Epidemic of high-profile Republican fraud continues to continue...

Brad Friedman Byon 8/24/2012, 3:24pm PT

Another day, another allegation of voter fraud by Republicans. This one, courtesy of WKOW's 27 News in Madison, Wisconsin...

The wife of a prominent state lawmaker cast a vote in Wisconsin’s April presidential primary election, even though she was a resident of Idaho at the time. Wisconsin Government Accountability Board records show Samantha Vos voted in the state’s April 3 election. Vos is the wife of Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester), the co-chair of the state’s powerful joint finance committee. But 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. Wisconsin law requires twenty eight days of continuous residency prior to voting.

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Records show Vos also voted in the June 5 gubernatorial recall election and the primary election earlier this month, as her legal action in Idaho continued.

Yes, it looks like, once again --- no matter what the professional GOP "voter fraud" fraudsters and clowns like John Fund, Hans von Spakovsky and Matthew Vadum claim --- if there is an epidemic of "voter fraud" in this country, it seems that its not Democrats, but Republicans, and often very very high-profle Republicans at that, who are carrying it out.

But wait! There is still more absurdity and/or irony and/or hypocrisy in this case...

According to PolitiScoop, Rep. Vos "has been a strong supporter" of Wisconsin Republican's polling place Photo ID restriction law, which has been found in violation of the state's Constitution in two different court cases by two different judges again and again and again.

(On Tuesday of this week, the state's Republican Attorney General asked the state Supreme Court for an expedited hearing on both cases, consolidating the two and skipping the Appeals Court entirely which had also previously rejected appeals from the AG. Prior to the law being struck down by the two different state courts, The BRAD BLOG's legal analyst, Ernie Canning, who had correctly predicted the case would be found unconstitutional, noted that its only hope for adoption would likely rest in the state's often-very-partisan Republican-majority Supreme Court.)

PolitiScoop goes on to note that Rep. Vos had attempted to intervene in the court cases on behalf of the Republican's voter suppression law, until ethics questions arose surrounding his attempt to do so, as WKOW explained in June:

A liberal advocacy group field a complaint with the state government accountability board. One Wisconsin Now alleged...Rep. Robin Vos (R-Burlington) may be receiving free legal representation. State ethics rules bar lawmakers from receiving such free legal help. Vos...declined to comment on who is paying the attorneys. Vos' spokesperson Kit Beyer said Vos' attorneys are working with state officials on the situation.

But that's not all!

PolitiScoop also notes that Vos had been among those attempting to claim (without evidence) that there was fraud in the reported June 5th recall victory of Democrat John Lehman over incumbent Republican Van Wanggaard. In response to evidence-free claims of "fraud" by Republicans following the Democrat's slim margin of just under 800 votes over the Republican, as announced on Election Night, PolitiFact found Vos' claims to be "False".

In their fact-check, they noted:

The idea that the election results were tainted was advanced most aggressively by state Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, whose Assembly district is part of the 21st Senate District. He offered his views June 17, 2012 on WISN-TV (Channel 12) "Upfront with Mike Gousha." "Unfortunately, a portion of (the vote) was fraud," Vos said, adding "I’m not sure the entire 800 vote margin was..." Gousha interrupted and asked Vos if he could make the statement about fraud "with certainty." "I can, a portion," Vos said. "Yeah, I do believe that."

When pressed by PolitiFact to back up his claims of "certainty" that there had been fraud in the Lehman/Wanggaard race, Vos cited a report that the Racine County Sheriff had been investigating "election registration documents found in a dumpster, and complaints by a poll worker at one polling place." (Neither were found to have been fraud.)

Vos also said, according to PolitiFact, that "he heard second hand that someone tried to use a Bed Bath and Beyond mailer as proof of address." It's unclear if that Bed Bath and Beyond was an Idaho branch near his estranged wife's residence or not.

"Is that fraud? I don’t know. It isn’t right and it seems fraudulent," he said. "You tell me how that’s not a fraudulent vote." "I did not personally witness any voter fraud," Vos said. "But some portion of what happened could be classified as fraud."

And that's what suffices for "certain" proof of voter fraud in GOP World.

Apparently, the only "portion of what happened" that could be "classified as fraud", at this time, was courtesy of Vos' own wife.

For the record, it's unclear from the new reports whether Samantha Vos voted in person or via absentee. If by absentee --- the way that voter fraud is usually carried out, in the instances where it occurs --- there is no polling place Photo ID law in the world that would have kept her from doing so. If she voted in person at the polling place, despite having declared herself a resident of Idaho earlier this year, it's likely she still retained an unexpired WI driver's license and so, even under her own husband's strict polling place Photo ID restriction law, likely would have had no problem casting her fraudulent votes this year.

All of that, in Wisconsin and dozens of other states where the GOP has taken over state legislatures and executive mansions over the past two years, even though a recent nationwide analysis of all election fraud cases in the country since 2000, as carried out by the Carnegie-Knight investigative journalism project News 21, revealed that over the past decade, out of hundreds of millions of votes cast, there are known to be just ten (10) cases of in-person polling place impersonation --- the only type of voter fraud that could possibly be deterred by such laws, even as the same laws stand to disenfranchise tens of thousands of perfectly legal voters in the bargain.

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