Voter fraud in Wisconsin. It's as real as a wheel of sharp cheddar, but the truth about who's committing it is buried like an Idaho potato. State records show that Samantha Vos, the estranged wife of Wisconsin Republican State Representative Robin Vos, voted in Wisconsin's April 3, 2012 presidential primary. Why is this a story? According to WKOW TV reporter Tony Galli:
...records from Canyon County, Idaho show Samantha Vos swore under oath April 19 she was a resident of that state since early March. Vos' declaration came as she filed for legal separation from her husband.
Galli also reminded his viewers that:
Wisconsin law requires 28 days of continuous residency prior to voting.
Busted!
"Residency" isn't always as simple as where you sleep at night. College students, military members, and others are often away from home for extended periods of time but are allowed to retain their residency for voting purposes in their home state.
In the case of Samantha Vos, however, there is no disputing the fact that she was not eligible to vote as a Wisconsin resident on April 3rd, 2012 - unless of course she admits to lying under oath in Idaho.
My guess is she will choose not to alter her sworn testimony in Idaho, simply because the Republican Attorney General of Wisconsin has no interest in prosecuting actual voter fraud. He is too busy trying to get the state Supreme Court to reverse a lower court ruling blocking Wisconsin's vote-suppressing voter-id law. That law, by the way, would not have prevented Samantha Vos's illegal vote. She improperly represented herself as eligible to vote, but she did not impersonate anyone.
This latest voting scandal probably will not hurt Robin Vos unless it can be shown that he was aware of or encouraged the fraud. He will probably become the speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly if he wins his race in November and his Republican party can maintain a majority, which is likely but not certain. He would replace Jeff Fitzgerald, who declined to run for re-election in order to run for the U.S. Senate. (Fitzgerald came in 4th in a 4-person primary election earlier this month.)
Still, what is it about voter fraud and Wisconsin Republicans? Why don't they get that the laws apply equally to them? Oh yeah. Because they aren't held accountable. Remember Joel Kleefisch, the Representative who was caught voting multiple times in the Assembly?
He was never reprimanded, censured, or prosecuted for his actions.
Remember Kathy Nickolaus, the Waukesha County Clerk who found 14,000 extra votes in last year's state Supreme Court election? She messed up again by modifying the software in her top-secret voting machine before the April 3rd election, causing her to have to tally the votes by hand from machine printouts taped to the wall of her office.
That wasn't prosecuted, either, but you can bet if the Republicans find an African-American man in Milwaukee who is on probation and mistakenly casts a vote thinking he was eligible, the Attorney General will be all over it. (Convicted felons can vote in Wisconsin after they are done with their sentence and are no longer on parole or probation.)