Permanent Injunction of Unconstitutional Voter Suppression Upheld

Two weeks ago, the Voter Suppression Law requiring an ID to vote that was passed by the far-right Republicans in Wisconsin was found unconstitutional by two judges, one from conservative Waukesha and one from liberal Dane. Both judges found the law to be unconstitutional, because the law goes "steps beyond the proper authority of the Legislature" to restrict voting by specific groups. Judge Richard Niess, the second judge said in his order, "The government may not disqualify an elector who possesses those qualifications not contained in Article III, such as a photo ID." The unconstitutional law was then halted by a temporary and a permanent injunction from the respective judges.

However, Governor Scott Walker, by demanding the injunctions be stayed, continued to insist upon suppressing the votes of the poor, the elderly, and minorities. Walker and the Republican leadership lit a fire under the normally slow-moving Attorney General Van Hollen's butt to appeal the decisions. Remember, Van Hollen refused to help the FBI in their criminal investigation of Walker and his aides as well as the election debacle in Waukesha last spring. Fortunately for the people of Wisconsin, our judges will have none of that.

Last week, Judge David T. Flanagan denied Walker's request to stay his temporary injunction, and yesterday, Judge Niess denied Walker's request to stay his permanent injunction. Niess said, "It is no law at all."

So, no more IDs to vote, and it doesn't sound like any judge would have a leg to stand on in support of the constitutionality of the law. Judge Niess said that would be a clear case of judicial activism. So, we likely will never need IDs to vote, as should have always been the case. Otherwise, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where Walker is trying to send both cases, is more than FUBAR.

For those of you worried about increased voter fraud, the Voter Suppression Law wouldn't stop any of Wisconsin's previous cases of voter fraud. So, our elections are protected as well with and without the Voter Suppression Law. This is one of the reasons it's unjustified and unconstitutional, it doesn't make any practical effort towards stopping voter fraud, but it makes great strides to limit the voting of certain groups.

No more IDs and no more asking for IDs to vote. Make sure everyone knows so they can save money by not purchasing one. The halting of free photo IDs is one reason the permanent injunction won't be lifted unless the Republicans can somehow prove the law is constitutional.

Injunction of Unconstitutional Voter Suppression Upheld

Last week, the far-right Republican Voter Suppression Law that adds the unjustified requirement of showing only certain types of photo ID to vote was stopped by a temporary injunction ordered from one Wisconsin judge, and then later in the week another Wisconsin judge issued a permanent injunction against the law. Both judges found the law to be unconstitutional, because the law goes "steps beyond the proper authority of the Legislature" to restrict voting by specific groups. Judge Richard Niess, the second judge said in his order, "The government may not disqualify an elector who possesses those qualifications not contained in Article III, such as a photo ID."

Walker and the Republican leadership lit a fire under the normally slow-moving Attorney General Van Hollen's butt to appeal the decisions. Remember, Van Hollen refused to help the FBI in their criminal investigation of Walker and his aides as well as the election debacle in Waukesha last spring. However, today, the first judge, David T. Flanagan in Waukesha, struck down the motion, finding that "based on careful scrutiny" the law "is in violation of the Wisconsin Constitution," and there doesn't seem to be any argument otherwise.

So, no more IDs to vote, and it doesn't sound like any judge would have a leg to stand on in support of the constitutionality of the law. Judge Niess said that would be a clear case of judicial activism. So, we likely will never need IDs to vote, as should have always been the case. Otherwise, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where Van Hollen is trying to send both cases, is more than FUBAR.

For those of you worried about increased voter fraud, the Voter Suppression Law wouldn't stop any of Wisconsin's previous cases of voter fraud. So, our elections are protected as well with and without the Voter Suppression Law. This is one of the reasons it's unjustified and unconstitutional, it doesn't make any practical effort towards stopping voter fraud, but it makes great strides to limit the voting of certain groups.

No more IDs and no more asking for IDs to vote. Make sure everyone knows so they can save money by not purchasing one. The halting of free photo IDs is one reason the permanent injunction won't be lifted unless the Republicans can prove the law is constitutional.

Voter Suppression Permanently Injuncted

Last week Tuesday, a Dane Country judge granted a temporary injunction halting the unconstitutional Voter Suppression Law that adds the historic and unjustified requirement of showing only certain types of photo ID to vote. Upset that they couldn't get their way, the far-right Republicans in control of Wisconsin ordered our Department of Justice to try to lift the injunction on Friday. Today, another judge told the Republicans, "The government may not disqualify an elector who possesses those qualifications not contained in Article III, such as a photo ID." The judge also granted a permanent injunction instead of a temporary injunction.

For those of you worried about increased voter fraud, the Voter Suppression Law wouldn't stop any of Wisconsin's previous cases of voter fraud. So, our elections are protected as well with and without the Voter Suppression Law.

No more IDs to vote, and probably never again! No more Republican voter suppression!

WI Rep. Joel Kleefisch Caught Voting Illegally

Wisconsin Rep. Joel Kleefisch has been caught on video committing voter fraud, voting in someone else's name. In the video below, you see Kleefisch recording votes for absent members on their machines during Tuesday's session.


Notice how he glares down the videographer after noticing he was caught. What a creep!

According to Assembly Rules, "only the members present in the assembly chamber may vote."

WTMJ asked Kleefisch whether he broke a rule, and he responded, "It depends upon how you interpret the rule."

