April 11, 2020

"Why did Gov. Tony Evers, a Wisconsin Democrat, change his mind by trying to postpone the Wisconsin State Supreme Court election this week..."

"... when both he and Vice President Joe Biden had just recently said that the voting could proceed? It's really simple. Republican areas in the state had turned in many more absentee ballots than Democratic areas. This was shocking, because most people had assumed the race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders would give Democrats a huge turnout edge. That's when Evers panicked. To cancel an election the day before the vote — after your state party realizes it might be getting outvoted in absentees — is a pretty cynical move... If Evers had canceled the voting earlier, before seeing how many absentee ballots came in from Republican areas, this would not be an issue. But he wanted to wait until the eleventh hour...."

Writes John Pudner in The Washington Examiner. By posting this, I'm not saying I agree. It's just a point of view that I would like to be seen. I really don't know why Evers did what he did.

102 comments:

alanc709 said...

Thing was just a chance occurrence, also: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/04/10/usps-investigating-undelivered-wisconsin-absentee-ballot-issues/5135563002/

rehajm said...

By posting this, I'm not saying I agree

Qualifiers appear only when the content favors Republicans. CNN propaganda gets posted qualifier free.

Ryan said...

In order to vote absentee, you have to have an address, be registered, get a ballet, open the mail, be literate, have a pen, fill it out, have a stamp, put it in the mail, and do it all on time.

This is WAY too much to ask of many democrat voters. Hence, the huge republican advantage, and ensuing panic.

AllenS said...

Tony Evers and Joseph Robinette Biden. Have either of these two ever had a job other than a government job?

MadisonMan said...

It did seem to be timed so as to create the most chaos.

AustinRoth said...

Ryan - or have Democratic operatives fill out your absentee ballet for you - whether you are aware they did so or not!

Wince said...

It's just a point of view that I would like to be seen.

Versus a media that think it should be given a good leaving alone?

gilbar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gilbar said...

Have either of these two ever had a job other than a government job?

SURE!
Jo Biden was a life guard at a pool.... a city pool?_____ never mind!
Toni Evers was school teacher at a high school.... a city high school?____ never mind!

TommyC1 said...

C’mon Ann,. There is no way that this is coincidence.

TommyC1 said...

C’mon Ann,. There is no way that this is coincidence.

ga6 said...

Because he and his ed union advisors saw a political advantage. what that advantage was is the mystery.

dreams said...

Democrats got to be democrats.

Mark said...

Is there evidence of this? I have heard many claims and little data

Ray said...

Having mail-in ballots from 30 unrelated people, from the same address, might raise some flags during this time.

Chris N said...

Allen,

Bernie Sanders was an itinerant Jewish carpenter, selflessly instructing people on how to be good in the Utopia to come.

Blessed are the Cheesemakers.

Namaste.

Big Mike said...

I really don't know why Evers did what he did.

Of course you don’t. What, are you afraid your water and electricity will be turned off and your trash not collected without the feeble disclaimer?

Chris N said...

At Peace Pavilion West, we have a group of people working at the intersection of Art, Science, Health, Education, and Communications.

The best and brightest.

Young folks in the Sunshine Youth Brigade are selected to become Peace Ambassadors. Peace Ambassadors can level up to Environmental Ministers.

Once you get your Earth Accreditation badge, you can apply for Community Peerage and your on your way.

Empathy. Earthsong. Equity.

Namaste.

Mark said...

The counting of votes, or of voters, before an election is over is itself a form of corruption.

JAORE said...

Easy fix.
For future elections absentee ballots will be accepted and counted until the Wisconsin democrats agree sufficient voting has occurred.

Ryan said...

When I worked at a big law firm, we got pro bono billable hour credit by serving as voting monitors on election day. I tried it out, to get out of the office for a day.

I naively thought this would mean stopping people from voting illegally. It was the opposite: stopping people from trying to stop people from voting illegally.

etbass said...

If you made a list of the plausible (and defensible) reasons why anyone could have made such a decision in such circumstances, I am guessing the list would be quite manageable. That is to say, very small. Or let's say, tiny.

Chris N said...

Sorry, that’s ‘you’re’

These 18 hour days are getting to me, but it’s the only way our Community can grow.

Have you ever birthed a goat in the morning, hooked-up a new PA system in your neighbor’s ecopodment by lunch, and drafted new by laws for the Empathy Committee by sundown?

By Gaia, it’s a life.

I’m available for Q and A.

chuck said...

I really don't know why Evers did what he did.

I've spent much of my life learning to be cynical about Democrats and have yet to graduate.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

the Schitt-D karma Boomerang is real.

Mark said...

For future elections absentee ballots will be accepted and counted until the Wisconsin democrats agree sufficient voting has occurred.

