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Wisconsin updates

Wisconsin updates

As of 8:15 p.m. Eastern, all further updating at Wisconsin Recall LIVE

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I’ll gather links and reports here until the results coverage starts.

The Wisconsin Reporter Twitter account is a good source to follow, along with Charlie Sykes, Christian Schneider, and Kevin Binversie.

(links, most recent on top)

Two WI GOP sources say Dems/Barrett preparing lawsuit to keep polls open late in Dane & Milwaukee counties. GOP will fight it.

Madison turnout now projected at 96% not 119%.  It’s the same day registrations, for sure, which means who knows who they really are.

Both GOP and Dem sources confirm that Drudge_Report is wrong – point to tight race. What sources?

Wausau City Clerk reports that turn out was at 53% as of 4:00 p.m.

General rule: The media, who love the horserace aspect, love exit polls. Campaign pros both R and D dismiss them cold.

WaPo on exit polls:

* 2010 Redux: The makeup of the voters appears very close to the original 2010 contest — on race, ideology and religion, among other factors. The early data do skew a little older, which may be a function of who cast ballots earlier in the day.

* Party identification: There’s rough parity in the recall electorate —  about a third each identify as Democrats, Republicans and independents —  in early exit poll results.

* Party favorables: Just fewer than half of voters in preliminary exit poll results hold favorable views of both the Democratic and Republican parties. These early results closely reflect the divided attitudes of the state in the 2010 midterm election.

* Tea party: The tea party fervor that swept the 2010 midterms looks to be stable this year, with similar numbers supporting and opposing the movement.

Don’t get cocky:  Drudge headline: EXIT POLLS SHOW WALKER HOLDING SEAT”

DailyKos has a good chart tracking 2010 Barrett v Walker vote percentages by county. “Barrett will need well over two-thirds of the vote in these latter two urban counties [Milwaukee, Dane], while getting at least one-third of the suburban vote, to have a shot at winning this.”

“Democrats, prepping for a potential recount, have over 400 attorneys in the state.”

Appleton city clerk and Fond du Lac county clerk say turnout could be as high as 75%. Others expecting 60-65%

Why I’m actually glad DOJ is in Milwaukee … Milw 04: “there was a [4600-vote] discrepancy between the ballot count and the number of people listed as having voted”

Just spoke with Waukesha Co Exec Dan Vrakas who tells me turnout there could hit 75%

Official turnout prediction today: 60 to 65%; Wisconsin turnout 2008: 69.2%; 2010: 49.7%

Dane co. clerk this morning: “We could hit 80 to 88 percent” turnout. She now says it will be closer to 75%

My friend from Waukesha just got back and he reported that districts 17, 18, 19 have full parking lots and long lines.

High turnout at Waukesha wards 3 4 and 5. already surpassed may primary same day registration number

Dems still obsessing about Kathy Nickolaus even though she will play no role in vote counting in Waukesha county.

Clerks in big Republican counties (Waukesha & Washington) won’t give turnout estimate, will release numbers when polls close.

“A significant number of new voters were registering at the polls.”–Sue Edman, Milwaukee City Election Commission Exec. Director

This is one of the scariest statements and if Walker loses this would be why:

Photo ID is not required and same-day registration is permitted in Wisconsin

Exit polling shows that the election will be decided on turnout.

Christian Schneider, who now blogs at JSOnline (I forgot!) has a really handy chart of historical turnout by county — hopefully Waukesha will counteract Dane.

Dems are alleging “dirty tricks” in the form of supposed robocalls telling people they don’t have to vote if they signed the recall petition.  Per link, no one as yet has provided proof of such calls.

Turnout is heavy throughout the state per Wisconsin State Journal, including the liberal stronghold of Dane County (which includes Madison):

Voters and public officials are reporting long lines at many Wisconsin  polling places Tuesday — with Dane County Clerk Karen Peters calling the turnout  “just wild” so far.

