RepublIcan Voter Fraud in Wisconsin - 13 felony counts

Looky looky, the radical right was engaged in multiple voting incidents in an attempt to steal the election for the GOP.





No amount of voter ID laws in effect in EITHER Wisconsin or Indiana did diddly squat to prevent actual voter fraud.

However, the investigation of the dirty dealing and apparently illegal acts by the radical right, from the state operatives on up to the big money that tries to buy elections, like Rove and the Koch brothers, shows who we all REALLY need to worry about in voter fraud and election tampering. 

It shows how well existing means of investigation and prosecution works to prosecute election tampering and voter fraud, WITHOUT voter ID to suppress minority voting.

From MSNBC news:

Robert Monroe, of Shorewood, Wis.,  was indicted last Friday on 13 felony counts related to illegal voting. Information about the investigation into Monroe was revealed when documents related to a secret investigation into the Wisconsin governor’s campaign and the 2011 and 2012 recall elections, according to Wispolitics, the blog that first reported on the investigation. TPM also reported on the allegations earlier Thursday.

Monroe’s explanation? He was suffering from amnesia that wiped out his memories of the ballot box on the election days.

Monroe allegedly voted multiple times during both the 2012 recall election and the 2012 presidential election. In the presidential election, he drove from his home in Wisconsin to Indiana, where he owns a house, and voted there.

This is believed to be the most egregious case of multiple voting in the state’s history. He could face up to 45 years in prison and $130,000 in fines if convicted on all counts.

Monroe allegedly used his own name in WI, before voting again in Indiana, he also voted using his son's name on an absentee ballot, and his girl friend son's name as well.

LET ME REPEAT IT AGAIN.  VOTER ID WOULD NOT HAVE PREVENTED THIS.  AT ALL.

From WisPolitics, via the Bradblog:


From WisPol:

Robert Monroe, a 50-year-old Shorewood health insurance executive, was charged Friday with 13 felonies related to his voting a dozen times in five elections between 2011 and 2012 using his own name as well as that of his son and his girlfriend's son.

"During 2011 and 2012, the defendant, Robert Monroe, became especially focused upon political issues and causes, including especially the recall elections," the complaint asserts in its introduction.
...
According to those records, Monroe was considered by investigators to be the most prolific multiple voter in memory. He was a supporter of Gov. Scott Walker and state Sen. Alberta Darling, both Republicans, and allegedly cast five ballots in the June 2012 election in which Walker survived a recall challenge.
...
Monroe claimed to have a form of temporary amnesia and did not recall the election day events when confronted by investigators.

Monroe voted in his own name, using his Shorewood address, as well as that of a home owned by his parents in Milwaukee. He also voted in the 2012 presidential election from Shorewood and then drove to Lebanon, Ind., where he voted again. He also owns a home there.
...
Each of the 13 counts carries a penalty of up to $10,000 in forefeitures and three-and-a-half years in prison, for a total of $130,000 and 45-and-half years. If convicted of a felony, he would lose his right to vote.

From Bradblog:

For a start, much of this alleged illegal voting by Republican Robert Monroe was done via absentee ballot, which is, far and away, how most fraud carried out by voters actually occurs. It doesn't happen by people showing up at the polling place claiming to be someone they are not, even though that's the reason that Republicans claim that polling place Photo ID restrictions are necessary.

When U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman found Wisconsin's GOP-enacted polling place Photo ID law to be unconstitutional and in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act earlier this year, he found that some 300,000 registered voters in the state lacked the type of ID that would be necessary to vote under the Republican law. "To put this number in context," Adelman wrote in his ruling, "in 2010 the race for governor in Wisconsin was decided by 124,638 votes, and the race for United States Senator was decided by 105,041 votes. Thus, the number of registered voters who lack a qualifying ID is large enough to change the outcome of Wisconsin elections."

Still, almost none of the Photo ID restrictions which Republicans have been pretending are needed --- while claiming, without evidence, that there is a Democratic "voter fraud" epidemic --- do anything about the far more prevalent problem of absentee voter fraud, as in the Monroe case in Wisconsin.

Then there's a bit more irony here. In 2008, the state of Indiana was the first in the nation to implement polling place Photo ID restrictions. The challenge against that state's law went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court which decided, in Crawford v. Marion County, that the law could go forward for the time being, at least until such time as the challengers returned to court with specific voters who were disenfranchised by the law. (The federal appellate court judge in that case has since recanted his decision to uphold that restrictive law.)

Despite the law in place in the Hoosier State at the time, it's own Republican Sec. of State Charlie White was personally charged and found guilty of three counts of felony voter fraud in 2012 related to voting in a place where he did not live and was not entitled to vote. The Republican Photo ID law in Indiana failed to prevent even the state's top election official from committing voter fraud, but did succeed in preventing octagenarian nuns and WWII vets from casting their votes.

How did investigators determine that Monroe was the one who fraudulently cast absentee ballots in the name of others? Aside from mismatched signatures on the absentee ballot envelopes, a DNA test of those envelopes found Monroe's DNA, but no DNA of the voters who supposedly sent them, such as his girlfriend and his girlfriend's son.

Ah, those anti-science Republicans -- tripped up, again, by actual functioning science and technology.  Apparently lying and fraud are GOP "values".... as is wrongfully and dishonestly accusing the other side of doing the things they actually DO.