That's been the procedure for elections for decades now, except it applies to in-person ballots as well. Releasing returns on election day get delayed until they determine how many votes are needed for the candidate of a certain party to win, sometimes with boxes of "uncounted ballots" being "discovered" days later.

Mark said...

Claims with no evidence.

Ralph L said...

Why so few voting places in Milwaukee? Basis of future lawsuits or incompetence?

Iman said...

Much like an Islamic terror attack, Evers’s motivation remains unclear...

etbass said...

Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. -Sherlock Holmes

Rich Vail said...

"I really don't k is why he did what he did."

Ann, you're really being disingenuous here. He did it because he was afraid GOP candidates would win beyond the margin of fraud.

Anonymous said...

If Evers had his way Cornpop, who is deceased and was never a resident of the state, could have cast a vote. Voter suppression!

Mark said...

"Mark" - Claims with no evidence.

Sure. And Chicago is the place that historically has had the cleanest elections.

PJ said...

Speaking strictly hypothetically, Pudner’s rank conjecture would also help explain the timing of Comrade Bernie’s sort-of departure from the presidential race — he stayed in just long enough to help WI Dems (hypothetically) boost Dem turnout. But even without considering the absentees, doesn’t Evers’s conduct make sense as a way of highlighting the GOP’s hypothetical desire to kill people?

Jupiter said...

"I really don't know why Evers did what he did."

You're right, it doesn't make sense. Democrats know all about counting absentee ballots from Republican districts so that Democrats get more votes. It must be something else. Maybe the Dems candidate has Corvid, and they are trying to figure out who to replace him with?

Mark said...

So more voting sites in New Berlin than Milwaukee is not intended to decrease Dem vote, but unsourced claims about the election date stupidity is guaranteed shenanigans.

Enjoy your kool aid

Stephen said...

1. What is Pudner's source for Evers' motivation?

2. How reliable an interpreter is Pudner? He describes Evers as having "tried to suppress all votes," which seems transparently false.

3. If Pudner is right, still, wasn't pushing the election the right thing to do when so many voters very reasonably wanted to vote by mail but had not received ballots in a timely manner?

4. Professor Althouse: what do you think of Pudner's point that "Republicans must open up at least a temporary option for easier mail-in and absentee voting in case COVID-19 comes back hard in the fall." Is that a point of view, expressed by a Republican, something that you think your readers should have brought to their attention? Or do you favor President Trump's view.

Mark said...

A big problem is that sometimes a contagion can mimic otherwise healthy cells and wreak havoc in the body.

Michael The Magnificent said...

The Friday before the election, Evers wanted the WI legislature to reconvene in an emergency session, and one of his proposals that he wanted the legislature to pass was to send out an absentee ballot to every REGISTERED voter, whether they requested one or not.

Let's not forget that the Wisconsin Election Commission has been ordered to follow the law and purge 234,000 from the voter roles for being dead, having notified the state by other means that they have moved, or because they are registered to an illegitimate mailing address, and the Democrats on the commission still REFUSE to do so.

My mother passed away last year. She was a registered voter. My home address was her mailing address, so if Evers had his way, I would have received an absentee ballot in my mailbox for my dead mother.

I could have filled it out, signed the witness line, and mailed it back in. And so could 234,000 other people, because the Democrats in the Wisconsin Election Commission refuse to purge the rolls.

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WLUK) — With Green Bay voters saying they waited up to four hours to vote, FOX 11 has learned the city declined extra poll workers from the Wisconsin National Guard.

Democrats want the dead and fraudulent on the voter rolls. They want chaos and long lines at the polls. This is battle space preparation for November: Massive voter fraud by mail.

Mark said...

Courts in criminal cases should also ease up on chain of custody rules for the admission of evidence. It's not like evidence is ever tampered with.

And ease up on authentication requirements as well. There is "no evidence," as some like to say, that evidence has ever been manufactured to obtain a particular result.

Bay Area Guy said...

"I really don't know why Evers did what he did."

I guess the follow-up question would be, "How 'bout an educated guess?"

Mark said...

It is wrong too to disenfranchise people who are in a coma. And people who are mentally incompetent or insane and have no understanding of what a ballot or an election are should be able to vote too. After all, they can participate in our great democracy by a surrogate casting the ballot for them.

It's not like anyone would ever obtain a stack of ballots on behalf of demented seniors and go "help" them fill out some ballot that they cannot even read, and they just coincidentally all vote for the same party.

Sebastian said...

"How 'bout an educated guess?"

Not just about the attempted cancelation but at also the timing of it.

What else could explain it?