Kleefisch is referring to the Assembly's definition of the chamber which states, "Assembly chamber: The entire area west of the easternmost doors of the assembly, including the visitor's galleries, lobbies, offices of the speaker, majority leader, and minority leader, and hallways."

If you interpret the rule as applying to only the chamber room, Kleefisch would admit he was in violation of Assembly rules. If you interpret the rule as applying to the Assembly's definition of chamber, then Kleefisch says he was within the rules.

However, Kleefisch is trying to distract us from the core issue with his behavior. The issue isn't whether or not someone is in the chamber. The issue is that Kleefisch is voting in someone else's name. That's voter fraud!

Kleefisch was so worried about voter fraud that he voted for the Voter Suppression Law last year. Apparently, Kleefisch feels voter fraud applies to everyone but him. However, the comparison is somewhat mute. We all know the Voter Suppression Law wasn't passed to prevent voter fraud, because it doesn't stop any case of voter fraud Wisconsin has seen, but it does prevent many poor, elderly and minorities from voting. In fact, the Advancement Project sued Wisconsin today over the discriminating law. Kleefisch doesn't give a crap about voter fraud, and he has no problem committing it himself.

Psychologists have a name for this type of behavior, projection. If there's anyone who's been messing around with votes and elections it's been the Republicans, and since they do it, they assume other people must be, too.

Governor Scott Walker used to think this behavior was unacceptable when he worked in the Assembly. Walker wanted to change the rule so that only actively participating members may vote. "Change the rule to apply to people we are talking about who aren't in the chamber and aren't aware of what is going on," Walker once said.

What does Walker think of his Lt. Governor's husband voting in someone else's name?

Refuse To Show Photo ID When Voting During Recall Elections and Still Vote

Update: (March 21, 2012) This post is no longer relevant. The Voter Suppression Law "is no law at all" according to Wisconsin Judge Richard Niess who placed a permanent injunction on enforcement of the law. Photo IDs are NOT required just as usual.

It won't be required, but poll workers will be asking for specific photo ID when you go to vote during the recall elections this summer. The Republicans in the Assembly and Senate have already swiftly passed the Voter Suppression Bill (Assembly Bill 7) by cutting off debate, and Governor Scott Walker likely won't find a conscience before signing it into law.

The bill includes a provision requiring that poll workers request to see specific photo ID before voting, but not requiring the ID to vote. The provision was added to confuse voters into believing they must show ID to vote in the recall elections, hoping to suppress Democratic voters in order to keep the radical-right stranglehold on Wisconsin. Don't be fooled, you don't have to show ID to vote until 2012!

The provision was added as part of the adopted Assembly Substitute Amendment 2 in section 144 (2) Special Procedure at Elections Held Prior to 2012 Spring Primary. The relevant text is:

"...an elector who votes at a polling place at an election held prior to the date of the 2012 spring primary shall be requested by the election officials to present proof of identification, but if the elector does not present proof of identification, and the elector is otherwise qualified, the elector’s ballot shall be counted without the necessity of presenting proof of identification and without the necessity of casting a provisional ballot."

Please help ensure that every voter in Wisconsin knows that even though they'll be asked, they don't have to show photo ID to vote in the recall elections.

In support of Wisconsinites who will find it difficult or impossible to vote and in protest of the Voter Suppression Bill, voters who have the requested photo ID should refuse to show it when they vote in the recall elections. Don't take more time than is necessary. Politely say that you forgot your ID or don't want to show it in protest of the new law. Then, cast your ballot as is your right.

Voters who don't have the requested photo ID should tell the poll worker how difficult or impossible it will be to vote in the next election. It's a simple act of legal protest, which may actually provide empirical evidence of the unconstitutionality of the bill.

Let's show the Republicans and the Supreme Court how unnecessary, unconstitutional and inconvenient the Voter Suppression Bill is!

Late Night Voter Suppression - Wisconsin Assembly Passes Voter Suppression Bill to Senate

Late Wednesday night, Republicans* in the Wisconsin Assembly passed the Voter Suppression Bill in order to decrease the number of Democratic voters in future elections, particularly the upcoming recall elections, as well as make all of our lives more difficult. Ya, another vote under the cover of night (just after 11pm). The Republicans sure want us to pay for this expensive piece of crap! Just like the collective bargaining rights-stripping bill, no matter what it takes to hurt the people of Wisconsin.

It was clear from the start that Assembly Bill 7 was created simply to suppress Wisconsin voters, particularly those who tend to vote against Republicans. This is because Republicans tend to vote against their interests, and now the Republicans have codified that policy. In fact, homeless Wisconsin citizens will never be able to vote again in Wisconsin according to Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca.

Not only that, but the Voter Suppression Bill will likely cost annually 2-3 times as much as the current recount in the Supreme Court election or more, at least $3 million. It also won't solve any real problems, because voter fraud isn't a problem in Wisconsin. It would take a massive conspiracy for voter fraud to swing an election. So Republicans want us to spend millions of dollars a year to make it easier for them to win elections, but they won't fix our computer election systems where Republicans like Kathy Nickolaus (or anyone else for that matter) can manipulate thousands of votes in seconds**!

The Republicans in the Senate are expected to pass the bill next Tuesday.

This is just disgraceful. These people should be ashamed to call themselves Wisconsinites. If their constituents believe that we need to show ID to vote in order to have fair elections, it's because they haven't been telling their constituents the facts.

I'm calling foul on the Republicans for trying to tamper with Wisconsin elections!

The Supreme Court election is one, if only for slamming Kloppenburg for requesting a recount that, if positions were reversed, they would be asking Prosser to request. The recall elections are the next.

