Don’t let anyone say there isn’t bipartisanship in Wisconsin.
The newest example of Wisconsin Republicans recruiting fake Democratic candidates, to force Dem primaries and make trouble in the state Senate recalls: Otto Junkermann, an 82-year old former Republican state representative, who will challenge official Democratic candidate Nancy Nusbaum for the recall against GOP state Sen. Rob Cowles.
As the Green Bay Press Gazette reports, Junkermann very openly professes to support Cowles:
Otto Junkermann, 82 of Allouez, said he thinks “very highly” of Cowles, a Republican also from Allouez, and will run against Nusbaum as a “conservative Democrat.”
“I respect Rob a great deal. I’ve known him, I followed him into the Assembly and took the position he had when he went into the Senate, and I always admired him,” Junkermann said.
Junkermann served in the Assembly as a Republican for one term from 1987-88. He was also a Brown County supervisor from 1982-87 and ran again in 2002, 2004 and 2008 but lost. Read More
Massachusetts: Fred Karger’s Voter Fraud Allegations Against Mitt Romney | The Daily Caller
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a leading candidate for the Republican nomination for president, is facing allegations that he committed fraud when he voted in the January 2010 Massachusetts special election. The allegations come from fellow Republican presidential candidate Fred Karger, a self-desribed “old opposition research campaign consultant” who is running a long-shot campaign.
Karger filed a complaint Monday with the State of Massachusetts, asking that Romney be investigated for registering to vote from an address that he did not live at. During the special election Romney was living in one of two places, and neither of them was in Massachusetts, Karger alleges. Read More
Indiana: White seeks to ban TV cameras in Recount Commission hearing | The Indianapolis Star
Tuesday’s hearing on Charlie White’s eligibility to serve as Indiana Secretary of State will be streamed online, the Indiana Recount Commission decided today.
White’s attorney expressed that some questions at the hearing might be inappropriate in reference to his sex life. Commission members said if that’s the case the cameras can be turned off.
Also, the commission denied a request by that White’s wife, Michelle, that not to be subpoenaed to testify because of the possibility of self-incrimination. The commission said she must show up and assert her Fifth Amendment rights. Read More
Indiana: Recount Commission rejects defense motions in Indiana Secretary of State’s hearing | Evansville Courier & Press
Both the current and former wives of embattled Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White will testify next week before a state panel that is considering whether to remove the Republican from office. So will Dan Parker, the chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party, which is pressing the case. And he’ll have to bring records with him that demonstrate when he first learned of the residency issues that he believes should disqualify White.
The Indiana Recount Commission made those decisions Tuesday afternoon at a hearing that precedes one scheduled for June 21, during which it will take eight hours of testimony on whether White should be removed from office. Read More
North Carolina: North Carolina bill forcing voters to show photo ID before voting heading to Senate vote, likely passage | Daily Journal
North Carolina lawmakers are moving ahead on legislation to require people to show a photo identification card before voting.
A Senate judiciary committee approved the legislation Tuesday. A vote by the full Senate could come later Tuesday. The measure already has passed the House by a margin too small to override a potential veto by Gov. Beverly Perdue. Perdue has indicated she might veto the legislation. Read More
Editorials, National: Voting: It’s (Apparently) Not for Everyone | Campus Progress– Campus Progress
Yesterday, Hardball and The Rachel Maddow Show ran segments highlighting the ongoing efforts by several state legislatures to make it more difficult to vote, blasting lawmakers for disenfranchising younger and older citizens. As Campus Progress has been reporting, state legislatures in Maine, Wisconsin, and numerous other states are working towards passing or have already passed laws that require voters to have ID cards with them at the polls, and end same-day registration for voting.
Both Rachel Maddow and Hardball’s Chris Matthews expressed indignation at this trend. “The people who have the least trouble with the ID cards, the people who drove to the polling station, have an ID right in their pockets called their driver`s license and they are middle class people with enough money to own a car,” said Matthews. “And [if] they`re young enough to drive and old enough to have enough money to own a car, they are probably able to vote. It`s the younger person and older person who might be disenfranchised.” Read More
Editorials, Kansas: Lions and Tigers and Fraud, Oh My! Secretary of State Kris Kobach Is at It Again | Katie O’Connor/Huffington Post
In a recent column in the Wall Street Journal, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach takes a victory lap trumpeting the passage of his voter ID law. He writes: “You can’t cash a check, board a plane, or even buy full-strength Sudafed over the counter without [a photo ID]. That’s why it’s not unreasonable to require one in order to protect our most important privilege of citizenship.” Voting, however, is not a privilege; it is a fundamental right guaranteed by more constitutional amendments than any other right we have. Cashing a check, getting on an airplane, and buying a nasal decongestant are not similarly enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
The putative targets of photo ID and proof-of-citizenship laws are alleged perpetrators of registration and in-person voter impersonation fraud. However, voting rights groups have obtained records from Kobach’s own officethat deflate his claims that “[v]oter fraud is a well-documented reality in American elections.” The disclosed report, which covers Kansas elections from 1997 to 2011, shows merely 221 incidents for 14 years of elections, and 200 of these could not have been prevented by the new proof-of-citizenship and photo ID requirements. These include more than 98 fraudulent or erroneous absentee ballot applications, 18 instances of attempted or completed double-voting in different precincts or jurisdictions, 17 instances of felons voting, 16 instances of absentee ballot fraud, as well as reports of electioneering and voter intimidation. Photo ID and proof-of-citizenship laws, which at their best can only confirm identity at the polls and block ineligible noncitizens from registering, simply do not prevent any of the above conduct. Read More
Editorials, Maine: Greg Kesich: Maine GOP not alone in trying to lower voter turnout | The Portland Press Herald
Find Maine on a map and you see that we are stuck in the upper right-hand corner of the nation, not on anyone’s way anywhere. But politically we can be right in the middle, and a little home-grown issue can turn out to be an item on someone’s national agenda.