Maybe after getting burned by treating the wild guesses of epidemiologists as "real calculations," Althouse is back to her usual reserve and skepticism. If so, good, though in this case: what's the better answer?

Mark said...

I remember seeing, when I lived in D.C., a precinct worker go into the voting booth with several voters and "assist" them in casting their votes, telling them which button to push.

No, there is no evidence of voter fraud or of the manipulation of elections.

rcocean said...

I noticed that the Milwaukee Mayor only allowed a few precincts to open during election day. This will set up the D's nicely to argue that the election results will have to be overturned and a new election held. Black folks couldn't vote - so the election was invalid an Obama Federal Judge will rule.

Sam L. said...

"Writes John Pudner in The Washington Examiner. By posting this, I'm not saying I agree. It's just a point of view that I would like to be seen. I really don't know why Evers did what he did." My guess is "BAD FAITH". He IS a Democrat, after all.

Dude1394 said...

Closing down an election on the eve of one, is banana republic 101.

rcocean said...

I'm puzzled by the headlines saying that Wisconsin. Absentee ballots have been delivered without postmarks and therefore Can't be counted.

Isn't the process of postmarking automatic? Why would you deliver mail without a postmark? I thought that was required. How do you know these ballots even went through the Post office and weren't just written up and tossed in the pile after the election?

rcocean said...

Isn't it funny how Democratic Stongholds are ALWAYS finding mail-in ballots AFTER the election. They show up in Car trunks, are found uncounted in back rooms and broom closets, and mysteriously appear whenever there's a close race.

narciso said...

yes those are invalid, by their very nature,

Temujin said...

Can you imagine a mail-in ballot vote nation-wide? Not too much margin for graft. You know those buckets of uncounted ballots that Dems always happen to find after an election has taken place. Do this nationally and we'll have landfill-sized piles of found ballots appearing out of thin air.

Ballot harvesting? Hell- it would be on steroids. More like planet-harvesting.

A national e-vote or mail-in vote would be the end of this Republic which is taking on a very banana-like smell as it is. That, given 4 years to do so, our populace cannot register to vote in time, figure out where to vote, get the necessary ID's and proof of residence to vote, tells me only that a certain number of people don't deserve the vote. The rules are very simple. Can't follow them? Don't care to follow them? Lose the vote.

doctrev said...

None of the usual liberals are addressing this point? How amusing. I'm grateful for Governor Evers, because his failed attempt to postpone the election will fuel theories that President Trump plans to cancel the election. Trump obviously doesn't need to, but just having it hang over the Cuomo campaign like a sword of Damocles will be endlessly hilarious. And of course President Trump invalidating any vote counted 12 hours after a local poll closed would be an entirely appropriate response to corrupt counting practices.

The margin of fraud is meeting with pushback. FINALLY.

madAsHell said...

Who won the Iowa primary?

cyrus83 said...

With politicians, generally assume that they're acting in what they perceive to be their best interest. In this case, either Evers' intention was always to delay the election and he thought it best to wait until the very end, or something changed late and he felt it was in his own interest to try to delay.

With the first path, reasons can include most people already having mailed in their absentee ballots giving elections officials plenty of time to massage them, sending out a second wave of ballots including "accidental" duplicates, causing chaos generally, or trying to get the courts on record to attack them later.

With the second path, that could include things like the national Democrat party wanting to delay the vote, ballot return patterns not being favorable, an unfavorable shift in the polling, a change in public opinion on whether to hold the vote, or a change in the governor's opinion on whether it was safe.

My guess is that his reasoning is politically motivated, but even that has a lot of potential avenues leading from it, some of which may not even make sense to people who don't make politics their life.

Ice Nine said...

Althouse>>By posting this, I'm not saying I agree.<<

I'm with you, Ann...because it would just be so weird to imagine a Democrat depravedly politicizing a national crisis viral pandemic, y'know.

hombre said...

“To cancel an election the day before the vote — after your state party realizes it might be getting outvoted in absentees — is a pretty cynical move.”

“Cynical?” Bwahahahaha! Democrats aren’t cynical. They’re corrupt - unabashedly so! No caution is necessary when the mediaswine are complicit.

Josephbleau said...

One thing we know for sure now is that it is a widely held belief that intelligence regarding numbers and source of mail in ballots can be weaponized to let the party in power conduct operations to cheat. It is plausible that Evers took political action based on what he knew about mail voting demographics. This is an acknowledgement that mail in balloting is a corrupting factor. It clearly needs to be limited to carefully controlled absentee voting.

brylun said...

My father died in 2008. He voted from my address. He is still on the rolls in New York State.

hombre said...

Despite hundreds of conviction, bloated voter rolls including dead people, inactive voters, etc., and common sense, Democrats repeatedly insist there is no voter fraud. They relent only in the face of a close election won by a Republican.