Something must be done to stop these radicals from taking control of Wisconsin!

Please join us for the massive rally at the Capital this Saturday in protest of such extreme-right policies as this.

*Oddly, Democrat Representatives Margaret Krusick and Tony Staskunas voted for the Voter Suppression Bill. Their constituents need to ask them, since voter fraud isn't an issue (unless you believe in conspiracy theories), why did you vote to spend millions of dollars to reduce the number of voters in Wisconsin and make all of our lives more difficult?

If you didn't catch that, Rep. Krusick's email is Rep.krusick@legis.wisconsin.gov and Rep. Staskunas's email is Rep.staskunas@legis.wisconsin.gov. I encourage you to make your voice heard now before it's needlessly taken away or made more difficult at the polls.

**This is no joke. Not only do our computer vote counting machines rarely count the actual number of votes (we aren't told exactly how rarely), but they can easily be manipulated to do whatever someone wants, including play Pac-Man. No computer security expert questions these statements, and a world-renowned expert, Bruce Schneier, has written much on the topic. It doesn't take a conspiracy to swing an election with computer election equipment.

Republicans Tweak Voter Suppression Bill, But Why?

Blah, blah, blah. The Republicans, realizing their Voter Suppression Bill is a mistake, are in the process of tweaking the bill.

But, what's the point?

Requiring an ID to vote doesn't solve any problems, it just costs Wisconsin more. In such a time of economic burden, where workers' rights are being threatened, is it really right to spend millions of dollars only to reduce the number of voters?

Thankfully, it appears there may be enough public momentum against this bill to stop it, because no matter what tweaks the Republicans make, it will still be the Voter Suppression Bill.

Also, will people, particularly the Journal Sentinel, stop confusing people by calling this a voter ID bill or photo ID bill. The bill neither creates a voter ID nor requires just any photo ID (not to mention that name says nothing about voting). So, please start calling the bill what it really is, Assembly Bill 7 or the Voter Suppression Bill.

Walker To Jam Extreme-Right Crap Down Throats of Wisconsinites

Well, now that the recall campaigns have ended, the Republicans have ended their "quiet period" (you know that period before an election in which they don't tell us what they're planning to do later). According to the AP, Walker and the Republicans are planning to introduce and quickly pass a whole host of extreme right-wing candy, none that will help fix the budget. This includes the Voter Suppression Bill, which will likely pass the Assembly this week, strip collective bargaining rights, legalize concealed weapons, increase charter schools, deregulate phone companies, and end early release of prisoners. The Republicans plan to rush all of these bills through before they will likely lose their power with the recall elections this summer.

None of these bills deliver on the promises these Republicans made to us last November, those of delivering jobs and fixing the budget. The Voter Suppression Bill is conservatively estimated to cost taxpayers over $5 million to implement and then over $2 million yearly, yet it doesn't do anything - it doesn't solve any actual problems. Wisconsin Attorney General JB Van Hollen has been investigating voter fraud for years, and has only found 11 improper votes. That number of votes couldn't swing any election in Wisconsin, but besides that, the Voter Suppression Bill wouldn't have prevented any of them.

Yes, the Republicans still haven't learned their lesson from the many thousands who protested and from the recall of six senators. Even though Walker admitted under oath that stripping collective bargaining rights "doesn't save any" money, they plan on tacking the anti-collective bargaining bill to the budget if they don't get their way through the courts. I wish the media would ask them why when the Republicans tell them of this plan. Since it doesn't save Wisconsin any money, why strip rights away from our public workers?

Legalizing concealed weapons will only increase violent crime. I'll bet my life on it, and so do many police officers! I read a Journal Sentinel article that said the Milwaukee Police Department was in favor of such a bill if it provided some much needed changes when it comes to licensing and punishment. However, I don't see the logic in creating a bigger problem in order to solve other problems. Fix the holes in the system without adding new ones. I don't want to live in fear that the guy next to me at the bar is carrying a weapon. I like that we all (except for a few, e.g. law enforcement) must make our possession of weapons blatantly obvious. I won't feel more secure knowing anyone could be carrying a weapon, I'll feel less secure.

Republicans don't want to just make our cities less safe, they want to make us more dumb. Sure, charter schools can be good, but our public schools are already quite good and can be improved using less money than creating new schools. Diverting money across more school systems will only decrease the efficacy of our school systems on average. You can't reduce money in one system and expect it to improve, and you also can't expect the charter schools to be able to do any better than a public school. Let me say that another way so the point hits home. Anything a charter school can do for students, a public school can do as well. Reducing the amount of money that all of our schools get (charter schools won't be living fat either) will only reduce the effectiveness of our schools as a whole.

The effort to increase charter schools in Wisconsin just doesn't have any logic to it. The only "selling point" of charter schools with any relevancy is that they can be a bed for experimentation. But experimentation just to experiment isn't helpful, especially to our children. Public schools and teachers have a long history of experimenting, and there are processes and channels to facilitate the experimentation and sharing of results. Of course public schools aren't perfect, but that's no reason to give up on them, it's reason to improve them.

In short, charter schools concentrate the quality of schools to small pockets, whereas public schools have more uniform quality. If you increase the money to charter schools, you'll decrease the overall quality of public schools and concentrate the quality of Wisconsin's schools in a few choice charter schools. If you increase the money to public schools and decrease it to charter schools, you increase the overall quality of Wisconsin's schools. Charter schools will never be able to do what our public schools do as a whole, and creating them just wastes taxpayer money.

