Last updated on February 9th, 2013 at 03:22 pm
Republicans are ramping up their PR in case they lose in Wisconsin today, and if they do, it won’t be because their guy Scott Walker is under investigation (he is) or because he has the worst history for job losses in the country (he does) or because he lied to the people about his intentions when he ran for office (he did) or because he lied to Congress about his motives for killing collective bargaining (he seems to have done this), but because of the imaginary voter fraud.
Wow. Yeah, it can’t be that the people are really upset with Walker, which is what led to this historic recall in the first place – itself a victory and a statement.
Watch Ed Schultz of MSNBC breaks it down:
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In 2008, Ed says nearly 3 million votes were cast in the state. If turnout today is similar, and it’s strong so far, according to Scott Walker between 30-60,000 of those votes would be fraudulent.
However, Ed points to the Brennan Center’s proof that in 2004, Wisconsin had a statistical incidence of voter fraud that equaled 0.0002 percent. That’s seven cases of voter fraud out of three million votes.
For this, Republicans in Wisconsin proposed the most restrictive voter ID law in the country. Since voter fraud is less likely than being struck by lightening, it’s clear the math in the Imaginary Voter Fraud doesn’t add up, though to be fair and balanced, I should acknowledge that nationally there is a high rate of elected Republicans/and or those hired by Republicans committing voter fraud/election fraud/voting fraud against voters. It’s no wonder they want to disenfranchise an estimated 5 million voters.
Watch the Republicans commit voting fraud in session here. And then there was Marcie Malszycki, a Republican legislative aide who works for the guy who co-sponsored the voter ID bill, who allegedly voted improperly for Scott Walker – well, actually she allegedly violated the election law in 2008 and 2010, sort of an allegedly running scam if you will. Malszycki works for Republican state Rep. Warren Petryk (Eleva), who co-sponsored the voter ID bill.
Ed Schultz points out that a number of reforms were put into place since 2004, further reducing the likelihood of voter fraud (I hope they have their eyes on those Wisconsin Republicans and Waukesha County).
The Government Accountability Board tells PolitiFact that the board has found no more than 20 instances of voter fraud in any statewide election since 2000.
Let’s see. If twenty people were allowed to commit fraud in Wisconsin, there’s no reason to assume they would all be voting against Walker – after all, we have proof of Wisconsin elected officials committing voter fraud (and lots and lots of stories of elections gone bad, missing ballots, untagged ballot bags, and votes turning up days later). So let’s cut it down the middle and say ten for Walker and ten for Barrett. That’s a tie. That doesn’t work.
I guess in this Republican scenario, all 20 votes would be against Walker in spite of the history to the contrary. Okay. Even under that premise, 20 votes isn’t going to lose the election for him.
Republican state senator Glenn Grothman says while he has no proof of voter fraud, there is a “feeling” that it’s occurring. He says the DA hasn’t followed up at length so there are no documents “for sure, here, there and everywhere.”
In other words, Glenn will go get ya’ some and get back to ya’ ala Palin.
Glenn believes that Wisconsinites are recalling Walker because he balanced the budget and they want a big spender. Um, Glenn might want to check all of the spending and waste under Walker in bad legislation alone, specifically the unnecessary voter ID cards that in 2009, in Wisconsin alone, were estimated at costing the state 2.4 million dollars.
And then there was the disenfranchisement:
Other problems noted by the League included:
— In almost a quarter of the polling sites, officials were inconsistent in asking voters to show ID, in violation of the law.
— Some voters showed IDs, such as fishing licenses and employer IDs that would not be valid for voting in 2012.
— Voters were incorrectly told at some polling places to re-register if the address on their photo ID did not match the address on the poll list. The law does not require that the address on their photo ID be current in order to vote, but they do have to show proof of residency when registering.
— In at least four locations voters were incorrectly told they couldn’t vote next year if their driver’s license was expired. The law allows for licenses that have expired after November 2010 to be used.
– Observers found problems experienced by disabled voters with the requirement they sign the poll book, even though the law allows for exemptions.
But if that doesn’t do it, busting up unions, homestead taxes, corporate give aways, privatizing, cuts in education, and epic job losses might refresh his memory. Or maybe it’s the systemic corruption.
The audience behind Ed were yelling, “Liar!”
As Glenn continued denying reality, the crowds’ outrage was chilling.
Glenn was outright lying about the budget cuts. Grothman then claimed there is a surplus in the budget “as we speak.” He then went on like a robot saying the economy is better in Wisconsin even though Walker fudged about the job numbers after the real ones humiliated him, and even the fudged numbers are nowhere near the promises he made. There’s no money for pensions or the poor, and the feds had to force Walker to not enact his original plan, which was to cut off 65,000 people, including 29,000 children, from Medicaid, but oh, boy — there’s millions for frivolous Voter ID laws for non-existent problems.
There’s no discussing issues with people who deny facts and reality. These people need to go.
Republicans need to face it; Wisconsin is just not that into you anymore.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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