{image1} The presidential election may have come and gone, but the divisiveness is here to stay.
The state Republican Party recently accused Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann of "dragging his feet" on allegations that Democratic operatives slashed Republican van tires on Election Day. Then, state Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale) learned the City of Milwaukee could not verify addresses on thousands of voter registration forms. This came after misplaced absentee ballots, allegedly non-existent voter addresses, and so forth, all driving Republican fervor for tighter restrictions at the polls.
McCann and embattled city elections chief Lisa Artison have denied personal failures in dealing with election integrity. Indeed, after months of Republican drumbeating, McCann's office on Monday hit Democratic operatives -- including the sons of newly elected Congresswoman Gwen Moore and former Mayor Marvin Pratt -- with felony charges in the tire slashings.
But the charges are unlikely to restore Republican confidence in Milwaukee's system. The reason: Too much history.
Artison and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat, have repeatedly and almost reflexively dismissed voter fraud as a possibility in a string of election problems that should make them thankful Wisconsin did not provide the election's turning point. In fact, the only election issue Barrett seemed to work himself into a lather over was the eventually discredited and politically opportunistic allegation that Republican Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker (now a gubernatorial candidate) was engineering it so the city would run out of ballots.
The task force Barrett formed to look into election problems is manned by Artison and other city employees, which is a little like asking a defendant to pull double duty as a juror. And the Republican skepticism stems from longer-standing frustration with the veteran Democratic Milwaukee County DA' s repeated leniency in election fraud cases. That frustration is unlikely to dissipate any time soon.
McCann has some good people in his office and white-collar crime unit, including its head. But, the latest charges aside, the Milwaukee DA has demonstrated a pattern of soft peddling election-fraud controversies, usually blaming problems with proof or lack of intent. The result: A climate of tolerance that some feel fostered further problems.
Case in point: The flawed gubernatorial nomination papers of then-state Sen. Gary R. George. In 2002, the state Elections Board removed George's name from the ballot after finding more than 200 forged or faulty signatures on his nomination papers. Since forgery is against state law, and circulators signed the papers attesting under penalty of law to the validity of the signatures, charges seemed imminent. One George staffer even acknowledged in a newspaper interview that he certified nomination papers with signatures he did not personally collect, a felony.
McCann said he couldn't make a case.
And it was not the first time:
After the 2000 presidential election, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that at least 361 felons on supervision had voted illegally in Milwaukee (I reported the story along with journalist Dave Umhoefer). McCann charged three felons. But the charges were tossed after McCann's office said it couldn't prove the allegations -- including one involving a former attorney who presumably would have known the law.
When local television nabbed an out-of-state Democratic operative offering cigarettes to homeless people in Milwaukee to encourage them to vote in 2000, McCann decided against criminal charges and instead charged her with a civil small claims complaint. She paid a fine, even though it's a felony to entice someone to vote by giving them something worth more than $1.
McCann's office issued civil, not criminal, charges against acting Mayor Pratt, when serious problems were found in Pratt's campaign finance papers for mayor.
McCann's office did not file charges after then-Milwaukee County Election Commission chairman James Heidenreich signed the fictitious name "Humphrey Pushcart" on a petition to recall then-County Executive F. Thomas Ament.
It was left to the state Republican Party to investigate thousands of Milwaukee voter registration addresses in this November's presidential election because no one else was doing it. The party announced it had found numerous nonexistent addresses. The reaction from the system? Pretty much nothing.
After a municipal judge candidate (who was a former head of the state Elections Board) sent a form that allegedly sought financial contributions to government offices, including to the head of McCann's white-collar crime unit, another prosecutor initially said he couldn't act because he could not obtain a copy of the form. It had been reprinted in the newspaper.
When a Marquette University student went on television and said he voted four times in the 2000 presidential election, McCann scolded him but did not charge him with elections violations after the student recanted. He was charged with selling fraudulent identification cards.
McCann's office criminally charged eight workers with the African-American Coalition for Empowerment voting drive in connection with a county board recall election. He held a news conference to announce the filing of 92 felony charges. But his office later reduced almost all the charges after losing a case in court.
In 2002, McCann's office charged and convicted a failed county executive candidate of falsifying nomination papers -- a rare example of prosecutorial muscle before the recent charges.
McCann has previously stated that voting fraud in Milwaukee is not a big problem and has been blown out of proportion - by Republicans. Of course, it sometimes seems like the only people aggressively looking into it are Republicans - and reporters. One wonders if Democrats will be too wedded to their well-rehearsed position now when the facts are in the way.
Jessica McBride, a former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter who teaches journalism at UW-Milwaukee, is a frequent commentator on Milwaukee TV and the wife of Waukesha County DA Paul Bucher.
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of OnMilwaukee.com, its advertisers or editorial staff.
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