4th Wisconsin voter out of 3 million charged with fraud
Source: Yahoo News
MADISON, Wis. (AP) A fourth Wisconsin voter out of roughly 3 million who cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election was charged with election fraud on Thursday by a Republican prosecutor who is running for attorney general.
Fond du Lac District Attorney Eric Toney said the charge alleging that a felon voted illegally does not mean that the election won by President Joe Biden was stolen. The criminal complaint does not identify whether the person charged is a Republican or Democrat or who he voted for in the presidential election.
But elections are the cornerstone of our democracy and the integrity of our electoral process must be protected at every turn," Toney said in a statement. We will continue to prosecute any circumstances of voter fraud, as allowed by law, in order to safeguard our electoral process and ensure the public has confidence in our elections.
Wisconsin Republicans, fueled by anger and the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, have ordered two separate investigations in the battleground state Biden won by fewer than 21,000 votes. One is underway by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau. The other was ordered by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and is being led by former conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/3rd-wisconsin-voter-3-million-200927985.html
LonePirate
(13,431 posts)LakeArenal
(28,845 posts)StClone
(11,686 posts)Escurumbele
(3,402 posts)With all the time the republican party spends trying to find voter fraud, changing the rules for voting, creating repressive laws against women, fighting the "January 6 Commission", running behind trump...when do you get a chance to govern to help your constituents and the country when you know all these efforts about voter fraud, etc. do not bring positive results, it is only an effort to underestimate our Democracy? So when do you work to bring positive changes to the country?
StClone
(11,686 posts)NoMoreRepugs
(9,457 posts)SunSeeker
(51,697 posts)From the article:
Holz stated he wished he had called his probation agent to determine if he was eligible to vote, the complaint said.
It is a big training issue. This is why registering to vote in advance of election day helps. If you can't vote, the state will tell you and/or the election day staff that you cannot vote.
SunSeeker
(51,697 posts)And it is so easy to catch after the fact. There no reason to disallow same day registration for this.
sybylla
(8,526 posts)I said that registering early would have caught that - this person who didn't know if they could vote would have been told in advance and not had to rely upon the accuracy of the local poll workers.
SunSeeker
(51,697 posts)There is the case of Rosa Maria Ortega, a legal permanent resident who was living in Tarrant County, Texas, who was convicted of voter fraud after registering to vote despite not being a citizen. The registration workers did not catch it. Ortega who did not realize her immigration status meant she was ineligible cast ballots that counted in several elections. Her improper voting was discovered after the fact and she was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2017 and granted parole in 2019. Because of her felony record, Ortega was thereafter ordered deported.
So early registration obviously will not prevent all of these issues. The people handling early registration do not appear to be trained any better than the poll workers, so they make similar mistakes.
BTW, the ballots that led to Ortega's imprisonment were actually cast for Republicans. In 2012, Ortega voted for presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the general election, and in 2014, she voted for Texas attorney general candidate Ken Paxton, who won and prosecuted her for illegal voting! https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/4798922002
sybylla
(8,526 posts)WE are not the same. To assume any one state is just like any other is a huge mistake.
IN WISCONSIN, early registrations are verified at the state level through drivers license/WI ID and other government databases, including databases containing the names of those who are on probation and parole who do not qualify to vote yet. In fact, as a poll worker myself who has registered more than a thousand people to vote in the last 12 years both on election day and prior to that in registration drives, I can state this unequivocally for you.
Had this person registered more than 2 weeks in advance of election day, they - or the poll workers - would have been clearly informed of their ineligibility to vote.
My hope is that this person will be given credit in the judicial system for having asked and having been given inaccurate information.
SunSeeker
(51,697 posts)And as you noted above, that Wisconsin poll worker was poorly trained. Registrars can screw things up too. Texas verifies registrations against state databases too. As far as I am aware, all states do. There is no guarantee what happened in Texas could not happen in Wisconsin or anywhere else.
Like you, I also hope this person is given leniency, since it really was the state's mistake. However, like Texas, Wisconsin has some pretty shitty judges, although not as many as Texas! Here's hoping...
lees1975
(3,879 posts)though the article doesn't specifically state. But they fit the profile.
Monsieur_Grumpe
(110 posts)The horror!
Journeyman
(15,038 posts)StClone
(11,686 posts)Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)which is .00013%.
Unless I'm totally brainfarting on how percentages work somehow
BumRushDaShow
(129,442 posts)This must have been an ALEC-drafted piece of legislation because they tried to create such a ridiculous 'Bureau" here in PA but fortunately that mess was vetoed in the GOP-majority state legislature's bill by the (D) Governor (and they don't have enough to override) -
By MARK SCOLFORO June 30, 2021
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Pennsylvanias Democratic governor vetoed a Republican-crafted elections bill Wednesday, a proposal that would have mandated voter identification in all elections and made a host of other changes to election law. Gov. Tom Wolf said outside his Capitol offices that he considers the measure a voter suppression effort.
I think voter suppression is absolutely the wrong thing to do, Wolf said, adding that he would welcome a narrower bill that would give counties more time to start counting ballots and to provide more money to help them run elections. The Republican elections bill, developed in large part in response to some GOP voters anger over President Donald Trumps reelection loss, would have changed registration deadlines from 15 days to 30 days prior to an election. Mail-in voters would have had an earlier deadline to request ballots.
(snip)
Wolf also used his line-item veto authority to eliminate $3.1 million in funding in separate budget legislation after Republican lawmakers claimed that it had been earmarked to create an election-auditing bureau under the independently elected auditor general.
Wolf had said there was no such agreement to use the money for an election-auditing bureau, which would have broad authority to subpoena materials and review elections.
https://apnews.com/article/pa-state-wire-business-bills-elections-government-and-politics-8400bdb8742fe7a04b3b469c7136b498
StClone
(11,686 posts)All these fake, useless, pointless, politicized, weaponized witch hunts are costing-WASTING-precious time, resources, and personnel!
BumRushDaShow
(129,442 posts)throw stuff around to "gum up the process". And then when they are "in charge", well... we saw the result the past 4 years (and the U.S. became their piggy bank while also vacuuming up all the intel to sell to get more $$$).
riversedge
(70,299 posts)marble falls
(57,204 posts)SouthernDem4ever
(6,617 posts)we wanted trump out!! It wasn't an accident that Biden won. More of us wanted that slimy, con-man, orange buffoon out. There is more of us than his whacked out idiot supporters.