Charter schools are just another example of a fake solution that can only make things worse. If you want to improve our schools, improve our schools.

The Republicans also want to deregulate phone companies in Wisconsin, so we can all pay more for even crappier service. Thanks, Walker, for looking out for the citizens of Wisconsin! There's nothing more that can be said about phone company deregulation, besides welcome back Ma Bell!

Lastly, the Republicans want to end early release for low-risk prisoners. Regardless of what you may think of the idea of early release, as illusory tenant points out, it saves Wisconsin quite a bit of money. Not only that, but I believe these programs have been shown to improve the success of rehabilitating prisoners. So, the Republicans plan to make us pay more so that our prisoners are more likely to commit crimes again.

It's clear that these ideas are against the wishes of most Wisconsinites, because the Republicans are trying to pass these bills before they lose their majority. If their ideas were inline with our ours, they wouldn't have to rush these bills through now. They could just pass them with bipartisan support. However, these ideas are from the top of extreme-right wish lists, and they should be treated as such. They should be left to the fringe of political conversation, not the center.

None of these ideas or bills will save us money, solve any problems, create jobs, or reduce the budget. I'm absolutely appalled that Wisconsin is considering such "solutions," especially when we're not broke but short on money. The only thing they do is make us pay to look more like a hill-billy state. The grass really will be greener somewhere else if this crap falls on Wisconsin. What do we have to do to get some real solutions around here?

We the people of Wisconsin need to wake up now and stop this crap before we have to eat it!

(I glossed over many of my conclusions, but I can provide further facts and detail if desired.)

Why Is Prosser Still Complaining About the Recount?

Even though there have been significant issues in Waukesha County and around the state including torn ballot bags and missing seals/labels, the Prosser campaign has set up a ridiculous website* which calls the recount a "disaster". The only thing that could be called a disaster in this recount is Wisconsin's elections.

They shouldn't be complaining about a very useful service to the people of Wisconsin, because they want to spend a lot more money yearly on the Voter Suppression Bill, which will absolutely not solve any problems.

The only reason to be against this recount is to prevent us from learning the true vote count and the truth about our elections. I find it really odd that only a few weeks ago, Prosser's campaign rightly said they were open to a recount. Only more issues have surfaced since then. Why question the recount now?

Not only that, but Prosser's website makes you believe that Kloppenburg's campaign has taken away 148 votes by displaying it as "-148". However, the number 148 doesn't reflect removed Prosser votes, it mostly reflects votes that weren't originally counted, just like the 7,000 some that Prosser claims gives him the lead. This website is not fitting of a local politician much less a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice.

The website asks you to "Preserve the Prosser Victory." See, that's where the problem lies. Kloppenburg isn't asking for a recount to take away Prosser's supposed lead. Kloppenburg's goal is to help us determine the true vote count, because we know the "official" count is not correct. Asking people to preserve your victory in an election recount is asking people to say you've won regardless of the truth.

Prosser's campaign should remove this website and start spending money to preserve our elections - not anyone's victory.

I'd like to have an effective discussion about the real issues in our elections. I've compiled a list of the significant issues that we've seen during this election as well as ideas for solving the issues here. I'll continue to add to the list if more issues come to light.

*This is the website: www.kloppenburgometer.com. Thanks to illusory tenant for spotting it!

Assembly Republicans Advance Voter Suppression Bill - Full Assembly Vote Next Week

According to the Journal Sentinel, the Voter Suppression Bill (AB7) was passed out of committee on a party-line vote. The Republicans are trying to quickly ram this bill through before the recall elections, because the bill reduces the number of voters who can and will vote, particularly those who vote for Democrats and who already lack a voice in our communities. Read this post for more information about why the Voter Suppression Bill proposes a fake solution and is a very expensive distraction (it'll cost yearly more than the current recount) from our real issues.

The Voter Suppression Bill is a fake solution, because the bill (which is meant to prevent voter fraud) won't prevent any of the at most 20 improper votes in recent elections. So it doesn't even do what the Republicans say it will do, and it costs us much more of our time and money. This bill is a fraud.

The bill was amended to allow certain school IDs, but none of the UW schools include the necessary information for them to be used. I'm not sure about the status of IDs from other higher education institutions in Wisconsin, but it's likely the amendment allows the use of very few current student IDs. We will in one way or another pay for those IDs to be updated as well, otherwise it's called a poll tax. The amendment doesn't address those costs. So the amendment is just as careless as the rest of the bill.

By allowing only certain student IDs, the Republicans have shown how arbitrary the photo ID requirement is. People in Wisconsin haven't been voting in place of other people, and honestly it's very difficult to make any sort of impact by travelling around, waiting in line, and hoping to use just the right names. They could strengthen or loosen the requirement, and the only thing it would do is change the number of voters who can and will vote. It's a frivolous requirement.

To have any influence, voter fraud requires a true conspiracy on a level the United States has not seen. However, by manipulating voting machine tallies, one person can swing a statewide election. That doesn't require a conspiracy.

We must stop this horrific bill now or we may never have fair elections in Wisconsin again! The Republicans are planning to turn the bill into law in the next couple of weeks, and they plan to schedule a vote in the full Assembly as early as next week.

Please, contact your state representatives and tell them why you think the Voter Suppression Bill is detrimental to Wisconsin.

Instead of wasting millions of taxpayer money on a very expensive solution to a teeny tiny issue that won't even work, let's try to find real solutions to our election issues.

