Mail-In Voter Registration Skulduggery

[dado potato]

The Voter Participation Center recently mailed massively to people of voting age with a form that would appear to be a Mail In Voter Registration Form. They say on their website that they mailed to approximately 80,000 people in Wisconsin. I was asked by a young woman if I thought it was legit.

I told her I thought there would be plenty of time to drop in at the Municipal Clerk's office and register in person before the November election. And I believe this is what she intends to do.

Now I learn that the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (to whom I understand the forms were addressed) refuses to forward the completed forms to municipal clerks around the state. Therefore, a certain number of people presumably will have sent in the forms, and when election day comes around, they will find they were not in fact registered to vote (and it will be too late to register on election day without proof of residency).

I am not impugning the motives of the Voter Participation Center, nor the Government Accountability Board in Wisconsin. However, if similar skulduggery is occurring in other states, the result may be widespread voter suppression, which I do consider undemocratic and hurtful.

To me, the bottom line is: make sure you are registered to vote by contacting your municipal clerk's office.

[puglogic]

Hmmmm. Dado, by what right -- and for what reason -- does the Wisconsin Govt Accountability Board refuse to forward the forms to your municipal clerks? This would seem like a basic violation of your state's laws, unless the forms themselves do not meet government rules & regs. To state that one is registering voters, when they really are doing no such thing..... I don't get how this is legal?

I never assume I am able to vote unless I have my voter reg card clutched in my grubby little fist. Thank you for the words of warning.

[dado potato]

I can't say the GAB has covered itself in glory, puglogic.

The rationale the GAB gave was that the Voter Participation Center mailing contains an erroneous address. The VPC denies that the address is incorrect. VPC explains on their website that their "Business Reply Mail" return envelope, addressed to the GAB, uses a zip+4 rather than the 7-digit zip that would be sufficient for a letter mailed with a first-class stamp.

Maybe a better rationale will be forthcoming in the days ahead.

[JaneV2.0]

This is a common voter suppression tactic called "caging." I would bring it to the attention of everyone--including the media--you can think of to warn the unwary. Don't be surprised if the recipients are all Democrats or live in precincts that tend to vote for Democrats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caging_%28voter_suppression%29

[iris lily]

This is a common voter suppression tactic called "caging." I would bring it to the attention of everyone--including the media--you can think of to warn the unwary. Don't be surprised if the recipients are all Democrats or live in precincts that tend to vote for Democrats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caging_%28voter_suppression%29

Ah, I figured it was the work of those wascally wepublicans.

[JaneV2.0]

A wily lot, but you can't accuse them of leaving a stone unturned. http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/rpg/dwarf.gif

[LDAHL]

Wisconsin allows voters to register at the polls on election day.

[Tiam]

This is a common voter suppression tactic called "caging." I would bring it to the attention of everyone--including the media--you can think of to warn the unwary. Don't be surprised if the recipients are all Democrats or live in precincts that tend to vote for Democrats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caging_%28voter_suppression%29


Did I miss the point? Democrats?

[Alan]

Did I miss the point? Democrats?
I don't think there was a valid point. "Caging" refers to mail-in voter registration forms that are returned to the post office when it is discovered that the voter doesn't live at that address. An indication that the potential voter no longer lives within a particular district.

That doesn't seem to be the case described by the OP.

[iris lily]

Did I miss the point? Democrats?

Dems good, Repubs bad. That's the point.

[LDAHL]

Dems good, Repubs bad. That's the point.

We're suffering through a particularly ugly period of political Manichaeism here in Wisconsin. The republicans obtained a preponderance of power in the 2010 election, and took the opportunity to strip the public service unions of their closed-shop status and ability to bargain over anything but base wages. They legalized the concealed carry of firearms, and put in place an identity-check requirement for voting. This produced the predictable frenzied attacks from the left, both because of the affront to traditional progressive values and the existential threat created by the loss of a traditional source of funds (many of the public employee unions have chosen to decertify rather than attempt to collect dues on a voluntary basis). Wisconsin has one of the more permissive recall election laws in the country, and the Governor's enemies have collected the necessary signatures trigger a recall of the governor. One of the announced Democratic contenders against him has signed a pledge to veto any state budget that does not reinstate the unions' "rights".

Local media markets have feasted on political ad revenue, and tensions are running high. It's easy to see how the incident cited by the OP would be interpreted in conspiratorial terms. Since this state allows registration at the polls, the disenfranchisement claims seem overwrought. But truth being the first casualty of political war, we can probably expect much more of this sort of thing.

