Voter Fraud in Wisconsin (Pure Manure)

Finally, somebody has asked the hard questions about voter fraud to the right-wing lawmakers who continue to whine about all the fraud taking place in Wisconsin elections, and, predictably, the sponsors of such legislation can offer absolutely no evidence of any voter fraud anywhere in the state at any time.

I’ve beaten this mule before, more than once.  It’s a topic I keep thinking will finally die, but just as it disappears from the radar, it pops up again – and again.  Just this week an otherwise apparently sane person of my acquaintance said Barack Obama was re-elected only – ONLY – because of massive voter fraud.

The outfit that pinned the tail on the donkey of voter fraud was not a “journalistic” organization, but, a hard-core lefty outfit called “One Wisconsin Now”.  All its leader, Scot Ross, did, was what any “journalistic” organization might have done months ago: Ross simply went to four key legislators who’ve pushed the hardest for Voter ID in Wisconsin, and said “show me your evidence”.

Nothing.  Nada. Zip. Zero.

Not one piece of evidence – much less “proof” – was advanced by Senator Joe Leibham, Senator Alberta Darling, Senator Glenn Grothman (who actually admitted they have absolutely no evidence to back up the public allegations they’ve made about massive voter fraud in the state), and Representative Robin Vos, who didn’t even bother to respond to Ross.

At least the others did him the courtesy of saying “we got nuthin’.”

The Voter ID law the Republicans got passed last year was immediately slapped down as unconstitutional.  It threatened to do irreparable harm to the rights of 300,000 Wisconsin voters.  Now, the legislature doesn’t need to have evidence of anything to pass any damn law it sees fit.  The Voter ID law was a textbook example of a “solution in search of a problem”.

Yet all one need do to hear allegations of massive voter fraud in Wisconsin is to tune in Miss Vicky in the afternoon in Madison (when she’s not busy warning us that Barack Obama’s Secret Muslim Army is going to come to our homes at night, take all our guns, force us to marry gay people and have abortions, and other important topics), or Charlie in the morning in Milwaukee, or Jerry in the morning in Green Bay, yada yada yada. 

I know a bit about voter fraud and election fraud.  As President of my graduating class at Hortonville High School, I presided over the referendum to decide what the Senior Class Gift should be: a whirlpool for the athletic department, or a sign-board for the front of the high school.  The whirlpool won, with 108 votes.  There were 88 members of my graduating class.  It was fair to say that a few of my fellow Polar Bears stuffed the ballot box.

You’d think that an admission to the hard-core lefties from the lunatic fringe right that they have NO evidence of voter fraud would bring an end to the constant yammering about it.

Apparently, voter fraud is like the Loch Ness monster.  No one has ever actually seen it, but by God, it just MUST be there.

Everybody says so.

Senator Darling and the Huge Lie About Vote Fraud

Last Sunday, on Milwaukee TV Newsman Mike Gousha’s weekly public affairs program (“Up Front with Mike Gousha”), the veteran broadcast journalist’s guest was State Senator Alberta Darling, who represents one of the more right-leaning areas of the state, including such wealthy enclaves as River Hills and Fox Point, and communities including Germantown, Mequon, and Thiensville.

When Gousha  (pronounced “goo-SHAY”, in case you’re not familiar with him) discussed the election results with Senator Darling, she said if Wisconsin’s Voter ID law had not been blocked, Mitt Romney might have won the state.

WHAT?

This campaign season will almost certainly go down as the one marked by the greatest number of lies ever told, but Darling’s assertion is patently absurd.  President Obama won Wisconsin by over 205,000 votes .  In other words, by a number of votes just a bit smaller than the number of people who live in Madison, and about twice the population of Green Bay.  So Senator Darling wants us to believe that there were over two hundred thousand fraudulent votes cast in Wisconsin’s Presidential election.

This is complete and total horse-puckey.

And yet, Darling and her fellow travelers continue to assert massive voter fraud in the state, offering absolutely no evidence of any. Earlier this year, Senator RoJo The Clown told tall tales – never supported by one iota of evidence – of busloads of illegal voters in Racine.  It’s a right-wing meme: voter fraud is everywhere!!!!  These people are delusional.

It disgusts me not only that people like Senators Darling and Johnson can spew this manure essentially without challenge from any “reporter” or “journalist”, but that so many people, even those with IQ’s above room temperature, will repeat it.  An insignificant percentage of people watch shows like Gousha’s, but I still think he – and others who practice this art – should pursue a far more aggressive line of follow-up questioning when pols like Darling spew this utter nonsense.

Mitt Romney lost Wisconsin for many reasons, but one of them is NOT voter fraud.  His running mate Paul Ryan, caught in the lie about the Janesville GM plant (among many other huge untruths), was a drag on the ticket.  Obama won Wisconsin by seven percentage points, but every reliable poll showed  Obama’s lead smaller before Romney picked Ryan.  Every poll showed Wisconsinites clearly supported the auto bailout, and even Ryan’s emotionally-choked speech about the boys he went to high school with losing their jobs at the hometown GM plant couldn’t be sold to Wisconsinites, who have a clear recollection of how, when, and why that plant closed.  Lyin’ Ryan was re-elected to his seat in Congress, but he and Mitt did not carry Janesville or Rock County.

Mitt Romney lost Wisconsin for a myriad of other reasons, not the least of which is he had almost no appeal on social media, which made him look even more old-fashioned than his ideas about women.  President Obama had more than 31 million “likes” on Facebook, contrasted with Romney’s 11 million.  Obama had 21 million followers on Twitter, contrasted with Romney’s 1.6 million Twitter followers.  This is a crystal-clear sign that the Republican campaign strategy was defective.

The list of reasons Wisconsin went for Obama and not Romney is long, and it’s difficult to explain an electorate that votes Ryan back into Congress, but against sending him to the White House; selects Tammy Baldwin over Tommy Thompson, but also strongly supports Governor Walker (who is the REAL up-and-coming Republican star, not Paul Ryan); and gives the Republicans even more control in the legislature.

But one thing is certain to any person capable of rational thought: voter fraud had NOTHING to do with it.