75% of citizens polled regularly express a preference for voter ID, yet Democrats and their pet judges oppose it asserting absurdly that it is discriminatory despite evidence to the contrary. Why is that?

Mark said...

"Isn't it funny how Democratic Stongholds are ALWAYS finding mail-in ballots AFTER the election. "

In the case here, these were BLANK ballots that never got to the voter who requested them in time, meaning that person either went to the poll or didn't vote.

Mark said...

"Isn't it funny how Democratic Stongholds are ALWAYS finding mail-in ballots AFTER the election."

I'm not laughing. They also "find" boxes of "in-person ballots" during that delay in reporting their results.

Kyzer SoSay said...

"Qualifiers appear only when the content favors Republicans. CNN propaganda gets posted qualifier free."

Late to the party, but I noticed this and was going to comment same. Not the first time, won't be the last. Face it folks, Althouse already has ballots filled out for Biden, Cuomo, Hillary, and Klobuchar. All she needs is to fill in the VP blank, sign it, and mail it.

Those who harbors the notion that our hostess would cast a vote for Trump (outside of a season of Dancing with the Stars) are fooling themselves. Never gonna happen. Biden could molest a toddler at the second debate and refer to Trump as "President Reagan" multiple times on camera, and it wouldn't matter. She is far too obdurate to vote for an "-R" for president at this point.

Kyzer SoSay said...

As for the posted content, we all know why Evers did this. Pudner nailed it in his article. This was a desperate power grab. Cut/dried/packaged.

Static Ping said...

Ann, I want to believe the governor wanted to do this for public health reasons. Unfortunately, we are in a major crisis right now and various politicians are overtly and proudly using it for political games. A lot of masks have fallen off during the Trump presidency and I can no longer default to providing a benefit of the doubt. The idea that the governor's actions were politically motivated is very plausible. Unfortunately.

Amadeus 48 said...

"I really don't know why Evers did what he did."

I can't imagine. I have suspicions, though.

Rabel said...

"Republican areas in the state had turned in many more absentee ballots than Democratic areas."

He should back that up with evidence. It's as authoritative as a Blogger comment as stated.

After that, there are multiple factual errors about the court rulings.

Is short, the article is complete crap.

Doesn't mean that the primary assertion is untrue, but Pudner's effort here does nothing to prove it.

Rabel said...

Also: "Steps had already been taken to protect health by making voters in one of the most Republican counties in the entire United States (Waukesha County) all vote in one place instead of at their normal voting locations."

Is that remotely true as to the reason for limited polling places? Put everybody in one place to prevent spreading? Or was it a lack of workers?

GBnative said...

Perhaps I could help divine Gov. Evers' rationale. There are three possible theories, in my view.

The first, to play along with Prof. Althouse and be exceedingly generous, concedes it's at least possible that Evers developed genuine concern for voter's health. Yes, as recently as three weeks ago both Evers and Biden were resolute the Wisconsin primary should go on, but it's different now. Wisconsin has migrated from a state with few deaths, and no confirmed cases in at least half its counties, to a state with an increasing (albeit relatively light) caseload and a growing hotspot in its largest city, Milwaukee. You're allowed to adjust your plan over time. (Not Trump, of course. Dems believe he should have prophesized the Covid episode last fall, or earlier, and ordered the appropriate steps by Thanksgiving. When it was Evers' turn, 10 days in advance was apparently too far to foresee, however.)

The second is exactly the theory reported in the Washington Examiner piece. This one is dead on, in my view, and pretty much interchangeable with my own...

Theory 3: Even with extended voting, the Wisconsin Dems have good polling and enough absentee ballot returns to know the WI Court race is lost even if they accept new votes through June... June of 2021. No, the farce of Evers' 11th-hour manuevering is strictly about manufacturing a crisis that can only be answered by emergency authorization of a "mail-out-all-ballots-and-see-what-happens" election in November, in a crucial swing state. The tell: the MSNBCs and CNNs of the world were braying by mid-day Tuesday about the long lines, the "disenfranchisement" and the need for mail voting. Even though the "election day disaster" took place only in Green Bay and Milwaukee, not in 99 percent of the state and in my own city. Just a coincidence that the two cities that closed down all but a few of their polling places have mayors who are former Dem legislators. No coincidence that the analysis was so immediate, so scripted and polished and well-prepared in foaming on about GOP criminality and the absolute need for life-sparing, mail-only voting. And that Dem legislators, before the vote totals are even announced (court ruling said it had to wait for Monday) are introducing bills to do just that. Very well planned and organized, for their ilk.

GBnative said...

One more thing.

