•Photo identification requirement to vote (Wisconsin drivers license or state issued identification card).
•End to same day voter registration (so duplicate voters will be found and so felons can be purged from poll lists in advance of Election Day).
•Return to previous system of absentee ballot process where voters must be have reason to vote absentee (travel, health, etc.) so that municipal staff are not overwhelmed before Election Day with early voting.
•Prohibit voter registration drive organizers from paying for each signature collected by employees.

He had pleaded guilty in June.

Court papers say Raymond and co-conspirators plotted to jam Democratic lines that voters could call for rides to the polls in Manchester, Nashua, Rochester and Claremont. A line run by the nonpartisan Manchester firefighters' union also was jammed.

The line taken by many Democrats and their allies now is: It all could have been human error, so it's just creepy Republicanism to worry.

"I don't see any large-scale violation of voting laws," said Rep. Robert Turner of Racine.

"Fraudulent Republican claims," brayed one Milwaukee poll-watcher in an essay in a Madison newspaper, saying it was all a plot hinging on faulty voting machines.

It's all about "harassment and disenfranchisement," huffed a Racine newspaper editorialist.

A little scenario: It's 3 a.m. The smoke detector wakes you. It could be your 19-year-old making pizza. Do you assume this, pull the battery and go back to bed?

Faith in the vote is important. But insisting that gaps in the count can't be anything but error, unworthy of investigation, does not cultivate that faith.

And insisting it's oppressive to ask people to better identify themselves as legitimate voters leaves one in doubt that Democrats really want to clear up the smoke.

A wary watch on procedure is part of Wisconsin's governmental genes. Municipal races are non-partisan, lest loyalty trump service. We have open records laws not because we assume officials are doing wrong but to keep us from having to suspect it.

The bill that would require voters to show identification with a picture at the polls is in this tradition.

Identity is intrinsic to voting. Where and whether you can vote is a function of who you are: your age, your residency, whether you've already been through the line.

In the November vote, these questions were found to be unanswerable for perhaps thousands of people, even now, months later. Reasonable observers have noted that Wisconsin's practice of letting anyone vote on the mere say-so of another voter - such is the present law - opens an unguarded door for anyone who puts winning ahead of honesty. We seldom leave such doors open in our government. By not closing it here, we have left election officials vulnerable to legitimate suspicion, and we taint the legitimacy of all voters.

Might this be the reason, Ms. Smith, that you're there? A quick Google Search of "Karla Smith Madison" finds this little gem.

Karla Smith
Karla Smith is currently an employment counselor at Access to Independence, an independent living service located in Madison.

When she was 30 years old, Karla's health condition forced her to live in a nursing home, where she was told she would be for the rest of her life. Through determination, effort, and persistence, and by utilizing state resources, Karla was able to leave the nursing home. Once independent, she involved herself in extensive volunteer activities, for which she received national recognition. She feared finding employment because she thought she would lose her medical assistance, but she did find fulfilling employment helping others to live independently. In her words, "I want to reach out to these people and say, "Don't give up. There is hope. You just gotta take it a little bit at a time. Don't give up."

That's off the state's site for "Wisconsin Pathways to Independence," which is on the website for the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services. Access to Independence is a non-profit group based in Madison that receives taxpayer grants.

The hearing came in the aftermath of stories by the Journal Sentinel highlighting major voting irregularities that occurred in Milwaukee during the Nov. 2 presidential election. Among the problems that have surfaced are 1,200 votes cast from invalid addresses; 1,300 same-day voter registration cards that can't be processed; and 17 wards where 100 or more votes were recorded than people who city records show voted there.

Under the new measure, those casting absentee ballots would be required to send a copy of their photo IDs with their ballots. People who regularly vote by absentee ballot - such as senior citizens or people with disabilities who don't have photo IDs - could instead have a witness verify their identities.

Most people would show a driver's license to vote, but a state-issued identification card or military ID would also be accepted. The state would offer free IDs to those who don't have them or can't afford them, under the bill.

The proposed legislation would also eliminate the practice of "vouching," which allows eligible voters to cast a ballot if another person can confirm their identity and address.

But opponents warned that asking thousands of elderly and low-income residents who don't have photo IDs to obtain them is an undue burden.

Karla Smith of Madison, who uses a wheelchair, told lawmakers that the measure would disenfranchise disabled people, because they would have trouble lining up transportation to get an ID.

Rep. Joe Parisi (D-Madison), the former Dane County clerk, said getting rid of the vouching system would make it virtually impossible for homeless people to vote.

