Citizen journalist reporting of ballot integrity irregularities in the Wisconsin recall election led Media Trackers to uncover information that has resulted in the investigation of SEIU senior organizer Haynes for potential vote fraud.
This uncovers a pattern of behavior that not only spread across Wisconsin during the Recall election, but also peels back another layer of what members of the organized left themselves declared as the blueprint for November. In order to maintain any integrity in the presidential election as well as the federal and state legislatures in the 2012 election, it is imperative to understand all of the left’s tactics that have been documented and reported on in Wisconsin last month.
Last year, Clarence S. Haynes and two other SEIU organizers, Austin Thompson and Todd Stoner, registered to vote in the April 5, 2011, election with out-of-state IDs. The organizers claimed residence at a Glendale, Wisc., hotel on their voter registration applications.
In response to the Media Trackers report on the suspicious address of these SEIU organizers, the District Attorney’s office opened an investigation and subpoenaed records from the hotel, the Glendale Residence Inn. Later, Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf zeroed in on Haynes and issued a search warrant and additional subpoenas to Sprint Nextel and Google for email and phone records that could lead to further information regarding Haynes’s permanent address and plans for residency.
ADA Landgraf interviewed Austin Thompson and Todd Stoner, the other SEIU organizers who also registered to vote from the Glendale hotel. According to Landgraf’s affidavit, Thompson and Stoner, who did cast valid ballots, told Landgraf they saw Haynes vote in the April 5, 2011, election and that they did not have any knowledge of Haynes’s whereabouts at the time.
In April 2012, ADA Landgraf issued another subpoena, this time to the SEIU for documents regarding Haynes’s employment, home address, tax statements and other communications between Haynes and the SEIU. Media Trackers reports they have been unable to obtain further public records relating to the investigation, as the case is still under review.
Media Trackers also notes SEIU documents reveal the union guests spent $146,000 at the Glendale Residence Inn in 2011; Landgraf’s affidavit indicates that as many as 50 SEIU employees lived there in 2010 and 2011.
While this case is far from the only suspected incident of Wisconsin voter fraud, it appears to be the only case currently being investigated by law enforcement, which brings with it the potential for successful prosecution.
In Racine, Wisc., specifically, there was an extraordinary amount of this suspect activity, which though well documented, has not been enough for the District Attorney to file any charges.
In one example of how hard it is to see an investigation through to prosecution, the Caledonia Patch reported just last week that after the District Attorney’s office received pressure from One Wisconsin Now, a left-wing “community organization,” to release the results of the complaints made regarding election irregularities in the recall election of State Senator Van Wanggaard.
The Patch reported later that same day:
District Attorney Rich Chiapete said his office received four separate complaints and while a complete investigation into the allegations was conducted, the information “did not rise to the level required for a criminal prosecution.”
Instead, what was described as fraud can more accurately be described as rule violations and as such, falls under the jurisdiction of the state Government Accountability Board, he said.
“Many of the concerns raised are issues more appropriately dealt with by the GAB and through subsequent action by the legislature,” Chiapete wrote in the statement. “Complaints about poll workers, same-day registration procedures and electioneering, can be, but in this case, did not rise to the level of a crime in Wisconsin.”
This demonstrates just how difficult it is to identify potential voter fraud incidents with enough solid evidence just to get the DA’s attention, let alone lead to real results, including legal penalties for anyone involved in voter fraud.
The district attorney is, however, asking the City of Racine clerk’s office to identify any ineligible voters or voters who voted more than once and refer those names back to the his office for prosecution.
Breitbart News, Media Trackers, organizations like the MacIver Institute, countless citizen journalists as well as other watchdogs led the charge during last month’s recall election through their reporting on numerous instances of suspected voter fraud and Election Day irregularities across the state.
When the left says, “Wisconsin is our model,” it behooves all citizen journalists and poll watchers to take them at their word. While they lost their big fight with Governor Walker, they successfully took back the State Senate, which sheds plenty of light on the real battles we are up against this fall, and the tactics they will employ to steal unwarranted victories. While Barack Obama can definitely lose his race, there are more Racines all over this country, with state representative and state senate seats in play.
Because Media Trackers was able, in this case against an SEIU organizer, to report overwhelming evidence, the local District Attorney has no choice but to fulfill the responsibilities of his office.
And thanks to Wisconsin, we now have a very clear picture of Election Day tactics that will taint results and, ultimately, flip a state legislature. We can also see the difficulty in achieving a successful prosecution.
Just as we have to do the work of the mainstream media in order to force them to cover the news accurately, it is more than clear, we must also do much of the groundwork of local law enforcement, and investigate these fraudulent occurrences with even more vigilance.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.