There was an error in the Examiner piece. He referenced Evers' ill-fated attempt to shut down the election "the day before." That's wrong.

The voting was already well under way!

In my municipality, the preliminary totals show a nearly 5-1 ratio of absentees to in-person votes. Might be closer to 4-to-1, but you get the picture. You have to assume that most absentee ballots were received prior to voting day... By that time, then, nearly 80 percent of the citizens in my small city HAD ALREADY VOTED.

Think of this in terms of the authorities storming in and overturning the tables and sending all the poll workers and standing-in-line voters home at 6 p.m. on Election Day. It's a more accurate picture of what the Dems were demanding.

Amadeus 48 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amadeus 48 said...

For an interesting analysis of the question of why Michigan is so much harder hit than other mid-western states by this virus, see this article by Julie Mack of the Kalamazoo Gazette on MLive:

https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2020/04/michigan-is-doing-the-right-things-on-coronavirus-so-why-is-the-caseload-so-high.html

I think the keys are that the auto industry's supply chain has been deeply tied to China (that explains the high incidence in Oakland and Macomb Counties as well as Wayne County) and the contested Democratic primary and its attendant rallies and long lines on election day (March 10), at a time when there were no confirmed cases in Michigan, but also very few tests.

Also of note is that Michigan has done what the experts said, but it hasn't led to low impact. Note that southeast Michigan has done much worse than Cleveland, Milwaukee, the twin cities, and northern Illinois. We have a great big airport out there on the prairie outside Chicago.

Rabel said...

"I really don't know why Evers did what he did."

Maybe he just panicked.

A less generous reading is that he saw the possibility of viral spread because of the vote and saw that he could be blamed if he didn't make an effort to stop the election, so he made a vain effort that he knew was doomed to fail to inoculate himself against that blame.

Curious George said...

"Rabel said...
Is that remotely true as to the reason for limited polling places? Put everybody in one place to prevent spreading? Or was it a lack of workers?"

There wasn't a lack of workers. The National Guard said they would assist if necessary.

Mark said...

"Mark": Is there evidence of this? I have heard many claims and little data
Rabel: He should back that up with evidence. . . . Is short, the article is complete crap.


This was published April 6, 2020 -- the day before the scheduled Wisconsin election:

As political observer James Wigderson writes, absentee voting “so far appears to be favorable to Republicans as more conservative areas of the state are outperforming Democratic strongholds in returning their ballots.”

He notes that Wisconsin’s premier number cruncher, Joe Handrick, has analyzed the early votes and concluded that heavily red Waukesha and Washington counties are outperforming the state’s Democratic strongholds. “Waukesha County alone has nearly as many absentee ballots returned as Milwaukee County,” he writes. “That is not good news for the liberal challenger, Madison Judge Jill Karofsky.”


https://thebulwark.com/tuesdays-wisconsin-election-is-our-future/

There's your evidence. Easily obtained by a little google.

Mark said...

Delay the Election Now
Posted by James Wigderson | Apr 4, 2020

it’s impossible to ignore the possible Democratic concern about the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Absentee voting so far appears to be favorable to Republicans as more conservative areas of the state are outperforming Democratic strongholds in returning their ballots.

Election numbers expert Joe Handrick looked at the incoming absentee ballots from key counties and discovered Waukesha and Washington counties are outperforming their bigger Democratic rivals.

Waukesha County alone has nearly as many absentee ballots returned as Milwaukee County. That is not good news for the liberal challenger, Madison Judge Jill Karofsky.

This is a tremendous change in expectations for Democrats who were expecting a huge turnout for the Democratic Presidential Primary Election to give Karofsky the votes needed to defeat incumbent Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly. With the decline of the importance of the presidential primary and the Coronavirus hitting Democratic areas of the state harder, Democratic enthusiasm for the election has apparently waned. Republicans are still turning out the votes, however.

Mark said...

Following this twitter thread from April 3 -- four days before election day -- people were on to the Dems' sudden desire to allow extra time to vote because the Republican turnout was greater.

https://twitter.com/joeminocqua/status/1246241236756893696

Rabel said...

"There's your evidence."

The Bulwark?

I know how to Google. Does Pudner?

Yancey Ward said...

Yes, this is exactly why Evers did what he did. You have to call a spade a spade sometimes.

Earnest Prole said...

Shorter version: Dem vote-harvesting scheme thwarted.

Caligula said...

"Steps had already been taken to protect health by making voters in one of the most Republican counties in the entire United States (Waukesha County) all vote in one place instead of at their normal voting locations."

I think the author has confused the City of Waukesha with Waukesha County, as all of Waukesha County did not vote in one place.

As for Evers, the time to postpone the election was before voting started. The apparent reason why he wouldn't have done so would have been because at that time the perception of his Democratic Party advisors would have been that it would be to Democrat's advantage not to delay the election.

