concrete evidence to show that anything on the scale of the election fraud being suggested by Walker and others has ever happened in Milwaukee. Florida, maybe. But not Milwaukee. Sure, a number of local black activists were charged with questionable absentee ballot registration procedures in the central city last year. But that case involved slightly more than 100 absentee voters, not thousands. It certainly wasn't evidence of any wide-ranging conspiracy to fix an election. Certain conservative talk show hosts have been raising the issue of widespread voter fraud in some Milwaukee neighborhoods for weeks. Walker owes much of his ascension to county executive to right-wing radio in the wake of the Milwaukee County pension benefits scandal. If he was doing this as a way to appease that audience, it was a weak rationale. If we wanted our government run by squawk radio hosts, we would elect one of them to do the job. African-Americans in particular are used to assaults on their voting rights done under the guise of political expediency. In the Jim Crow South, some black people used to have to pass illegal "citizenship tests" before they could vote. Nobody is accusing Walker and the Republicans of taking it to that extreme. But the very act of targeting the city of Milwaukee for this false ballot limit in anticipation of the kind of fraud that has never happened before raises an ugly memory. It's likely to make many black voters more determined than ever to show up on Nov. 2 and get it right. Once giants wake up and see how many people are afraid of them, they seldom go back to sleep willingly. Call Eugene Kane at (414) 223-5521 or e-mail him at ekane@journalsentinel.com. jsonline.com