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Local election administrators say the Government Accountability Board’s decision should spare thousands of people from having to return to the election offices with proof of their identity to make sure their vote counts. Republican Party members say the decision leaves the presidential election vulnerable to fraud.
“This is really unbelievable, let everyone vote and see what happens,” said Bob Spindell, election commissioner for the city of Milwaukee and chairman of the GOP’s 4th Congressional District. “This could be the presidency of the United States on the line here.”
The federal Help America Vote Act, passed after the disputed presidential election in 2000, requires each state to build a statewide voter registration list. The states must cross-reference names on the list with other state databases to confirm identities and addresses, but can decide for themselves how to handle so-called non-matches.
The board met in July to discuss the cross-checks. It decided to have local election administrators start checking the names of everyone who applied to register to vote after the database came online, but chose not to set out any penalties for non-matches.
The system came online Aug. 6. and local clerks began checking names, looking for non-matches. The board’s process calls for them to determine if the non-match is caused by a typographical error that can be corrected on the spot or if they should send a letter to the registrant asking for clarification.
According to the board’s staff, local clerks have entered 29,275 applicants into the system between Aug. 6 and Tuesday afternoon. They’ve checked 19,470 names and come up with 4,350 red-flags. Barbara A. Hansen, director of the database, said most of those non-matches can be traced to typos, such as leaving out spaces and apostrophes in compound names.
Enter the state Republican Party, which has been warning of voter fraud in Wisconsin and pushing for photo identification at the polls for years.
The party asked the board on Aug. 14 to disqualify would-be electors if letters sent to them seeking more identity information come back as undeliverable.
The party said the board should require registrants who receive a letter but ignore it to show identification at the polls. If they don’t have identification with them, they should cast a provisional ballot. That means they would have to bring back proof of identification and address within 24 hours to ensure their vote counts.
The board also should order county and municipal clerks to run the names of everyone on the voter list since the federal law took effect in Jan. 1, 2006 and look for red flags, the party said.
That would amount to about a million names, according to board figures, but state GOP Executive Director Mark Jefferson said something has to be done to fight fraud.
Milwaukee County investigators are looking into allegations voter registration workers turned in cards they filled out themselves, he said, and the party in the past has tracked voter addresses to vacant lots, office buildings and hot dog stands.
Robert Friebert, a Wisconsin attorney for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and the state Democratic Party, countered that Republicans want to keep people from voting.
Non-matches amount to two computers disagreeing and don’t mean a registrant did anything wrong, he said.
A number of county and municipal clerks told the board they don’t have the manpower or time to retroactively check registrants back to January 2006, especially as they prepare for the Sept. 9 state primary, the Nov. 4 presidential election and compile office budget requests.
Forcing newly red-flagged voters to vote with a provisional ballot when they’ve successfully registered in the past will make them irate, create lines at the polls and generate more work for their staffs after the election as they try to confirm provisional voters’ status, the clerks said.
In the end the board voted 5-1 to stick to the policy it adopted in July.
Board member William Eich said he’s not persuaded fraud is widespread in Wisconsin and it wouldn’t make sense to check the names of people who have voted in multiple elections since January 2006.
Board member Gordon Myse said he was convinced people should vote unconditionally and fraud should be sorted out later.
“It seems the most straightforward way to address the problem,” he said.
Hansen said she plans to prepare a report after the elections tallying how many non-matches voted.