Note: I still have to read the actual language of the amendment instead of interpretations by the news media, but I will post any unexpected changes if necessary.

The Wisconsin Voter Suppression Bill - Assembly Bill 7

I was calling Senate Bill 6 the Voter Distraction Bill, but now the Republicans have introduced Assembly Bill 7 which goes even further. Plus, they want to pass it quickly and before any recall elections. So I find it fitting to call AB7 the Voter Suppression Bill, as many others have called SB6 and AB7. Calling it the voter ID bill isn't appropriate, because the bill won't create a "voter ID" as the name implies. Calling it the photo ID bill also isn't appropriate, because it's vague and the bill won't allow for the use of just any photo ID as that implies. If you want to call AB7 something appropriate, the Voter Suppression Bill is the most appropriate name Wisconsin has come up with.

Both SB6 and AB7 will give Wisconsin the strictest photo ID requirement in the country and reduce the number of people who can and will actually vote in our elections. Not only that, but the bills will cost Wisconsin taxpayers yearly more than the current recount will, and the problem they're trying to solve, voter fraud, has only added at most 20 improper votes in the last few years. In fact, neither bill would have prevented any one of those 20 improper votes. This bill is a fraud.

Voter fraud is nowhere near one of the significant issues in our elections. The fact that Kathy Nickolaus or nearly anyone else could easily add thousands of improper votes is the real issue that we all should be furious over. To have any influence, voter fraud requires a true conspiracy on a level the United States has not seen. However, by manipulating voting machine tallies, one person can swing a statewide election. That doesn't require a conspiracy. Wisconsin elections, and many other issues in our state, require real solutions not fake solutions such as these Voter Suppression Bills.

Some of the significant differences between SB6 and AB7 limit absentee voting. AB7 limits absentee voting to a few specific reasons. The bill also would reduce the limit of in-person absentee voting from the current 30 days to one week before an election. If there are relevant issues with absentee voting, they're not solved by limiting absentee voting to very specific reasons or reducing the amount of time people may vote.

Another significant restriction in AB7 is on the required amount of time an eligible voter must be living in Wisconsin to vote. AB7 increases that time from 10 days to 28 days before election day. This provision will clearly deny more legitimate Wisconsin citizens from having a vote, and again for no good reason. Both bills already include a restriction banning student IDs for the photo ID requirement.

AB7 also removes our ability to vote a straight party ticket. Whether you like it or not, it's a convenience that many people appreciate. Making someone work harder to vote for no good reason is un-Wisconsin.

The non-profit Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law submitted testimony on AB7 that is a wonderfully succinct rebuttal of the bill and its goals.

I want to have an effective discussion about the relevant issues with our elections and possible real solutions. I'm hoping we can use this recount to bring real change and confidence to our elections. I've assembled a list of the issues we've encountered during the Supreme Court election and the recount as well as my arguments for open election systems as a solution to many issues. I will continue to add to the list as more legitimate issues come to light, and I'd like to add more solutions to the list as well. So, don't hesitate to share your concerns and ideas.

Updated: (May 2, 6:39pm) I've now read through AB7, and it's nothing more than a very expensive distraction from the real issues and will only suppress the votes of legitimate Wisconsin citizens, particularly those who already struggle to have a voice. So, I made a few edits for clarification and added some great testimony on AB7 from the non-profit Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Wisconsin Elections Demand Real Solutions

Over the last few weeks we've has seen how easily large amounts of our votes can be manipulated or inadvertently changed. We've seen how the one agency in charge of ensuring our elections are fair, the Government Accountability Board, is just as involved in the issues as Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus. Experts agree that it doesn't take a conspiracy to swing thousands of votes, just one person. We must demand to know how our votes are counted and that they're counted accurately and securely. Even many conservatives are questioning the integrity of our system. It's time we get a real investigation and real solutions.

Instead, the Republicans are planning to rush through what can be described as a Voter Suppression Bill (AB 7) in May. It will require everyone to show only certain types of ID and reduce the number of people who can actually vote in our elections. They want to pass this before the recall elections. I really don't want to know why, because the truth is too gruesome in this case. Not only that, but the bill will cost Wisconsin taxpayers yearly more than the current recount will.

Many conservatives are furious over the cost of the recount, but they should be furious over this bill which attempts to solve a problem that has added at most 20 improper votes to the last few elections. Voter fraud is not a major issue. The fact that Kathy Nickolaus or nearly anyone else could easily add 14,000 or more improper votes is the real issue that we all should be furious over.

These are the issues that we've seen so far in this election:

• Large discrepancies in reporting from Waukesha and Winnebago counties
• Some of our voting equipment is antiquated and can no longer be maintained
• The GAB wrote the software that caused the reporting error in Waukesha County, and that software isn't publicly available
• There have now been at least five ballot bags with discrepancies: four from Waukesha County (DailyKos: 2 from Delafield and 1 from Brookfield and 1 from Genesee) and one from Dane County. Whether these are a real issue or not remains to be seen.
• The official Waukesha County tally missed five absentee ballots - only four have been accounted for
• There are now reports of torn ballot bags in Waukesha County.
• Other posts on Brad Blog and DailyKos have documented other issues. (I don't have time to dig through all of those issues yet, but when I do, I'll update my list here.)

Note that the most likely reason why we know of more issues in Waukesha County is because we actually have a live stream of the recount in Waukesha County.


