A New Kind of Vote Fraud

By Sheboygan Press | Editorial

10 August 11

We're sensing a new kind of vote fraud.

housands of Wisconsin voters are going to the polls today to cast ballots in recall elections for six state senators.

Campaigning in these elections has been expensive and, in some cases, downright dirty. Sadly, we've come to expect false and misleading advertising, much of it from third-party groups that slither under the full-disclosure rules that candidates and political parties must follow.

We've endorsed rules in the past that would require everyone who wants to have a say in political campaigns to disclose the names of those who donate money to support their effort. Unfortunately, this hasn't happened.

Another disturbing practice that has occurred in the recall elections is the mailing of fliers telling people how they can obtain absentee ballots. But these mailers, which usually also back one candidate or another, sometimes contain false or misleading information that can effectively disenfranchise the person casting the absentee ballot.

Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board, the agency that oversees elections, said it received several reports in recent weeks of unofficial absentee ballot applications potentially causing confusion among voters.

In some cases, there have been incorrect addresses for where to send the application, or an incorrect date that the ballot must be returned by in order to be counted. The board said it also has received complaints about automated phone calls that have contained incorrect dates and other election information.

If the voter doesn't catch the mistake, he or she may never get the absentee ballot, or find that their legally cast vote didn't get counted because the ballot arrived too late.

When confronted about the false information, the group sponsoring the mailer or robo-call has claimed it was an "honest mistake" or typographical error.

Funny, but these errors usually involve critical information about the casting of a ballot and can easily nullify a legitimately cast vote.

We've just gone through a very trying and sometimes bitter debate about the need to protect the integrity of elections by requiring voters to produce a photo ID at before casting a ballot. This despite the finding of only a tiny percentage of double voting or otherwise illegally cast ballots.

But the dirty tricks of deliberately misleading voters in oder to disenfranchise them is no less fraudulent than someone casting two votes. And giving the number of complaints that have been made in the recalls and most recent presidential elections, we think that this kind of fraud is far more prevalent and even more insidious than the fraud that resulted in photo ID.

Perhaps the lawmakers who were so insistent on photo ID can find a way to rid the state of this new kind of fraud.