[JaneV2.0]

Did I miss the point? Democrats?

Voter suppression tactics are almost exclusively used by Republicans. As Paul Weyrich famously said
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPsl_TuFdes&NR=1&feature=endscreen
"Our leverage in the elections--quite candidly--goes up when the voting populace goes down."

[dado potato]

Apologies... I initially said a person would not be able to register at the polls on election day. That is not correct. The first time voter would be able to register if they could provide acceptable proof of residency. (Most people would probably be carrying a valid WI drivers license.) If without a Drivers license, they could alternatively provide some other government issued license or ID, an employer photo ID badge, a student photo ID (with a receipt proving they paid their fees within the previous 9 months), a residential lease, a property tax bill, a utility bill, a bank statement, paycheck, or other check issued by a unit of government.

I have edited my original post to correct it.

[Alan]

After googling this to see what it's all about, it would seem that a private non-profit, The Voter Participation Center, mailed these voter registration forms to specific demographics and instructed the receiver to return them to the Government Accountability Board rather than to the appropriate municipal election officials in their districts.

The GAB then said, in effect, 'Hey, we're not a clearing house for your efforts, please instruct your clients to forward the forms to the appropriate office', which seems less like skullduggery/voter suppression, than informing a private non-profit to direct their forms appropriately. The official Wisconsin voter registration form, found here (http://elections.state.wi.us/docview.asp?docid=15150), even instructs applicants/corroborators to return the completed form to their municipal clerk.

Seems to me the non-profit is manufacturing a controversy where none exists.

On Edit:
The Government Accountability Board has issued a statement regarding this issue on their website, http://gab.wi.gov/node/2220 , which provides a little more information on the subject:




Date: February 20, 2012


MADISON, WI – The Government Accountability Board has received questions and
complaints about unofficial voter registration forms recently mailed to
Wisconsin residents.


Kevin Kennedy, Wisconsin’s chief election officer, said that while it is
legal for groups and political parties to produce and distribute voter
registration forms, residents who wish to register to vote need not rely on
them. “If you need or want to register to vote, contact your municipal clerk
directly and request an application,” Kennedy said. “You can also download an
official Wisconsin voter registration form from the G.A.B. website, fill it out
and mail it directly to the clerk.”


The G.A.B. has recently seen unofficial voter registration forms that contain
errors, including an incorrect address for the G.A.B., Kennedy said. “The group
distributing these forms – Voter Participation Center – is a legitimate
nonprofit group registered with the Internal Revenue Service. However, there are
some problems with their mailing,” he said.


VPC has told the G.A.B. that its goal is to register unmarried women to vote
because they believe that group is underrepresented in the electorate. The group
uses commercially-available data to identify names and addresses of women they
believe are unregistered. However, G.A.B. is aware that some of the women
receiving these applications are in their early teens – too young to register to
vote.


VPC contacted the G.A.B. late in 2011, asking staff to review its proposed
mailing for errors. The staff pointed out several errors, some of which were
corrected, and some of which were not. Specifically, the G.A.B. asked VPC not to
have residents send their voter registration forms directly to the G.A.B., since
voter registration is handled by Wisconsin’s 1,850 municipal clerks.


Kennedy said that any voter registration forms the G.A.B. receives from this
or any other group will be returned to the group, with instructions to send them
to the correct clerks. “It is the responsibility of any group registering voters
to ensure that the applications are sent to the proper local election official,”
Kennedy said. “In Wisconsin, that is not the Government Accountability
Board.”


Elections Division Administrator Nathaniel E. Robinson said the staff
previously warned VPC that any voter registration forms received by the G.A.B.
would “encounter significant delay.”


“If you rely on an unofficial voter registration form, you may be too late to
register in advance,” Robinson said. “However, Wisconsin does have Election Day
Registration, and anyone qualified can register and vote at the polls on
Election Day with proper identification and documentation.”


Voters are encouraged to visit the G.A.B. website for information about
registering to vote: http://gab.wi.gov/elections-voting/voters/registration-voting.
(http://gab.wi.gov/elections-voting/voters/registration-voting.) To see whether you are registered, visit G.A.B.’s Voter Public Access
website (http://vpa.wi.gov (http://vpa.wi.gov/)) for information, including
polling place locations.