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GOP seeks police, veterans to work Milwaukee polls

Ryan J. Foley
Associated Press  —  10/15/2008 5:24 pm

Democrats accused the Wisconsin Republican Party on Wednesday of trying to intimidate voters by seeking people with military and law enforcement experience to watch Milwaukee polls on Election Day.

State GOP executive director Mark Jefferson called such claims ridiculous and said there was nothing wrong with asking volunteers with "a backbone" to work at challenging polling locations.

The controversy erupted after Barack Obama's presidential campaign obtained an e-mail in which a Republican Party employee asked for help recruiting volunteers to be "poll-watchers on Election Day at inner city (more intimidating) polling places."

In the e-mail dated Sept. 8, the state party's director of election day operations Jon Waclawski said he was looking specifically for names of "Milwaukee area veterans, policemen, security personnel, firefighters etc." A supporter forwarded the e-mail to the Obama campaign, which gave it to reporters late Tuesday.

The liberal group One Wisconsin Now said the e-mail unmasked a GOP strategy to "challenge voters, disqualify voters and create long lines" at the polls. Republicans denied that.

Poll watchers often keep track of voter turnout at a location and make sure the process is running smoothly. They also can file challenges to voters they believe are ineligible, which are investigated by elections workers.

Andrea Kaminski, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, a nonpartisan group that advocates for fair elections, said the GOP's recruitment strategy sounded "heavy-handed and inappropriate."

"It certainly sounds like an attempt to intimidate voters. It does," she said.

Kukowski said veterans and law enforcement officers were targeted because they'd be more comfortable working in high-crime areas than some other Republican volunteers.

"Do we want to send a 17-year-old girl to poll watch in an area of Milwaukee that has high crime? That would not be a wise decision," she said.

Jefferson added later that Republican poll watchers are often outnumbered by their Democratic counterparts in Milwaukee "three or five to one."

"Our people are often intimidated by people from Democrat groups who sit there and try to tell people how procedures should be followed," he said. "If you're going to work at these polling locations and take on five people by yourself, you have to have a backbone."

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe first raised the e-mail during a conference call with reporters on Tuesday after he was asked to name specific GOP attempts to intimidate voters. He accused Republicans of trying to get "large individuals with law enforcement backgrounds" to work the polls in Milwaukee to scare away voters.

"Some of the language in this e-mail raises troubling questions about Republican intentions at polls," Obama's spokesman Phil Walzak said in a statement Wednesday. "We sincerely hope that this effort they describe is not deliberately designed to diminish the enthusiasm of voters or make it harder for them to have their voices heard."

Kukowski laughed off the notion the party was recruiting "large, brawny volunteers who are going to rough people up." Law enforcement and military personnel who volunteer for the party will not be in uniform, she said.

The party also trains poll watchers to make sure they follow state rules and instructs them to have no interactions with voters, she said.

Under state law, anyone except candidates whose names are on the ballot can show up at polling places for the purposes of observing. Elections inspectors give them a designated area to stand, typically behind the workers handling voter lists.

Observers can be removed if they disrupt the election, actively campaign for a candidate or distribute election-related material.

Kukowski said poll watchers would be looking for problems in Milwaukee, a Democratic stronghold where Republicans worry about the potential for voter fraud.

Kaminski, of the League of Women Voters, said voters who want to avoid observers should cast their ballots early at clerk's offices.

Ryan J. Foley
Associated Press  —  10/15/2008 5:24 pm