Our most pressing problems contributing to the above issues or their concerns:

1. Ballot security and integrity
2. Antiquated voting equipment
3. Insecure and inaccurate voting equipment
4. Voting equipment hardware design and software not owned and controlled by the people of Wisconsin
5. The integrity of every voting machine isn't verified before and after every election
6. Various vote-tallying processes are not open
7. Ease and likelihood of errors in reporting
8. Voting equipment and software is not uniform across the state

(1) Ballot security and integrity. Up until now, I thought this stuff was pretty well straightened out. So I haven't had much time to learn about the process and the potential ramifications of our current issues, but one thing is for sure, we can't get anything else right until we can be sure our paper ballots are secure. I'll post more on this as I learn more and as events unfold.

(2) Antiquated voting equipment. It's clear that at least one approved model of our voting equipment, the Optech Eagle, is antiquated and must be removed from service. Although, I will say that I believe it's good that the issue forced a hand recount in parts of the state instead of simply re-feeding the ballots back through the same machines for a recount. This model should be replaced quickly, though the following issues may warrant some delay. A full review of all our voting equipment should occur first.

(3) Insecure and inaccurate voting equipment. Our electronic voting equipment is insecure and inaccurate, but you're not supposed to know that. The very equipment we use to cast and count votes can be manipulated without detection in seconds, swinging the results by any number of votes. There's not a single computer or security expert that would argue with that. However, even if we all were angels, our vote-tallying machines rarely count the exact number of votes. These are inevitable consequences of using electronics to cast and count our votes. Unfortunately, the design of our electronic voting machines and their margins of error are secrets kept tightly by their manufacturers. So we have no way of knowing just how insecure and inaccurate our machines are (more on this in (4)).

Quite near anyone with the knowledge to write moderately sophisticated computer programs can manipulate a voting machine and its vote tally in literally seconds. That's well into the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people in Wisconsin with that ability. Not at any other point in our country's history do so many people have such an ability to swing elections so dramatically. It really does take some time to stop and consider.

No one has any "bullet-proof" solutions to this problem, and it's likely we never will. If we want to count votes using electronic equipment, and I for one think it's a "good thing," we must have verifiable guarantees of voting machine security and accuracy. We don't have that now, and we almost certainly won't have that until we solve (4).

There are other issues regarding accuracy specific to the voting machines we use. A GAB memo from December 2009 shows that there were several issues with voting machines that we currently use in many parts of Wisconsin. An error message "error while printing" occurred 15% of the time during a test of the AutoMARK VAT. This was due to a malfunction in the system which required replacement, and the replacement had similar non-tallying related issues about 5% of the time. Such errors can cause inaccuracies, and they can also cause voter disenfranchisement as voters may be told to come back later or may have to wait for an excessive period of time.

The AutoMARK VAT is used as an option for voters with disabilities in many municipalities across Wisconsin. However, the GAB memo says that the testing by the GAB and testing by the Wisconsin Election Administration Council shows that

"The AutoMARK VAT does not provide full privacy and independence for voters with disabilities, especially voters with dexterity or motor disabilities, as voters may need assistance inserting the ballot, removing the ballot and placing the ballot in the ballot box or tabulator."

The Wisconsin Election Administration Council had even more to say. The memo notes several issues including vision-impaired voters won't be able to verify their vote, inadvertent steps that cause a cancellation of votes, the device doesn't meet 2005 US-EAC guidelines, "it takes longer to cast a ballot with the AutoMARK than manually marking the ballot with a marking device," and screen reading difficulties. Yet the AutoMARK VAT was approved by the GAB for Wisconsin voters with disabilities. The GAB said, "The ES&S voting system technically meets" the requirement of a voter to privately verify their votes. The GAB later notes in a bordered paragraph,

"The AutoMARK voting systems for which approval is being sought, do not change the degree of accessibility currently provided by previously approved AutoMARK systems."

I'm appalled that so many of our voting machines do "not provide full privacy and independence for voters with disabilities," and that the GAB would approve such a machine. Are we that desperate for voting equipment?

Another machine mentioned in the memo with issues regarding its ease of use is the intElect DS200. It may not be immediately clear that these issues are issues with accuracy. Any time a voter's intention doesn't get correctly included in the official results, the system is inaccurate. The more difficult a machine is to use, the less accurate it will be.

Similar touch-screen machines continue to have worrisome issues in other states as well. In the midterm election this past November, a touch-screen voting machine in Pennsylvania began casting votes for the opposite candidate from the one selected by the voter, and the machine required "recalibration" to resolve. We don't use the same machine here, but the same manufacturer, ES&S. So there's good reason to suspect the same issues can and may have happened here. Luckily for us, all of our touch-screens mark or print a paper ballot, but most people expect the machines won't make a mistake. So they may not properly inspect the results before casting their vote and walking away.

The GAB incorrectly states on their website "Adminstrative(sp) Code Chapter 5 Ballot and Electronic Voting Equipment Security insures all electronic voting systems used in Wisconsin are accurate and reliable." This is plain false, and it provides a false sense of security to those voters who aren't aware of the issues. I don't believe we will ever fully be able to insure electronic voting systems are accurate and reliable, but I believe we could publicly guarantee much higher security, accuracy and reliability if we solved issue (4).

Wisconsin does have some of the best electronic voting machine laws in the country, but they're far from perfect. What's worse is that at any time the GAB can exempt a machine from complying with Wisconsin law. The GAB can exempt a voting machine from Wisconsin law if they choose, or as they say, "for good cause" GAB 7.03(5). I don't see how exempting a voting machine from Wisconsin law is a good idea at any time for any reason.