“It ranges from 28 to 42 percent already; it is a huge turnout. We could hit  80 to 88 percent,” said Peters, who at midday was just fielding calls wrapping  up a status report from clerks around the county.

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Comments

TheLastBrainLeft | June 5, 2012 at 1:39 pm

Careful, a lot of this is propaganda. McIver is actually tweeting pictures from these strongholds and the crowding, to say the least is not what is being reported.

Robocalls from Republicans? That’s a laugh. Only Democratic thugs pull that kind of crap.

theduchessofkitty | June 5, 2012 at 1:59 pm

I think there’s a lotta cheatin’ going on… Beware.

“Desperate times, desperate tactics” and all that jazz…

    TrooperJohnSmith in reply to theduchessofkitty. | June 5, 2012 at 8:21 pm

    On of the irascible H.L.Mencken’s great quotes just now comes to mind:

    “Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.”

I heard that Union members could tweet their votes in to @RecallWalker

If they are stupid enough to believe it, then they well, are just stupid.

    Ragspierre in reply to profshadow. | June 5, 2012 at 4:16 pm

    There are days when I think an intelligence test like this would be JUST the ticket.

    TrooperJohnSmith in reply to profshadow. | June 5, 2012 at 8:35 pm

    I got yelled at by a poll worker in 2008 when this lady – obviously there to vote for Barack – asked, “Is this where we vote?”

    Without thinking I said, “Republicans vote here today, and Democrats vote here tomorrow?”

    “For real?” She stopped in her tracks.

    The poll watcher angrily told her, “Don’t listen to him!” Then she pointed a three-inch fake nail, protruding for a forest of costume jewelry, in my face and hissed, “I’m watching you buster!”

    I was going to offer in my defense that anybody with half a brain would know it was a joke, but then I realized the Obama voter was about a half a second from returning to her car.

    Then, I remembered:

    As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. – H.L. Mencken

great unknown | June 5, 2012 at 3:10 pm

The heavy turnout, on both sides, indicates the portent of this election: in a very real way, analogous to the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and Fort Sumter.

I’m praying for a landslide, but I fear we are looking at a long night ahead (if not worse).

Photo ID is not required and same-day registration is permitted in Wisconsin

______________

Good grief. Do they also post signs at their polling places saying: Voter Fraud Welcome Here!

OTOH, it probably would be an easy way for the state to save on the attorney fees it would otherwise incur defending bogus lawsuits from Eric Holder’s DOJ.

I would love to know where all those new voters are coming from to register and vote today. Michigan?

Thanks very much for the Wisconsin updates. This is an important election, and I am glad you’re covering it.

I just voted as an independent in the California primary. I could have chosen to vote as a Democrat, and that would have given me the privilege of writing in Mickey Mouse, but because that race is decided for both parties, I just took my independent ballot and marked away.

My ballot came in the mail, and so I took it and looked up information on each of the candidates. To my deep surprise, some of the races were never covered in the local paper. And some of the races were covered without naming all the candidates.

That, in a nutshell, explains why California is in the mess that it is. The local newspapers do not cover the local government activity, and have not for at least a couple of decades.

The situation in Bell, California, had been brewing for years. It simply
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/bell/
went on until the LA Times decided to report on it. Then it became a scandal. Had the Times been doing its job for the 17 years before that, this situation
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012971617_bellcitymanager23m.html
would have resulted in a minor, limited controversy over spending, rather than arrests for mismanagement of public funds after the money had been spent.

I voted during the morning rush in a very blue ward of Milwaukee and was in and out in under 20 minutes. The line was long but moved very quickly. By the time I left there weren’t more than a dozen folks left in line. There were a pair of poll observers (wearing paper badges identifying them as such) and more poll workers present than I can ever recall. New this time around was the requirement to sign my name next to my entry on the registered voter roll. Nobody listed as living at my address who didn’t actually live there. Now we wait.

[…] out.  According to the poll workers, it was a very slow morning here in the Golden State (unlike Wisconsin, which is reporting over 80% participation).  They attributed it party to mail-in-voting (about half of our precinct already voted) and […]

Days like today I wish I had a Twitter account.