How else can you explain the sudden interest in election reform bills, which have been hotly contested in this year’s legislative session?
It’s certainly not a response to voter fraud, although state Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster appears to have a gut feeling that it has been widespread since the Muskie era. (How else would all those Democrats win elections?) Read More
Editorials, National: Opinion: The real victims of election ID laws | Justin Levitt/politico.com
With ballooning deficits and substantial unemployment among the urgent problems confronting the states, many state legislatures spent the first days of their 2011 session attempting to restrict the way that voters prove their identity at the polls.
Five states passed voter ID laws in 2011. The most stringent preclude citizens from casting a valid ballot unless they show specific documents. Opinion polls reveal that the public supports this idea. But those behind this effort have forgotten both their priorities and their obligation to safeguard the vote — the most fundamental of constitutional rights — not just for most U.S. citizens but for all.
The public supports restrictive ID rules because most Americans have ID. We think nothing of showing ID for conveniences, so we think nothing of showing it as a condition for a basic constitutional right. Because we have the correct ID, and our friends have the correct ID, we think every citizen has the correct ID. Read More
Editorials, National: Von Spakovsky Spreads Falsehoods To Push For Voter ID Laws | Media Matters
In a USA Today op-ed, Pajamas Media blogger and former DOJ Civil Rights Division official Hans von Spakovsky employed numerous falsehoods to defend statutes requiring all voters to show identification before casting ballots. In fact, contrary to von Spakovsky’s argument, legal voters have been turned away from the voting booth because they lacked proper identification, the effects of voter ID laws may fall disproportionately on the poor and members of racial minorities, and instances of fraudulent voting are very rare.
Von Spakovsky Falsely Suggests Voter ID Laws Did Not Prevent People From Voting
Von Spakovksy: Plaintiffs Challenging Voter ID Law “Couldn’t Produce Anyone Who Would Be Unable To Vote Because Of The Voter ID Requirements.” Read More
Editorials, Maine: Rosa Scarcelli: Maine Voting Rights Under Attack | Huffington Post
Following a disturbing national trend, Tea Party Republican Gov. Paul LePage and his allies in Maine’s Legislature have used questionable tactics to push through legislation to make it harder for people to vote.
Late on Friday afternoon, Republicans in the Maine State Senate gave the governor his wish and sent to him a bill that will end Election Day registration.
Maine has allowed voters to register to vote on Election Day for 38 years. In that time, there have been only two cases of voting fraud related to same-day registration. Read More
Australia: Hanson a victim of fraud. Yet NSW Electoral Commission continues to deny access to vote data | Poll Blogger
Pauline Hanson vote challenge has been derailed with evidence lead in court that the allegation of missing votes was fraudulent. (ABC News). Mr. Sean Castle, the man behind the fraudulent allegations is likely to face court costs associated with Hanson challenge after he admitted to faking the allegations but will escape public prosecution in return for goving evidence..
“Mr Castle, a father of three, was granted protection from prosecution before being compelled to answer questions relating to the purported Electoral Commission email. Read More
Brazil, India: Indian Voting Machines With Paper Trails to Be Field-tested | PCWorld
India’s Election Commission plans to test in July new electronic voting machines (EVMs) that will offer a voter a verifiable paper trail, following criticism from political parties and activists that the machines could be tampered with. But it is unclear whether the paper records of the vote will be discarded or saved after the voter has checked if his vote has been properly recorded. Some local newspaper reports in April said that the paper records would be destroyed after the voter had checked his vote.
The paper records should be saved and used in a recount or if any other dispute arises, said Hari Prasad, the security researcher who along with other researchers released a video last year that they said demonstrated vulnerabilities in the EVMs. Read More
Albania: Albania Court Orders Recount Of Contested Ballots | Eurasia Review
The Electoral College late Monday night ordered a full recount of the contested ballots in the key race for mayor of Tirana, throwing the results of the poll back into doubt. The decision came after a Socialist opposition appeal which contested several decisions by the Central Election Commission, CEC, including the one that declared the ruling party candidate the winner of the race for the municipality of Tirana.
Contested ballots are ballot papers that have been designated by at least one representative of a political party in the counting stations as irregular. It is not yet clear what effect the re-evaluation will have in the final tally for the Tirana race. Read More
Ghana: Preparations towards 2012 election in Ghana not satisfactory | The Statesman
In April this year, Ghanaians from all walks of life applauded the decision by the Electoral Commission of Ghana to employ the use of a Biometric Voters register for the 2012 general elections. Government also pledged its support and commitment, that same month through Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Communications, to the Electoral Commission, stating that the exercise could cost over $80 million.
The Minister stated, “Though the cost might be a little high, it is not more than the cost of disputed elections, and addresses the issue of multiple voting to make our elections more credible” Read More