So, what did change between March 16 (when early voting began in Milwaukee) and April 6? "The virus" is not the answer, as both confirmed cases and deaths have been somewhat less than forecast. Or, what answers are left, if not political calculation?

William said...

Have there been any kind of controlled studies that demonstrate how waiting in line to vote is a riskier activity than waiting in line at Whole Foods?.....From what I read in the comments, it does seem that those long lines were fabricated. If this is true, that's a scandal both on the Dem pols who manufactured them and the media who fail to report on such machinations.....The Caro book pointed out how "Landslide" Lyndon won his first election to the Senate by massive--really massive--voter fraud. The Vietnam war was to some extent brought to us by massive voter fraud. To claim that voter fraud is not a part of American life is itself a kind of voter fraud.

Caligula said...

How two communities on Milwaukee's North Shore achieved sky-high levels of absentee voting despite coronavirus
Craig Gilbert, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 1:16 p.m. CT April 10, 2020 | Updated 11:37 p.m. CT April 10, 2020

“At least two Wisconsin communities, Whitefish Bay and Bayside, printed up and mailed absentee ballot applications to registered voters.

“At least two Wisconsin communities, Whitefish Bay and Bayside, printed up and mailed absentee ballot applications to registered voters.
In the scramble to convert to mail-in voting during the pandemic, the success of Whitefish Bay leaps out.

“As of Thursday, 6,089 voters in the suburban village north of Milwaukee had returned absentee ballots in the April 7 election.

“That number is 40% higher than the total number of votes cast in the village by all methods (4,393) in last year’s April state Supreme Court election.”

Umm, is this even legal? Is there anything in Wisconsin law that would authorize them to do this? How could they know how many of these mailed-out ballots were used fraudulently?

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/04/10/wisconsin-absentee-ballot-forms-sent-whitefish-bay-bayside-voters/5129125002/

Charlie Currie said...

The simplest answer/solution is usually correct.

Curious George said...

“At least two Wisconsin communities, Whitefish Bay and Bayside, printed up and mailed absentee ballot applications to registered voters."

This may come as a surprise, but these towns vote Democratic. Lot's of lefty professors from UW-Milwaukee.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Democrats trying to steal the elections - it worked in 2018; who knows how many times prior to that?

Lee Moore said...

I think if we're allowed to be cynical (aka realistic) about the motives of the Democratic Governor, we're also allowed to be cynical (aka realistic) about the motives of the Republican Legislature.

Why did they oppose postponing the election ? Presumably because they thought they'd do better now than in, say, June. Now everyone has always known that, coronaviruses excepted, the Ds were thought to be hot favorites in this Supreme Court election, because of the turnout advantages of having a contested D Presidential primary on the same day.

But by June the D Presidential primary is going to be even deader than it is now. The D turnout advantage would disappear. So why wouldn't the GOP be happy to delay until June ?

One deduces that either :

(a) the GOP thinks that either the coronavirus, or Biden's having already won, or a good GOP absentee operation, puts them in a good position in an April election - ie they agree with the columnist (and, if we stick to being cynical, the D Governor) or

(b) the GOP folk are really dumb

Nothing in my experience of life so far encourages me to rule out (b).

walter said...

April 9, 2020
With Election Day now behind us and a concerted effort underway by some to blame Legislative Republicans for holding the vote, it is important to remind everyone how we got here.
On March 17th, Evers was asked about postponing the election and responded during a press conference that we could not move it because elected positions should not be left open.
On March 20th, Governor Evers told the Associated Press that quote “Moving this date is not going to solve the problem. We could move it to June, it could be worse in June.” Close quote.
Evers during this time was taking steps and extra precautions to make sure the election would be carried out safely.
Governor Evers did not change his position until April 2nd, the same time frame that Evers started receiving some heat from other democrat politicians and organizations.
If Governor Evers believed back in early March we needed to postpone the election, he should have told the public back then instead of waiting for weeks.
http://www.maciverinstitute.com/2020/04/maciver-news-minute-evers-changing-election-day-positions/

Milwaukie guy said...

I have to get to work on a fence and haven't read the whole thread. Hope I'm not repeating.

Some Classic Chicago things are the voting in the nursing homes. They are always done during the work weeks starting about a month before election day. The opposition may be able to rustle up a poll watcher or two. The machine sends out a full platoon of Water Dept. guys, multiple helpers on every floor.

Another big one is having postal workers on your team. For instance, there was a 32-unit courtyard building on my block. The post office guy would put the current tenants mail in their boxes and leave all the other junk on the table in the lobby. Election time, get absentee ballots for everyone that's moved out and on the day they get delivered, have a precinct worker follow the postal delivery down the block, picking up the loose absentees.