(4) Voting equipment design not owned by the people of Wisconsin. When I say that the people of Wisconsin should own the designs for our voting equipment I mean that the hardware designs and the software source code should be open, i.e., in the public domain. I'll elaborate more on this in the solutions section later, but I'll briefly cover some highlights and comparisons now.

The manufacturers of our voting machines will never provide us with the information and control we need to conduct our elections in the most fair, open and transparent way. The people who run our elections, like your county clerk, have no control or idea of what's going on inside our voting machines. (They can, but I'm not sure who's gone through the trouble s.5.905(5).) It doesn't appear as though anyone from the state government or the Wisconsin public has inspected the code or designs of these machines. We're just expected to have blind faith in these systems, but we know the manufacturers can't and/or won't solve all of their problems.

Currently, certain portions of the software for every electronic voting machine model approved for use in Wisconsin is stored in an escrow s.5.905(2). It's unclear if every software version in use is stored in the escrow, and we have no way of knowing how much of any particular software is stored. The GAB most likely knows the exact components, but they don't make the information available on their website as they should. This escrow provision is meant to make us feel better about the insecure proprietary software, but it does little or nothing to increase the security of our voting equipment. We need all of the software components at the very least, and even that won't provide us with the security, accuracy and reliability that we could achieve with open voting equipment.

Even if the manufacturers gave public access to the design and software of their voting machines, we won't get the full value of an open system if the hardware designs and software source code aren't in the public domain. We wouldn't necessarily be able to ensure the integrity of a voting machine simply because we have that information, because the machine itself may have certain vulnerabilities we would have very little ability to control. If all we can do is look at the designs and code, and we're not be given the ability to implement modifications, what happens if we want to make a change but the manufacturer wouldn't agree to it? That's unacceptable and completely avoidable.

There are many advantages to creating an open election system, and I'll defer talking in detail about those for the solutions section. One of the most beneficial advantages of using an open election system is the amount of people who can inspect the design and code to ensure the utmost security and accuracy, anyone who would want to could. This doesn't make the machine less secure, because there will always be ways to "hack" a machine. Instead, vulnerabilities and issues can be spotted and resolved more quickly, including right on the spot by county clerks or other officials (through appropriate processes of course). This openness has been shown to produce highly successful software many times, e.g. Linux, Firefox and WordPress to name just a few.

We can do better than these companies, and we must, because there's no better solution to many of our issues than using an open election system.

(5) Integrity of voting machines not verified before and after every election. The Government Accountability board conducts periodic audits of a random selection of machines, but that won't detect a singular instance of an issue. Nor will the audits detect widespread issues that were created and manifested between audits. Even still, the GAB doesn't post the results of the audits, just the municipalities in which the audits took place. The GAB should be required to post the results of their audits. These audits are helpful, but they aren't sufficient for detecting all likely issues with our voting machines.

The integrity of a machine can only be inspected during a recount if a candidate requests permission from the GAB, and as long as they sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement s.5.905(4). This process should be automatic for every machine for every election, regardless of the closeness, because that's the only way we can have any hope to guarantee any amount of security, accuracy and reliability. Simply "matching numbers" during canvassing will not uncover many possible issues with our voting machines. So we need a process to ensure every machine is counting votes as accurately as possible during an election.

Verifying the integrity of a voting machine after an election includes making sure that the software currently on the machine is the software that actually counted the votes. Wisconsin Statue 5.905(3) states that "the verification procedure shall include a determination that the software components correspond to the instructions actually used by the system to count votes." However, the GAB may not have enough information or there just may not be any possible way to determine if the software instructions in a particular machine were the actual instructions used to count the votes in an election. I can't find any details as to how the GAB would make such a determination. If we solve (4) this issue becomes much easier to solve.

There are several ways to determine the accuracy of a voting machine without verifying its integrity, although the integrity is the ultimate test. Municipalities employ a simple pre-election test of running a predetermined set of votes through a machine and verifying that the counts match. It wouldn't be difficult to write software to pass the pre-election test but still manipulate the vote counts later. At the very least, this same test must be run on every machine after an election as well as before. However, without verifying the integrity of a machine or running a hand recount, there's no way to guarantee that the results from a machine match the actual votes.

As for recounts, there's really no point to a recount if each machine isn't inspected for its integrity, because the device should give back very near the same results a second time whether the device was manipulated or not. Fortunately, there are some hand recounts occurring throughout the state, but not nearly enough to provide information beyond most glaring types of discrepancies. Since recounts are meant to try to determine the actual vote count, why don't we at least inspect every machine automatically before proceeding with a recount? Otherwise, we're just another example of the classic definition of insanity, continuing to do the same thing but expecting different results.

(6) Various vote-tallying processes are not open. I already mentioned the issues with the closed vote-tallying processes within our voting equipment in (4). Here, I'm referring to vote-tallying process outside of our voting equipment. This GAB manual for county clerks says, "The counting of votes is always done publicly after the polls close at 8:00 p.m." (their emphasis) If the counting of votes is always done publicly, we would have found out about the Waukesha County error much sooner. So, this law is clearly not being enforced properly, and the GAB felt it necessary to emphasize publicly to officials who presumably should know that very well.

As evidenced by my reporting on the ballot bag issues, the availability of information during this recount is scarce. Yes, there is a live stream of the Waukesha County recount, but they're not the only county in Wisconsin. And even with the live stream we can't figure out exactly how many ballot bags have discrepancies and where they're from. There's no mention of the issues with the ballot bags on the GAB website, even though at the very least the Journal Sentinel, The CapTimes and WisPolitics have reported the issues.

