Third World Voting Redux

I read this tidbit by John Fund in the Wall Street Journal's Political Diary discussing voting shenanigans in Wisconsin:

Wisconsin Cheapens the Franchise, With Predictable Results

Democrats raised a host of objections to the validity of President Bush's 118,000 margin in Ohio, and several House members forced a highly unusual debate before allowing the Electoral College votes to be counted in Congress this month, never mind that their evidence appeared to be pretty thin gruel as far as voting irregularities go, i.e. long lines at some precincts. John Kerry belatedly climbed on the bandwagon yesterday, charging at a Martin Luther King breakfast that "thousands of people [in Ohio] were suppressed in the effort to vote."

But you can bet many of those same Democrats will be silent now that a scandal has broken out in Wisconsin, which Senator Kerry won by 11,384 votes out of three million cast. Under pressure from a state representative's persistent questioning, Milwaukee County's Election Commission has just admitted that registration cards for nearly one in seven people who registered and voted on the same day in Milwaukee couldn't be sent out because they lacked proper addresses or other information. That amounts to a minimum of 10,000 invalid votes, and that doesn't include pending surveys of same-day voting in Madison, Racine and Kenosha.

John Fund points out that:

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, a Democrat, has twice vetoed bills that would at least require some form of identification to vote.

Michelle Malkin and Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters add more information; Read Captain Ed for some fairly damning data.

Ballots cast have increased, and not by a statistically insignificant margin. Here are the numbers for the last three presidential election cycles:

1996: 365,387
2000: 433,537
2004: 482,236

The increase in votes for the 2000 election was 18.7% over 1996 in a county that had had a net decrease in population of 2% over the past decade. In 2004, despite a population decrease of 3.2% in the past three years, the voter response increased in Milwaukee County by 11.2% over the already-ballooned turnout of 2000. While Milwaukee County lost 5% of its overall population over the past thirteen years and accelerating in the past three, votes cast increased an unbelievable 32% in the past eight years.

What are the odds of such an uptick in civic responsibility? Laws such as Motor Voter and Same Day Registration sound desirable on paper.  Sure, let's get as many eligible voters to the polls to make sure their voices are heard.  The problem is the open door to those willing to cheat the system, if such a thing as is suggested by the data here has occurred.

John Fund is usually all over situations like this, and I'm sure he will be again.  Just as Stefan Sharkansky is all over the voting in Seattle/King County in the gubernatorial race there.  Third world voting, indeed.

UPDATE: More from Boots and Sabers.  Speculative, but interesting nonetheless.