Operation Elephant Takeover

But somewhere between its conception and execution, the plot changed. According to the criminal complaint, that point came when the would-be hooligans learned that a security guard would be present. Rather than abort their plan, they escalated. One of the young men distracted the security guard by urinating on a nearby building, while four others slashed the tires of vans meant to shuttle voters and poll-watchers to election sites throughout southeastern Wisconsin. Damage from the vandalism was $5,300. Still, not Watergate.

But a few additional facts make the episode more interesting. Wisconsin was one of a handful of the most competitive states in the 2004 presidential election. Milwaukee County is the most populous county in the state. The damaged vehicles were located mainly on the outside ring of the parking lot, effectively boxing in the remaining vans. The vehicles used to transport the vandals were rented by the Democratic party of Wisconsin. At least four of the five vandals were paid staffers of the Democratic party of Wisconsin. Two of them are quite well connected: Michael Pratt is the son of former Milwaukee Mayor Marvin Pratt, John Kerry’s campaign chairman in Wisconsin; Sowande Omokunde, who goes these days by the moniker Supreme Solar Allah, is the son of Gwen Moore, a Milwaukee Democrat elected to the House of Representatives on the same day her son participated in “Operation Elephant Takeover.”

These top Wisconsin Democrats have disclaimed any foreknowledge of the plot, and other Democrats were quick to condemn it. But the embarrassing incident has been back in the news in recent days. After a preliminary hearing that lasted two weeks, the five Democratic operatives were each charged with one count of “criminal damage to property,” a felony that carries a fine of up to $10,000 and three years in prison.

The timing for Democrats couldn’t be worse. A steady stream of news reports in the five months since “Operation Elephant Takeover,” many of them written by Greg Borowski of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, has confirmed what most Wisconsin residents have long suspected: The open election system in the state is an anachronism that invites incompetence and encourages corruption. It’s a disaster. And many Democrats are defending it.

On February 24, after weeks of acrimonious debate, the Republican-led Wisconsin State Assembly passed an election reform bill that would require voters to present identification to vote. It will likely pass the majority-Republican Senate in a matter of weeks. With a few exceptions Democrats oppose the reforms, and Jim Doyle, Wisconsin’s Democratic governor, has promised a veto. The legislation has nothing substantively to do with the Election Day vandalism. But in the hazy world of political perception, now is not a good time for Democrats to oppose election reform.

It is the combination of two factors–same-day registration and the lack of a photo ID requirement–that makes Wisconsin ripe for fraud. In theory, voters who register on the same day they cast their ballots are required to show proof of residence. In theory.

The reality is quite different. Standards of proof are so low that Wisconsin law currently allows another voter to vouch for a same-day registrant. That is, a would-be first-time Wisconsin voter can show up at the polls, register to vote, and cast a ballot–all without showing any identification–so long as another voter supports his claim to be a resident. The second individual is not required to present identification either.

“As long as you have someone with you and they vouch for you, you can vote. And that person doesn’t even have to show ID,” says Rick Wiley, executive director of the Republican party of Wisconsin.

To safeguard against fraud, the state requires same-day registrants to complete a voter verification card at the time they register. These cards require voters to provide basic information: name, address, date of birth, zip code. After the election, they are mailed to same-day registrants, and any verification cards returned as “undeliverable” are passed along to the authorities for investigation. Once again, this works in theory.

In reality, it doesn’t work at all. Some election officials claim that they do not have the money even to send the verification cards. And returned verification cards when they are passed along to the authorities almost never result in prosecutions.

In Milwaukee, same-day registrants accounted for more than 26 percent of the total voters on November 2–some 73,000. Nearly 3,000 of the verification cards that were processed and sent to same-day registrants have been returned as undeliverable–a failure rate of 4 percent.

According to the Journal-Sentinel, the “city’s records list 269,212 people–those with confirmed addresses or who could be sent verification cards–as voting, while 277,535 ballots were cast. That suggests a gap of 8,323 voters who cannot be sent the cards.” Some 1,300 of those were the ballots cast by same-day registrants whose registrations could not be processed for a variety of reasons. Perhaps a voter failed to sign the form or did not include an address. We are still left with a discrepancy of approximately 7,000 voter-less ballots. Milwaukee city officials have offered a variety of explanations–the most frequent being computer glitches and human error. But no one can offer a comprehensive explanation for the difference. That’s a problem.

“Record-keeping surrounding the Nov. 2 presidential election in Milwaukee is so flawed that in 17 wards there were at least 100 more votes recorded than people listed by the city as voting there,” wrote Borowski on February 2, 2005.

Wisconsin Republicans believe the election reform issue is a good one politically. A recent GOP poll of 500 likely Wisconsin voters shows that 84 percent approve of measures to require photo ID. If Governor Doyle vetoes the initial legislation as expected, Republicans plan to attach it to a budget bill to force him to use his veto a second time. Scott Walker, the Milwaukee county executive running against Doyle, mentions election reform in most of his appearances across the state. Walker’s likely GOP primary opponent, Rep. Mark Green, last week introduced legislation at the federal level that would require voters to show photo ID.

John Kerry beat George W. Bush in Wisconsin by 11,304 votes. How many votes in that total should not have been counted? Wiley points to Milwaukee to make a provocative suggestion. “With all of these problems in just one city, the results of this election could be up in the air.”

Stephen F. Hayes is a staff writer at The Weekly Standard.