"Barrett said that the 679,000 ballots the county had agreed to print were less than the amount prepared for the presidential election in 2000 as well as for the the gubernatorial race in 2002. He and the city's top election official said that the city requested 938,000 ballots from the county, which, by law, pays for and prints ballots.As you read through this article, have your calculator ready. The number of ballots requested by the city is nearly three times the amount needed to cover the registered voters. Recent experience shows this:
In a letter sent to City Elections chief Lisa Artison, Walker said that he had 'serious questions' about the need for that many ballots when the city reported having 382,000 registered voters in September."
For the September primary, the city requested 841,357 ballots, or about 3,000 per ward plus the absentee ballots. Barrett said that the number requested in September was "in retrospect, too high" and, in fact, only some 94,643 votes were cast in the city.Obviously, the Republicans have some concerns:
"These requests do not appear to be driven solely by higher census counts, but by anticipated voter registration drives in certain areas," Walker wrote to Artison.
The chairman of the county commission, Doug Haag, who is also the Republican Party's chairman in Milwaukee County, went further.
Haag said Republican Party officials questioned why voter-registration groups seem to target only Milwaukee's central city and students on the city's east side. And he noted that Wisconsin has same-day registration.
"Why is there this need to get all these people registered?" Haag said. "If people want to vote, they will vote. If they want to stay in bed and not vote, they don't have to bother."
Given all the stories, from around the country and our own recent history (Smokes for Votes, etc), are they really off base raising these concerns?
In addition, there's this about the deployment of lawyers to the polls on election day.
No comments:
Post a Comment