President George W. Bush’s victory became official with the counting of the Electoral College votes, despite the objections of Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). They alleged irregularities in Ohio. While President Bush’s inauguration to a second term this week gives finality to the election process, legitimate questions remain over the voting process, particularly here in Wisconsin.

After the November election, State Assembly Representative Jeff Stone (R-Greenfield) requested information from the Milwaukee Election Commission, including statistics pertaining to same-day voter registration cards. Unlike most states, Wisconsin allows “same-day” voter registration at the polls on Election Day. Milwaukee, the largest municipality in Wisconsin, saw several questionable voting incidents in the November 2000 election. Elections officials could not verify an estimated 12,000 addresses on voter registration cards in 2000.

The exact number of Milwaukee same-day voter registration cards returned due to invalid or non-existent names or addresses remains somewhat unknown. With this in mind, Stone sought information shortly after this past election, seeking tallies on the number of same-day voter registrations within the municipality and the number of voter registration cards returned.

Among other information, registration cards require a name and address. Shortly after completing a registration card, elections officials mail the card to the address written on the card to validate the registration. Returned cards indicate invalid registrations. Cards not returned generally indicate valid information, although inconclusively — the possibility always exists for mail to land in the hands of individuals other than the addressee.

According to Stone staff member Michael Pyritz, the Milwaukee Election Commission contacted Stone’s office on January 7, informing them of roughly 8400 same-day voter registrations, of which about 7379 were actually mailed out. The Milwaukee Election Commission mailed these registrations on January 6 — the same day the Electoral College votes were counted and finalized and much too late to correct the impact of any fraudulent voting.

Unfortunately, the bad news got worse. After a series of contacts, the Milwaukee Election Commission acknowledged a mistake in the initial figures. According to Pyritz, the commission now confirms that roughly 84,000 same-day voter registrations occurred, with 73,079 cards actually mailed out.

Astonishingly, over 10,000 — one in eight — same-day registration cards were immediately invalidated and never even mailed for verification. Reasons include duplicate registrations and illegible handwriting on the cards. This number does not include legible registrations with invalid names and addresses which the post office will return over the next couple of weeks.

Time will tell how many registrations return as invalid, but early indications do not bode well for the final tally. Pyritz cited the example of Florida, in which nearly one-third of new registrations were returned as undeliverable and noted that 24,600 cards could be returned in Milwaukee alone if the same trends occur in Wisconsin. “[That is] a stunning number if you combine the 24,600 and 10,000,” he said. Incidentally, the Wisconsin State Elections Board shows only an 11,384 vote difference between Sen. John Kerry and President Bush. Considering the questionable practices of the New Voters Project and other organizations, Stone’s investigation will not likely consider all vote fraud that occurred throughout Wisconsin and its impacts on the final results.

This story exposes two major flaws (among several) in Wisconsin election law. Although state law requires municipalities to begin the process of verifying voter registration cards immediately upon submission, the process can conclude much later, as shown in this story. Additionally, this shows further need for photo identification at the polls in Wisconsin.

Pyritz addressed the issues of photo identification and same-day voter registration saying, “If we don’t change same-day voter registration, we need to make it as easy as possible for

Correctly, Pyritz discussed the need to balance the process. “We would love 100 percent voter turnout in Wisconsin. … But by the same token, one guy shouldn’t be voting 15 times,” he said.

Many, particularly those on the left, have taken the “no blood, no foul” approach to vote fraud in Wisconsin and have opposed any meaningful attempts to curtail it on that standard. Perhaps these discoveries in Milwaukee do indeed reveal fraud or, alternatively, incompetence of certain polling officials or other irregularities.

Regardless, they reveal something wrong, and that something requires thorough investigation and future prevention.

Mark A. Baumgardner ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in electrical engineering.