Chicago will be celebrating 90 Years of Democrat Rule next year.

walter said...

http://www.maciverinstitute.com/2020/04/wisconsins-faux-outrage-election/
...
"Even after he issued a “Safer at Home” order all but shutting down Wisconsin the following Tuesday, Evers refused to postpone the election.

A few days later, when a liberal group sued the state seeking a delay or cancellation of in-person voting, Evers even submitted a “friend of the court” brief in which he argued that “ultimately, a predominantly-by-mail election, with limited but available in-person voting, would be an achievable middle ground that would help protect Wisconsinites’ right to vote, while also helping to keep them safe.”

Only when POLITICO ran an article deeply critical of Evers’ obstinate refusal to postpone the election, the rest of the national media started piling on, and absentee ballot returns from heavily conservative counties started to flood in did he abruptly change course…five days before Election Day.

Nothing medically had changed. The virus wasn’t spreading any more rapidly than it was the day before, voting wasn’t any more dangerous than it had been, but Evers decided to deflect the blame to the Republican Legislature.

Democrats were perfectly fine with in-person voting for weeks when Evers insisted on it, and only shrieked about how dangerous it supposedly was when they could blame Republicans for it.

“If the governor had legitimate concerns, we could have come to a bipartisan solution weeks ago,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said in a joint statement on Friday. “This discussion would have happened long before today. The only bipartisan discussion we’ve had was to ensure the election would continue safely and to maximize the opportunity to vote absentee.”

Vos and Fitzgerald were open to postponing the election when Evers first started shutting down the state, but Evers refused to discuss the possibility. He was resolute in his decision to push forward.

Until, in an instant, he wasn’t. Then he was outraged, outraged that Republicans weren’t as caring and compassionate as he suddenly was. So outraged, in fact, that he felt as though he had no choice but to issue an executive order the day before the election postponing the vote for two full months.

“I cannot in good conscience stand by and do nothing,” Evers said in a news release announcing the order. “The bottom line is that I have an obligation to keep people safe, and that’s why I signed this executive order today.”

When the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck that order down a few hours later, Evers laid on the faux outrage even more thickly."
...

https://www.cbs58.com/news/its-almost-embarrassing-milwaukee-city-leaders-pin-blame-on-all-sides-for-election-day-chaos

Mayoral candidate Lena Taylor pinned it on Mayor Tom Barrett and City Election Commission Director Neil Albrecht, for cutting 180 polling locations to five.

“Five sights? I would never have done that as mayor," Taylor said. "Five sights? Out of 180?”
<
The city did take precautions. There were at last four public health workers at every location and 100 workers but Mayor Barrett said it's not enough.

"This should never had occurred in the fashion it is occurring. It’s almost embarrassing that we have for weeks now been saying stay at home, stay at home, stay at home," Barrett said.

There were also 30 members of the Wisconsin National Guard at each polling location. Albrecht said they didn't know they would have that many until yesterday.

"Had we had that information sooner, I absolutely think it could have influenced the number of voting centers in the City of Milwaukee," said Albrecht.

William said...

I guess this is a stupid question, but why would the governor —— or for that matter any official not on the Elections Commission (whatever it's called in WI) —— be allowed to know ANYTHING about any aspect of an election prior to election day?

This sounds pretty corrupt.

LA_Bob said...

"I really don't know why Evers did what he did."

'Cause the voices told him to do it?


Earnest Prole said...

In Wisconsin thousands of voters waited in lines six feet apart wearing masks. In the rest of America millions of shoppers waited in lines six feet apart wearing masks. In the rest of America this was known as "Tuesday." In Wisconsin it was known as "Armageddon."

GBnative said...

Too much to hope for? Probably, but let's apply civic rights charges in connection with the "Wisconsin Fiasco."

I was already tired of hearing about how the Republicans supposedly gutted the Voting Rights Act. In truth, the main change was fair and long overdue. Remove Southern States (many of which today have more black officeholders and as good or better racial dynamics than their Northern betters) from double-secret probation. After 50 years, they no longer need pre-clearance from federal bureaucrats on voting-related changes. American policy was to trust and forgive Japan and Germany, for example, faster than our Southern cousins.

Now, what might the U.S. Attorney General's Office say about a blatant political scheme to deny polling access in two cities with significant minority populations (Green Bay and Milwaukee)? They made their own city's voters wait 3 or 4 hours in line for Election Day voting. Cut the number of polls from 180 to 5, and 31 to 2. Didn't employ enough staff to competently respond to requests for absentee ballots in timely fashion. Because you have already calculated their votes won't be enough to help you win, but maybe their victimhood can. All for naked partisan purposes.

