GOP, Milwaukee leaders reach agreement on voter list

Associated Press  01 November 2004

 

MILWAUKEE - Officials from the Republican Party of Wisconsin and the city of Milwaukee have reached an agreement on how the registrations of thousands of voters with questionable addresses will be handled at the polls Tuesday.

The agreement reached Sunday calls for a list of 5,512 prospective voters whose addresses are questionable to be distributed to the polling places.

Those on that list who seek to vote will be asked to fill out a change of address card or registration form, and to show proof of residency, such as a driver's license, utility bill or some other document showing an address.

Anyone who does not have proof of residency at an address on the list will have to take an oath, and that person's ballot will be marked as being challenged by the poll worker.

Deputy City Attorney Linda Burke said Monday challenged votes will be counted, but another decision on whether they count could be made if there is a recount.

The GOP filed a petition last week questioning addresses for 5,619 registered voters and seeking to have their names removed from the voting list, but that request was denied by the city Election Commission.

The Republicans came up with a new list of more than 37,000 questionable addresses Saturday, and they demanded that Milwaukee city officials require identification from that large number of voters before they would be allowed to cast ballots.

But City Attorney Grant Langley called that request outrageous, and said a check of the original list of 5,619 registrations had found "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds" of legitimate addresses.

Wisconsin Republican Party chairman Rick Graber said the Sunday agreement will offer another layer of protection to assure that fraudulently cast votes will not be counted.

Graber did not immediately return a call Monday seeking further information concerning why the GOP made the move.

Langley said city elections officials believed the list of 5,512 was something they could handle and distribute to poll workers. Prospective voters on the list will be identified by ward and in alphabetical order.

"I think it's workable," Langley said. "With this agreement, it really allows our poll workers to deal with this list."

Wisconsin Elections Board executive director Kevin Kennedy said city officials were intent on taking some action to lessen any perception that Milwaukee's voter rolls were rife with fraud.

"Our sense was we wanted to get away from any widespread perception of fraud," Kennedy said. "One way to do that was to set up a system that if the voters came to the polling place we'd have a way to check their address."

In many cases, he said, the addresses are questionable because of data entry error.

Graber said the GOP still reserved the right to challenge anything fishy on election day.

A spokesman for the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said the Democrats had not yet had a chance to see the agreement.

"Our bottom line is that everyone who is qualified to vote in the State of Wisconsin should be able to do so without harassment," spokesman George Twigg said. "We have a team of voting rights attorneys in place to make sure that's what happens on election day."