Judicial candidate also critical of process

Story compiled by MCJ Staff
Irregularities at several 6th Aldermanic District polling locations are likely to be "just the tip of the iceberg" of problems affecting Milwaukee voters during Tuesday’s spring primary election, according to Alderman Mike McGee, Jr.

McGee, who represents the 6th district, said in a press release he believes Tuesday’s problems indicate that city Election Commission workers are, in his opinion, "not just passive observers but actually complicit participants in voter fraud."

Alderman McGee said a female poll watcher, who said she was trained by Election Commission personnel, approached him inside St. James United Methodist Church at north 24th Street and west Keefe Avenue and asked him and other prospective voters if they wanted to vote for Municipal Court Judge candidate Jeffrey Norman, whose name was kept off the ballot because he was allegedly late in filing a required ethics report with the state Election Board.

"She walked up and said ‘Hi, would you like to write in Jeffrey Norman for Municipal Court judge?’" the alderman said of the St. James encounter.

"I was shocked. So I asked her who told her she could do that, and she said "I was told to do that in the training given by the Election Commission."

Norman reportedly lost his write-in bid to be on the April 3 ballot. Attorneys Jennifer Havas and Phil Chavez will face each other for the open Municipal Court seat.

A reported total of 2,940 write-in votes were cast Tuesday, approximately 16% of the total votes in the election. It is presumed that almost all of those votes went to Norman, an attorney and Milwaukee police detective.

According to McGee, witnesses at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. branch public library, 310 West Locust Street, reportedly saw stickers bearing Norman’s name left inside the polling location and easily accessible to prospective voters.

When informed by a witness that having the stickers clearly accessible was a violation of election regulations, a poll worker placed a Representative Gwen Moore flyer over the stickers to conceal them from view, McGee said.

The alderman said it also appears the Election Commission allowed poll workers to use sample ballots that include Norman’s name in a manner meant to show how a write-in vote should be properly cast.

"Why would you allow workers to have these sample ballots (with Norman’s name on them) at polling locations unless you were soliciting votes for him," the alderman asked, noting that such ballots were seen at several polling locations, including several central city schools: Ben Franklin School, ML King and Green Bay Avenue School.

When contacted Wednesday, Norman said he was not aware of his stickers or sample ballots with his name on them being at the polling locations noted by McGee, nor does he or any member of his campaign approve or condone what happened.

"It’s disheartening news," Norman said in a phone interview. "By no means was I aware--nor was anyone in my campaign allowed--to do that.

"There was no plan or hidden agenda to put stickers at polling places," Norman added, stating he knows the law as it relates to elections and would not do anything to violate it or ruin his reputation, let alone any chance of advancing to the April general election.

Norman himself is frustrated and disappointed with the election. Not with that he lost, but with the entire election process and the seeming disinterest shown by some poll workers in doing their jobs in a thorough and professional manner.

Norman said a number of polling places were unaware of the fact voters who received a sticker from Norman and his campaign could place them on their ballot as a write-in method.

He claimed of hearing reports that some stickers were torn off ballots.

The judicial candidate said he had to contact an Election Commission official to force a chief inspector at one polling place to hand count ballots, adding that at two polls ballots were found that had not been counted. He didn’t know if the ballots have been marked or not.

Norman, who received 3,000 votes in the election, said some 1,724 ballots were not counted. He believes that a substantial number of those uncounted votes were votes for him and could have propelled him to the April election to face either Havas or Chavez.

Norman said he is exploring his legal options as it relates to the election-day missteps. He may reportedly ask for a recount.

The alderman said he spoke about the irregularities with Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, who expressed immediate concern and vowed to have investigators look into the issues.

"If these problems are any indication of how the Election Commission is handling this primary, then I suspect these same problems are rampant at wards across the city, and it makes me real concerned about how things will go during the April 3 general election," said McGee.

In the MPS school board races, Bruce Thompson and Bama Brown-Grice will face off in the general election for the citywide seat. School Board President Joe Dannecker will face Terry Falk for the 8th district board seat, and Michael Bonds and Stephanie Findley will square off for the 3rd district seat.

In the race for state Supreme Court, Washington County Circuit Judge Annette Ziegler will face Madison Attorney Linda Clifford April 3.