Any Fraud is Bad Fraud...

The Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel misses the point *AGAIN* in their editorial on voter fraud, "What's the Fraud Threshold?". If voter fraud were found to favor the Republicans, I suspect that ANY level of fraud would exceed the threshold. But somehow, to date, there is not sufficient evidence for them to conclude that fraud has actually occurred. Too bad no one captured the fraud ACTUALLY occurring on videotape (of course, tape can be doctored!!!)

Here's what the interim report from the Fraud Task Force said:

Based on the investigation to date, the task force has found widespread record keeping failures and separate areas of voter fraud.

Here's what the J/S editorial said:

Investigators have found widespread record-keeping glitches and spotty instances of fraud.

Hmmm...I think that Ricardo & friends need a new thesaurus!

The J/S editorial goes on...

The task force has developed evidence of more than 100 instances in which residents are suspected of voting twice or of using somebody else's name or a fake name to vote. It also found more than 200 felons who voted despite being barred from doing so.

But here's a little tidbit they left out....

"The number of votes counted from the City of Milwaukee exceeds the number of persons recorded as voting by more than 4,500....To date, the investigation has concentrated on the 70,000+ same-day registrations." (emphasis mine)

Here is the actual interim report for your reading pleasure.

I'm sorry, but I can't believe the Journal/Sentinel is quibbling over 'how much fraud is too much'. (Well, I guess I can believe it).

But, as the interim report states,

These findings impact each other. Simply put: it is hard to prove a bank embezzlement if the bank cannot tell how much money was there in the first place. Without accurate records, the task force will have difficulty proving criminal conduct beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

And, of course, this is the crux of the problem. The system was not designed to have an audit trail worthy of follow up and prosecution for fraud, NOR does it make any sense to try to develop such a system. The problem is not to prove and prosecute voter fraud AFTER THE FACT (the old 'locking the barn door after the cows have escaped' option). The point is to PREVENT voter fraud from happening so that everyone's vote DOES count. Requiring people to register before elections and present some form of photo ID is a much better option than depending upon the tenacity of the poll workers (those great senior citizens who selflessly devote hours to staffing the polls so that the rest of us can vote!)

Failing to prevent voter fraud disenfranchises ALL voters (even the ones that voted for Kerry!!)

Read additional commentary here from Powerline and Michelle Malkin.

Once more, Wisconsin is in the news for all of the wrong reasons. And the Journal/Sentinel is on the wrong side of the issue.

UPDATE: Great comments and a history of news on the Wisconsin voting fraud situation from Sean at everythingiknowiswrong.com.