Illegal “voter caging” effort alleged in Wisconsin

Earlier today, One Wisconsin Now issued a press release alleging a coordinated “voter caging” effort on the part of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Americans For Prosperity, and organizations in the Wisconsin “Tea Party” movement. According to the Brennan Center for Justice voter caging is described thusly:

Voter caging is the practice of sending mail to addresses on the voter rolls, compiling a list of the mail that is returned undelivered, and using that list to purge or challenge voters registrations on the grounds that the voters on the list do not legally reside at their registered addresses. Supporters of voter caging defend the practice as a means of preventing votes cast by ineligible voters. Voter caging, however, is notoriously unreliable. If it is treated (unjustifiably) as the sole basis for determining that a voter is ineligible or does not live at the address at which he or she registered, it can lead to the unwarranted purge or challenge of eligible voters. …Moreover, the practice has often been targeted at minority voters, making the effects even more pernicious.

The coordinated plot to by the RPW, AFP, and the “Tea Party” groups here in Wisconsin was intended to target minority voters and college students, according to audio tapes obtained by One Wisconsin Now.

One Wisconsin Now has filed formal requests for investigation with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, as well as the Wisconsin Attorney General’s Election Integrity Task Force and the Government Accountability Board.

It’s worth noting that in a 1982 settlement in the case DNC v. RNC, the RNC admitted wrongdoing after sending out a mailing targeting primarily African-American and Latino neighborhoods.and agreed to “…refrain from undertaking any ballot security activities in polling places or election districts where the racial or ethnic composition of such districts is a factor in the decision to conduct, or the actual conduct of, such activities there and where a purpose or significant effect of such activities is to deter qualified voters from voting.”

You can read more about One Wisconsin Now’s complaint at their Save Wisconsin’s Vote 2010 website

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16 thoughts on “Illegal “voter caging” effort alleged in Wisconsin

  1. I am sure JB will be all over this since fair and clean elections is his platform.

    Was Reince involved?

      1. That’s that law our state ignored for a long time, right? Have we actually come into full compliance on it yet?

        1. … But we didn’t ignore it to my knowledge?

          In 2004 the Wisconsin Republican Party caged voters in Milwaukee, and challenged 37,180 voters and put them on a caging list. 13,300 were simply incorrect apartment numbers, 18,200 were a case of a lack of apartment numbers being on the building – the last 5,000 were errors. And the attempt was stopped.

          I’m not going to say the Democratic Party is all sunshine, lollipops, rainbows, full of justice and righteousness constantly, because I have a ton of complaints about them but trying to deny what they did as illegal and continue to do is asinine.

      2. Where in the the National Voting Rights Act of 1993? Can you provide a citation please? A citation such as: Title 42 title blah subtitle blah-blah Section blah-blah-blah.

        Because challenging a registration attached to a non-existent address is permitted under Wisconsin election law; Specifically: WI Stats. 6.48 and WI. Stats. 6.325.

        1. Here it is.

          I apologize I didn’t get back to this sooner, I didn’t notify a follow up comment via-email.

          However in layman’s terms?

          · If they sent out fliers and took note of everyone that came back, then it still doesn’t have standing under the NVRA and is guilty of voter caging.

          · If they sent NVRA cancellation notices, it’s guilty of fraud and voter caging because it doesn’t have the authority to send out NVRA cancellation notices.

          · And it sent out notices mimicking NVRA cancellation notices, it’s guilty of fraud and voter caging because it tried to pass a non-official document off as an official one.

          In all the cases, they’re guilty of voter caging, and in two of them they’re also guilty of fraud. This is pure racial and age profiling.

          The hoards of minorities and liberal college students going from poll to poll are extremely exaggerated in the media. In fact, it’s even nonexistent. Here is the case study of the caging in Milwaukee in 2004.

          1. T.

            By your own citation of the National Voter Registrations Act of 1993

            This activitity is permitted under
            Sec. 1973gg-6 Requirements with respect to administration of voter registration

            Specifically subsection (a)(3)(B) reads:

            (3) provide that the name of a registrant may not be removed from the official list of eligible voters except –
            (A) at the request of the registrant;
            (B) as provided by State law, by reason of criminal conviction or mental incapacity; or
            (C) as provided under paragraph (4);

            and subsection (c) on voter removal programs (c)(2)(B)i reads:

            (2)(A) A State shall complete, not later than 90 days prior to the date of a primary or general election for Federal office, any program the purpose of which is to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters.

            (B) Subparagraph (A) shall not be construed to preclude –

            (i) the removal of names from official lists of voters on a basis described in paragraph (3)(A) or (B) or (4)(A) of subsection (a) of this section; or

            (ii) correction of registration records pursuant to this subchapter.

            The flyer stuff you are describing (none of which appears to have happend yet) is part of subsection (a)(4), but oall the stuff they are proposing to do is part of subsection (a)(3).

            Subsection (a)(3) of the National voter registration Act of 1993is clear: If you use the process outlined in State law (WI 6.48 and 6.325 in this case), then the NVRA permits challenging challange and possibly removing voters from the rolls.

      1. And threats John…don’t forget about the threats. You do realize the thugs at BB think that Tim guy is you…so the blog post by Rawson was a threat towards you.

      2. Roland, does Badger Blogger ever intend to make an official statement about that pulled threatening post? I’d ask at your site, but I can’t get a comment published any more.

  2. READ the transcripts of the meeting. Nobody talked about preventing anyone from voting. They gave examples of past incidences of happenings at the polls. They were talking about POLL WATCHING which is all legal. They referred to the legalities involved in that process. Nobody was stopping anyone AT the polls with the voter roll clean-up either. It talks about verifying returned items PRIOR to the elections.

    One Wisconsin Now is plain dumb to post the very transcripts that clear anyone of anything illegal. Try as you will, when the movement is millions of people, you can not take it down. What’s next? Seriously; what is the left going to do next to try and discredit people now?!

  3. This would be much more believable if the efforts were not targeted at D-leaning districts, but instead mailed to a random sample of households. I wonder what the reason was for not including conservative districts.

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