17 wards have at least 100 more votes than voters; 2 miss by over 500

Such gaps were present at different levels in nearly all of the city wards and could hamper the investigation launched last week by federal and local authorities into possible voter fraud by giving an incomplete or inaccurate picture of who actually voted.

They also raise questions about the level of oversight of how the city records who voted in each ward - an important safeguard that, properly done, can be used to spot double voting and other problems.

Barrett, elected last April, said "there were problems in the department before we got here," but added: "I accept the responsibility (for the problems)."

All together, the Journal Sentinel has found a gap of about 7,000 votes that are unaccounted for. That is based on a difference between the 277,535 ballots cast in Milwaukee and the 269,212 people listed as voting in the city's computer system.

While that leaves a difference of about 8,300, at least 1,300 of that number would represent same-day registration cards that could not be processed for reasons ranging from missing addresses and names to addresses that are outside the city.

"I don't think we have seen any evidence of fraud," Barrett said. But he acknowledged that vote gaps and other problems shake the confidence of residents and others in the system.

Meanwhile, a state audit into election problems in Milwaukee, a probe that will include other communities statewide, could get formal approval today. And on Monday, Republicans in Madison renewed a push - which failed two years ago - to require all voters to show photo identification.

On Tuesday, Rick Graber, head of the state Republican Party, challenged his Democratic counterpart to appear at a hearing on the matter Thursday so together they can condemn "the fact that potentially thousands of voters across Wisconsin had their legally cast ballot disenfranchised by fraud and abuse."

Linda Honold, state Democratic Party chair, said she was unsure if she would attend the meeting but added that if she did go, she would do so to oppose the bill.

"If I'm there, I'm not going to be arguing what he wants me to argue," she said.

Others, including the head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and the group Wisconsin Citizen Action, condemned the voter ID proposal.

"The way to prevent fraud is more and better poll workers," said Larry Marx, co-executive director of Wisconsin Citizen Action. "We want to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat. The photo ID bill makes it harder to vote and harder to cheat."

The voter ID legislation, which Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale) and Sen. Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan) introduced, is similar to a bill that Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed in 2003. The two lawmakers said the measure is a "reasonable and sensible" approach to correcting some of the problems that emerged in Milwaukee and that rattle residents' faith in the system.

Stone and Leibham said the new version of the legislation also addresses some of the potential obstacles that opponents fear would limit someone's ability to vote.

"Anyone who is a legal resident in the state of Wisconsin can vote under this voter ID bill," Stone said.

Under current law, Wisconsin residents may vote by providing their names and addresses to poll workers, and they may register on election day by presenting proof of residence. That would change under the proposed legislation; a voter would be required to show a valid photo ID to vote and register. If the address on the ID didn't match the voter's current address, documentation of the new address would be allowed.

Those casting absentee ballots would be required to send a copy of their photo IDs with their ballots. Seniors or people with disabilities who don't have photo IDs could have a witness verify their identities.

The legislation also would eliminate the state's "vouching" system, which allows someone to have another person at the polls guarantee his or her identity and address. Lawmakers said the practice had been abused.

In a statement, the state Republican Party advocated going even further - by ending Wisconsin's same-day registration system. Party Chairman Rick Graber said the system "leaves our system wide open to fraud."

I was just chatting with one of those shadowy voters from the fabled land of invalid addresses.

Johann Hauser-Ulrich was the very first name on the list of more than 1,200 Milwaukee voters who may or may not be up to something sinister, like voting for Democrats.

It wasn't hard to find him. I just went to the address listed, 1335 N. King Drive. The place is an aquarium store, which struck me as fishy. But Hauser-Ulrich, 20, has lived upstairs since moving here from Minneapolis in September to attend UWM.

[...]

Although I lack arrest or subpoena power, I launched my own investigation last week that involved tracking down these frauds and realizing what nice, honest people most of them seemed to be.

The other thing that became quickly obvious is that the Milwaukee Election Commission can't keep its numbers straight.

Most voters are not lost; the digits in their addresses are just transposed or messed up in some other creative way.

Using a highly sophisticated voter address cross-checker - OK, the Milwaukee phonebook - I quickly deduced that the no-good cheat at, say, non-existent 5305 W. Whatever St., actually lives at 5365.

So I guess we should hold off a bit on slapping handcuffs on people like this.

And the commission hasn't quite figured out the difference between Blue Mound Road and Blue Mound Court. You'd think from looking at the dreaded list of invalid addresses that the Blue Mound cabal just north of Miller Park is trying to bring down democracy.

"You mean I'm one of the fraudulent voters? Oh, my God. I've been voting for years at this address," said Karen Heerhold, a retired county budget analyst, whom I found hiding in plain sight on Blue Mound Court.