Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 23, 2005

By Greg J. Borowski

Although at least 82 felons voted illegally Nov. 2 in Milwaukee alone, state election officials are constructing a new voter list that could leave the door open to fraud when a simple step would close it.

The statewide voter list, due to be completed late this year, would collect information on felons who are still on probation or parole and, as it stands now, officials would strike them from voting rolls.

That follows the historic practice of Milwaukee and most other municipalities. On the surface, it may seem like the right approach. But with Wisconsin as one of the few states in the country with same-day registration, it would mean the felon could simply register on site and cast a ballot anyway.

Indeed, the Journal Sentinel has determined 29 of the 82 felons, or 35%, registered on election day.

When questioned Tuesday about how to handle ineligible felons on the statewide voter list, several reform advocates said the more effective safeguard would be to leave the names on the list with a notation that the individual is not eligible to vote.

That would prompt election workers to turn away the felon attempting - intentionally or unintentionally - to vote, instead of to the same-day registration line.

"It appears we are designing a system that is going to fail, rather than carry out election law," said state Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale). "The system needs to have protections to make sure the people who are voting are properly voting."

Stone commented on the issue before a state Senate hearing Tuesday in West Allis on his bill to require voters to show a photo ID before being allowed to vote. At the hearing, Sen. Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan) said a survey of 129 municipal clerks around the state found that 90% of the 119 who responded backed a photo ID requirement.

The felons issue is separate. Indeed, without a notation on voter lists, poll workers have virtually no way of preventing a felon from voting if his name appears on the list or if he registers at the polls.

Thus, the way the statewide voter list is constructed is important. Using state Department of Corrections records as planned could become a critical safeguard - but if that data is not available at the polls, the system would continue to rely on after-the-fact enforcement.

Enforcement is rare. Four years ago, for instance, the Journal Sentinel found that 361 felons voted illegally. Only three were prosecuted, but those charges were dropped when officials could not establish they knew they were breaking the law when they voted.

Last week, the newspaper reported that at least 82 felons voted illegally in the Nov. 2 presidential election, though the number is likely much higher. The newspaper could analyze only about 39% of the 277,000 people who voted, because a 2003 change in state law has barred access to birth dates.

The question of whether felons voted illegally is part of a federal-local investigation into possible voter fraud in the city.

That investigation was prompted by a series of Journal Sentinel revelations about the Nov. 2 election. Among them: a 7,000 vote gap between ballots cast and people recorded as voting; 1,200 votes from invalid addresses; and 1,300 same-day registration cards that could not be processed because of missing or incomplete information.

The investigation is being run by Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann and U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic. They have declined to comment on the newspaper's findings.

A separate state audit into problems in the election in Milwaukee and elsewhere was begun after the paper highlighted other deficiencies. Among them: communities that do not attempt to verify same-day registrations as required by state law or do not forward address cards that are returned as undeliverable to the local district attorney, also required.

Accounting for felons The new statewide voter list is being developed under the guidance of the state Elections Board. It is required under the federal Help America Vote Act.

The list will allow elections records to be linked for the first time on a comprehensive basis with death records, driver's licenses and state Department of Corrections records on felons.

The approach under development does not appear to take into account fully Wisconsin's same-day registration law, however.

"If you're a registered voter and you're convicted of a felony, you go from active to inactive," said Kevin Kennedy, head of the Elections Board. "So when the poll list is created, your name will not be on the list."

Critics say that approach may work well in states that do not have same-day registration.

But not here.

"In those states, if you're not on the list, you cannot vote," said Mark Grebner, whose firm Wisconsin Voter Lists collects its own election data. "When you have same-day registration, that changes everything. Not being on the list isn't a barrier to voting."

In Wisconsin, the door to felon fraud has been open for some time. Most communities, according to Kennedy, do what Milwaukee has done traditionally - drop names of felons from the rolls when officials become aware of any convictions.

When asked if it would provide a better safeguard if the names were included on the list with a notation such as an asterisk or the date probation or parole is over, Kennedy said it was worth considering.

"I'm not sure that is entirely worked out," Kennedy said. "I don't know if we'd want to clutter up the list, but that's something to weigh."

Amid a new push to reform the election process in the state, the Elections Board may face pressure to take that approach - including from those who believe many felons are not aware of the restriction and unintentionally break the law.

"We can prevent it from happening, rather than allowing it to happen and then going after them," said Milwaukee Common Council President Willie Hines. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

IDs debated At Tuesday's photo ID hearing in West Allis, several Republican lawmakers said the felon information should be included on poll lists as a safeguard.

Leibham said the matter would be looked at by a special legislative panel studying election reforms in the state.

The idea of notations in the poll lists is not new. In Milwaukee, the Nov. 2 lists included a designation for those who had registered recently but were missing required driver's license numbers or other information. That prompted poll workers to seek IDs.

And under an agreement with the state GOP, which challenged thousands of Milwaukee addresses as non-existent, other names also were marked so poll workers would seek an ID.

Sen. Spencer Coggs, a Milwaukee Democrat who attended the hearing, suggested he would back the idea of a list that "keeps track of people who should not be able to vote."

Said Coggs: "I don't want people who should not be voting voting."

In Wisconsin, felons can vote only if they have completed probation or parole. Those who vote commit another felony, punishable by up to four years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Coggs was among about 50 people who attended Tuesday's hearing of the Senate Labor and Election Process Reform committee at State Fair Park.

The hearing was the fourth and final "listening session" held around the state by the committee, which could vote on the matter next month.

The Assembly already has approved the bill. Gov. Jim Doyle has pledged to veto it.

He and others cite concerns that the measure will disenfranchise voters, particularly the elderly, minorities and the poor. Stone and Leibham, the main sponsors of the bill, argued Tuesday those concerns have been addressed.

Coggs told the committee of the case of his son, Ki-jana, who registered several years ago when he turned 18 and voted, only to attempt to vote in a subsequent election and find his name erroneously had been taken off the list. He did not have his wallet and, without an ID, could not re-register and could not vote, Coggs said.

Coggs argued problems in the system would be better addressed with better trained poll workers and more resources devoted to running elections.

Sen. Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield) said the photo ID measure would not solve all problems but is part of a broader effort to improve the election process.