As if on cue, a task force consisting of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI, and local law enforcement began investigating the alleged crime wave of voter fraud infecting Milwaukee. The U.S. Attorney didn’t find much until reported complaints about his performance reached him.
The pre election Republican charges and resulting press coverage had a message: the Democrats were going to cheat and cheat big in Wisconsin’s largest urban (read largely minority) area. Those people would come out to vote multiple times or vote without proper credentials. The message was clear: The Democrats and their minority base are up to no good. Vote Republican! The Nixon southern strategy moved north.
Voter intimidation was a central theme. Make baseless demands for voter identification (e.g., “GOP Demands IDs of 37,000 in City”). Spread fear of prosecution for any errors in registration or other voting laws (e.g., "If you've already voted in any election this year, you can't vote in the presidential election” from the nonexistent Black Voters League). Conduct and promote high-visibility law enforcement campaigns (e.g., “40 assistant district attorneys in the field on Election Day”) for purely political purposes against a problem the enforcers knew was trivial.
This is not new. In 1982 the Republican Party signed a consent decree to stop promoting voter fraud efforts that targeted specific ethnic groups (No. 81-3876. D.N.J. Nov. 1, 1982, see page 55). This finding was upheld in 1987(page 3) and again in 2004 by federal courts. That suit was renewed in 2004 due to a repetition of the behavior. This is called the politics of Jim Crow and is a direct descendent of the voter suppression efforts begun against black citizens right after Reconstruction ended in 1877.
The Results – Less than Spectacular
The results were less than spectacular. In fact, they represented an abject failure. A brutal summary appeared in the Milwaukee JSOnline (Journal Sentinel). Columnist Daniel Bice laid it out on 11 April, 2007:
It’s not as if U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic's office didn't file any voter fraud cases (in 2004).
It's just that Biskupic's crew was often unsuccessful when it did.
In all, federal prosecutors indicted 14 individuals for either being a felon on probation or parole who voted in November 2004 or for voting twice in that contest. All but one of those charged with felonies were African-American, and all were Milwaukee residents.
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