Put in a records request for the mayors' emails and texts and actions on Election Day. If they weren't visiting polls and scrambling by mid-morning -- what can we do? how can we get voters through faster? people are going to die if we don't do something about this crowding and endless waiting! -- the fiasco is proven to be, at best, an accidentally-on-purpose outcome that has the tremendous benefit of advancing their partisan aims. I'm guessing by mid-morning each was high-fiving aides, or doing national interviews about how terrible the Republicans were in disenfranchising poor minorities.

Reinstate pre-clearance on elections. Only in Wisconsin. Only for these egregious offenders. Democratic offenders.

Birkel said...

RE: Michigan Winnie Xi Flu numbers

You have a lot of Asian students at Michigan. Also, you have lots of Middle Easterners in the Detroit area. Those two subgroups are more likely to have been places with higher infection rates and come back infected.

Further, lots of the Middle Easterners would have been in close proximity for services and daily prayers.

I think those might be vectors for viral spread.

Amadeus 48 said...

Birkel—I think that is what the Ka’zoo Gazette reporter is saying without being so clear about it. She is very supportive of Whitmer but the facts are the facts. Also, she lays out the fact that the first confirmed case in Michigan happened on the day after the primary, but the Demmies held rallies all over the affected areas in the weeks before the election. That probably was a booster in Oakland and Macomb.

Trump’s last rally in Michigan was in Battle Creek on December 5, 2019. The west side of the state has not been heavily affected at all.

But also, Whitmer has been doing everything the experts suggest, but the Detroit area is still one of the nation’s principal hot spots. When this is over someone really needs to look hard at the costs and benefits of the stay at home orders.

Mark said...

You have a lot of Asian students at Michigan.

There are relatively low numbers of positives in Washtenaw County. Go next door to Wayne County, though, and they take off.

Gospace said...

eco San asked if postmarking is automatic. The answer to that is - both yes and no. The dated “postmark” is in reality a “cancellation stamp” designed to prevent reuse of stamps. If an envelope doesn’t have a stamp it doesn’t need cancellation.

For example, all military absentee ballot return envelopes are marked in their upper right corner “Free from all U.S. postage “. That’s how Democrats routinely get military absentee ballots thrown out- they were never cancelled, hence no proof they were mailed before Election Day. Even if they arrived from an overseas base the day after Election Day they might have been mailed after midnight and traveled across an ocean and through numerous mail sorting facilities in 12 hours.

Now, how are Wisconsin non-military absentee ballot envelopes marked? Are they marked “Postage Prepaid”? If so, no cancellation needed. They cannot be marked “Free from all U.S, postage “ unless Congress approves. If voting by mail is optional, then likely a voter must put the proper postage on it.

Which brings up a question about the states that now do all their voting by mail. Requiring the voter to purchase postage in order to vote at all would be an unconstitutional poll tax. I don’t live in one of those states that allow and encourage that level of fraudulent voting. There’s enough other fraudulent voting in NYC that the Democrats don’t get feel they need to go that route.

Gospace said...

I believe I’ve mentioned before I hate automiscorrect.

paminwi said...

A couple of comments.
Ryan at 8:14am. You do not need to provide a stamp to mail your absentee ballot. One is provided on the ballot envelope for you.

Why did Evers do this?
IMO Eric Holder was on his ass pushing him to take stand for the visual of people in the largest city in our state, hopefully BLACK people, waiting in line. This would work well to tell the world how a Republicans hate black people and want them to die. Also, think about this video playing at the Democrat National Convention over and over and over again. By then, we will all know how many people got the virus from standing in line. A couple of days AFTER the election the State Dept. Of Health issued a press release letting us all know they were going to do contact tracing to figure out who spread the virus at the polls. And I think all this tracing will be completed by the convention and used “liberally” to bash Trump and Republicans.

https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/news/releases/040920.htm

Yes, I think every step in this process was a political calculation.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Perhaps Evers was moved to act after reading on Althouse’s blog that she felt like she was being disenfranchised.

Kirk Parker said...

"By then, we will all know how many people got the virus from standing in line. "

We will know no such thing, and in all likelihood, cannot know such a thing. This won't stop the D's from claiming that if they think it advances Teh Narrative, of course.

GingerBeer said...

Gov. Evers announced his intention to use the National Guard to man polling stations on April 1st. He neglected to inform election commissioners. City of Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Neil Albrecht learned from press reports 45-60 days after his request for the National Guard's assistance was rejected by the Governor.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/04/01/tony-evers-use-national-guard-members-work-polls-amid-massive-shortage-workers/5102869002/

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/wisconsin-election-milwaukee-did-not-have-enough-polling-places/