But, I don’t-so there.

Bettin’ there’s some interesting tweetey twits

On pins and needles. Don’t let us down, Wisconsin. It’s up to you today!

    Browndog in reply to EBL. | June 5, 2012 at 7:07 pm

    I’d rather they be referred to as “Detroit” voters…

    Michigan and Detroit are on two different planets.

Interesting that a recall race is “hush-hush” (re: exit polling) but we would probably already have a declared winner in a presidential race.

If they allow same day registration with no photo id required, do they at least check to make sure the address isn’t a vacant lot?

    Merlin in reply to elliesmom. | June 5, 2012 at 5:19 pm

    Nope. You can register using nothing more than a utility bill that you say is yours. Poll workers don’t have any resources to check a new registration against. All on the honor system!

      brett_mcs in reply to Merlin. | June 5, 2012 at 7:22 pm

      An actual bill, or is a photocopy just as good? 😉

      Milwaukee in reply to Merlin. | June 5, 2012 at 8:38 pm

      Things are worse than that. If somebody has the flimsy ID, and is registered, they can “vouch” for somebody who doesn’t have adequate ID, sort of like the “honor” system.

      One Democratic Senator from the Milwaukee area had 38 people registered to vote from an address she owned. I recall that property was a house divided into apartments, and was licensed/certified/coded for 8 tenants.

      Mayor Barrett’s police don’t consider voter fraud a high priority, either in prevention or investigating allegations of.

“Why I’m actually glad DOJ is in Milwaukee … Milw 04: “there was a [4600-vote] discrepancy between the ballot count and the number of people listed as having voted””

Don’t be. Holder’S Jus-Ass Dept. will rule in favor of the DemocRats no matter what. >:-(

“Democrats, prepping for a potential recount, have over 400 attorneys in the state.”

What a temptation. What a temptation.

As of this writing, Walker’s probability of winning has slipped to 89% at Intrade (from 95%).

Iirc something similar happened to Bush in the 2004 election. No single straw in the wind is reliable.

[…] Legal Insurrection: Wisconsin Updates […]

Midwest Rhino | June 5, 2012 at 7:41 pm

I recall 2008, some student in Wisconsin bragging and laughing that he had voted five times … it was so easy. Not only can they bus people in, they can have wise guys voting multiple times.

Hopefully there is video and a willingness to put people in prison for that crap.

Juba Doobai! | June 5, 2012 at 7:45 pm

This is how it will be for the presidential election. Voter fraud on a massive scale. The dead, the illegal, and the crooked voting as early and as often as they can.

TrooperJohnSmith | June 5, 2012 at 8:13 pm

Will this be another Rossi v. Murray, where they kept finding… another box of uncounted King County ballots until the Progressocrats won?

These were the same people who, as children, never lost a game of Monopoly when they were the banker. Hell, as naive lil’ chid’ren, we caught onto that act fast, so it makes me wonder why the good people in the world’s greatest republic cannot figure out institutional voter fraud!

Uh… don’t answer that. I know why, and that realization – hardly the stuff of epiphanies – makes me angry and worries me at the same time. I mean, if we lose the sanctity and security of the voting process, we’re just a couple of guys in Rayban Aviators and Aramis cologne from being just another banana republic. In which case, I’ll be in the hills…

[…] getting their jollies with sophomoric humor. As we wrote below, it’s not about Bill Cllinton, today is about Wisconsin and then on to […]

Doug Wright | June 5, 2012 at 11:11 pm

Professor: Great music tonight! We needed the music and the great Walker WIN! Really like the fireworks too! But, fireworks aren’t legal in Minnsota so we Gophers might get in trouble??????

On to victory for Romney and the USA this November!

The only thing that can stop it is Holder’s DoJ thugs and the SEIU thugs taking over the country in the name of preventing chaos due to Obama’s defeat!!!!!!!