http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110002530
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Chicago, Wisconsin
Why is a clean state suddenly beset by dirty elections?
Saturday, October 26, 2002 12:01 a.m.
The progressive citizens of Wisconsin have reason to worry that Chicago-style vote-buying is creeping north from Illinois. The NBC affiliate in Milwaukee has just filmed Democratic campaign workers handing out small amounts of money and free food to residents at a home for the mentally ill in Kenosha after which the patients were shepherded into a separate room and given absentee ballots. One of the Democratic Party workers fled when she saw the NBC camera. The local district attorney is investigating.
Traditionally a clean government state, Wisconsin is now paying for its loose election laws. In 2000 its same-day voter-registration law was abused by Connie Milstein, a New York Democratic activist, who was caught on camera bribing the homeless with cigarettes to vote for Al Gore. She was later fined $5,000. (Several Wisconsin politicians were also recently charged with violating state campaign laws.)
Absentee ballots pose another difficulty. Along with the states listed nearby, Wisconsin allows anyone to obtain an absentee ballot for any reason. A flood of such requests is now overwhelming clerks in many states, with some being mishandled by the parties that forward them in bulk to election officials. "Voter beware," says Kevin Kennedy of Wisconsin's election board.
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'ABSENTEE' VOTERS
  States where applicants for absentee ballots need not state a reason or can give "work" as a reason
| Alaska |
Louisiana |
Oklahoma |
| Arizona |
Maine |
South Carolina |
| Arkansas |
Massachusetts |
South Dakota |
| California |
Minnesota |
Tennessee |
| Colorado |
Montana |
Utah |
| Hawaii |
Nevada |
Vermont |
| Idaho |
Nebraska |
Washington |
| Indiana |
New Hampshire |
Wisconsin |
| Iowa |
New Mexico |
Wyoming |
| Kansas |
North Carolina |
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Source: The Hotline |
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The mentally ill in Kenosha have a right to vote, but Wisconsin Common Cause director Jay Heck says the NBC footage showed Democratic workers engaged in "manipulative" behavior with a group that was "clearly developmentally disabled." The center ordered absentee ballots on behalf of all the residents and then allowed Democratic workers to run a bingo game there. The residents were induced to vote with free refreshments and quarters as bingo prizes.
Robert Jambois, the Kenosha County District Attorney, says the case is a headache for him because he has endorsed Jim Doyle, the Democratic candidate for governor, and because the Democratic worker who fled the scene was an intern in his own office. He will decide later if he needs to recuse himself. He's also candid enough to concede that it's a "good policy question" whether the laws against electioneering and intimidation at polling places are now being circumvented as more and more absentee ballots are circulated by party workers in nursing homes and other facilities.
There's little question that absentee-ballot abuses are growing. Austin Murphy, a former Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty in 1999 to improperly filling out the ballot of a nursing home resident. In Texas, prosecutors say "vote brokers" often accost seniors to "aid" them in filling out ballots.
Early ballots are also problematic, with 15 states permitting voters to cast their ballots as early as a month before Election Day. Two decades ago absentee and early ballots were only 5% of all votes cast. This year political parties pushing those ballots on voters may drive the total up to 30% of all votes cast in as many as 20 states.
Unless the laws are tightened and enforced, incidents such as the manipulation in Wisconsin will become more common and will undermine confidence in the outcome of more and more elections.
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