Every county in Wisconsin should have a live stream, at least the counties doing hand recounts. Though, even then, few of us have time to intently watch the Waukesha County recount. So, there should be a live stream of each county with the ability to look back at previously streamed events. There would be very little cost but a huge increase in election transparency. The cost could be further reduced by using third-party sites such as YouTube.

Any disputed ballots should be scanned and posted online for everyone in Wisconsin to see as they were in 2008 during the Minnesota recount for the U.S. Senate election between Al Franken and Norm Coleman. We should see what causes errors, so that we can learn from those ballots. Also, it makes the process much more transparent with very little extra effort. In fact, some voting machines take "photos" of ballots, and those photos could be quickly cropped appropriately and posted for all to see. We have online banking, why not an "online" recount?

(7) Ease and likelihood of errors in reporting. This was thought to only pertain to Waukesha County, but it also happened (on a slightly smaller scale) in Winnebago County. Therefore, it's probably just as likely in the rest of Wisconsin. This issue is not as serious if the previous six issues are resolved. However, until then, errors in reporting will continue to exacerbate the concerns we have.

(8) Voting equipment and software is not uniform across Wisconsin. We should have a standard set of strict vote-tallying processes and one standard set of voting machines, i.e., at most a few touch-screen machines and one paper ballot-tallying machine. Variation creates unnecessary complexity and cost, and complexity increases the chances of an error. We could reduce a lot of the learning curve involved in voting as well as the cost to train staff, volunteers and maintain the equipment. Obviously, I believe that we should standardize around a set of open voting machines.


We must seek real solutions to relevant issues by determining the best way to solve these issues. I for one won't be able to trust an election in Wisconsin until issues 1-6 are fixed, and I hope you feel just as worried.

Are There Real Solutions?

So what are some possible solutions? There's at least one very beneficial and realistic solution to many of these issues. Voting equipment whose hardware design and software is owned and controlled by the people of Wisconsin, i.e., open source, would be much more secure and instill much more voter confidence than any proprietary equipment ever could. We asked for nearly this back in 2005 via AB 627, but the bill was amended to remove the half-hearted provision before the bill was passed. Those who control our elections want desperately for it to stay that way, but it's not what's good for us. We will end up choosing this option at some point. So why not now?

Standardizing open voting equipment across the entire state of Wisconsin would provide greater benefits over those from standardizing over proprietary equipment. The learning curve for voters would be reduced, because everyone would use the same user-friendly and accessible system. Reporting of votes would be faster and less prone to error. The cost of maintaining and approving voting equipment would be drastically reduced. Many other costs at both the state and municipality level would be reduced. We would know exactly how secure and accurate our voting equipment is. There would be no doubt, because anyone could inspect the code. That also means that more people can help improve the system. There are valid reasons against complete homogeneous standardization, but that debate is for a later time.

I realize that I'm glossing over quite a few major details here. It's not guaranteed that the first, or even tenth..., version will be user-friendly and accessible. Over time it will no doubt improve, but by beginning with effective guidelines and true experts, the first version could easily be much more user-friendly and accessible than we've come to expect from our voting machines. This also applies to the costs of developing such a set of systems. Successful open source projects gain momentum quickly when they're driven by knowledgeable and thoughtful leaders. The more knowledgeable people who contribute to the project the less tax payers will end up having to pay. I have no doubt that such a project would create more than enough enthusiasm from capable people in Wisconsin. We can do it, other less wealthy countries have successfully done this.

I also realize that converting to an open system can't happen overnight, but a deadline should have been set a long time ago and needs to be set now. I don't know how much it would cost the state to implement and convert to such a system, but it's clear we need to replace at the very least the unmaintainable equipment, and it's quite possible the conversion would cost less than the full cost of implementing and enforcing the Voter Suppression Bill.

There's a very good chance we could partner with other states to share the burden of development. There would be no reason not to. These tough economic times add to the value of governments working together and sharing the software code they run on. Also, various other municipalities, states, organizations and countries have either begun or completed open source election systems that we could implement as is or modify to our desires. So, I believe converting to an open election system should be one of the top priorities in fixing our elections (if not the top priority).

I'd like to have a discussion about the relevant issues with our elections and possible real solutions. Any other suggestions for solving some of these issues? Any other issues I'm not listing? Is there anything I could clarify? Did I increase your concern?

Please, contact your state representatives and tell them why you're concerned with the security and accuracy of our voting equipment. They won't do anything unless we demand it.

Updated: (April 29, 6:23am) Removed issue regarding a lack of paper trail for some machines, because the 2005 AB 627 bill was signed into law and requires a paper trail for all of our machines. I'm assuming for the moment that it covers machines that were already in service until I have more time to look into the law.

Update: (April 29, 5:31pm) I'm compiling a lot more information, including possible new discrepancies, and will be providing an update yet tonight.

Update: (April 30, 6:51am) Well it took a lot longer than I had hoped, but I finished the update. I was kindly shown by a few people how I wasn't clear on a few points, and with new information, I added a lot more to the post, clarifying and expanding upon my points. The post is quite a bit longer now, but I think it's necessary to be as clear as possible. I'll continue to work to make this post as clear and factual as possible, as well as including new issues if more come to light.

(Btw, this image in the right sidebar is now linked to this post.)

Update: (May 4, 5:38pm) Added information about torn ballot bags in Waukesha County from Giles Goat Boy.