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April 1, 2010

Election Theft Underway in Wisconsin

By Thomas Lifson
More evidence the Obama Democrats are playing by Chicago rules, and rapidly altering the nature of our political regime. Nancy Pelosi's strong arm legislative tactics have metastasized to the state level in Wisconsin.

According to a Republican Wisconsin state senator, Democrats there plan to change the election rules in November with inadequate scrutiny. In other words, a stealth attack on the integrity of the electoral process. Like ObamaCare, this is a change-the-game legislative proposal that could not withstand scrutiny.

Wisconsin Senator Glenn Grothman alerts us that Democrats are trying to push a radical 72-page bill less than 16 hours after its hearing. He writes:

Senate Bill 640 [is] a bill which radically changes Wisconsin election law going into this year's election.  The 72-page bill was not even introduced until March 23. 

Senate Bill 640 makes many changes to Wisconsin election law including the following: 
  • 1) The bill allows municipalities to set up satellite absentee ballot stations for early voting. These stations apparently could be done in college dorms, outside of bars, or other inappropriate locals.
  • 2) The current open government practice of allowing any citizen to challenge individual ballots would end as monitoring of elections of statewide or national significance would be restricted to people who live within that polling district.
  • 3) Permanent absentee ballot status would be established in which ballots would be sent to people who historically do not vote in low-turnout elections. Currently, permanent absentee ballot status is restricted to people who are confined because of age, physical illness, infirmity, or disabled infinitely making them unable to get to the polls.
  • 4) University IDs could be offered as proof of residence for registration and voting.
  • 5) The increased cost of processing and mailing out the additional absentee ballots is an unfunded mandate that local municipalities will not be able to absorb.
  • 6) Local municipalities will be forced to hire speakers of a foreign language if at least 5% of the adults in their district are not English proficient.
  • 7) The bill proposes to set up a statewide database of voters that the authors said they would hope to link up to a national database.

"This is a shocking power grab some extremist Democrats are trying to change our laws so that more unqualified voters are able to vote and so that we are not able to determine whether or not voting fraud in fact took place," said Grothman.  "That is clearly the motivation behind trying to have a much larger number of permanent absentee voters as well as preventing an individual outside a polling place to object to inappropriate voting."

"Ironically, the voting change that most Wisconsin citizens request, Voter ID, is about the only thing not included in this far-reaching bill that is being fast-tracked through the State Legislature."

The far left has taken over the Democratic Party, and is aggressive changing the rules so as to entrench itself in power, regardless of the will of the people. The same Alinskyite mentality that rammed through ObamaCare.  Rules are what you make the other guy live up to. ("We make ‘em up as we go along.")

Now, with the same anti-transparency approach used on ObamaCare, Wisconsin Democrats plan to close down scrutiny while they tailor election practices to benefit themselves.

Chicago rules ruthlessness coupled to a far left structural agenda. Precisely the brew that Saul Alinsky created when he began his work with community organizing on Chicago's South Side and took up residence in Hyde Park.

Our democratic process is being degraded, moving in a distinctly unpleasant direction: a ruling party rigging elections, paying off its allied groups, practicing predatory governance with regard to the business class, which it regards as pariahs. A compliant media supplies propaganda extolling the leader, and framing the news to portray the governing class in the best light. Workers are kept in line with unions.

Are there any honest Democrats out there willing to denounce this hijacking of the electoral process?  Those who claim to be thoughtful liberals ought to take a look at the corruption machines being designed in Wisconsin.

Tyranny creeps in one step at a time.

Hat tip: Richard Baehr

Thomas Lifson is editor and publisher of American Thinker
on "Election Theft Underway in Wisconsin"