The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has been on a crusade. They are going to get to the root of Milwaukee’s voter registration issues if it is the last thing they do. Recently, they got their first scalp, that of Lisa Artison, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission.

Ms. Artisan was a political appointee of Mayor Tom Barrett, considered by just about everyone in Milwaukee to be a poor choice for the job. She had never run an election commission before. To throw her into the largest city in Wisconsin with the largest turnout ever in Wisconsin history in a city wrought with partisan politics … well, it’s simply surprising the election worked as well as it did.

I should know. I spent the day in Milwaukee in a polling place that was absolute chaos. It was not until 5:30 p.m. that it resembled a normal place of conducting government business. Prior to that it was swarming with the press, political figures (Rev. Al Sharpton dropped by!) and most disconcertingly, long, long lines of voters.

Since that day in November, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (who actually blogged from my polling place, but too late to see the real chaos) has been on the hunt for the culprit. Until a recent editorial, you would be hard pressed to figure what their motives were, whether it was to collect political scalps like Artison, or true reform. The editorial in the Journal Sentinel was reasonable and calm, but their coverage has been a bit breathless, if not biased.

First, Rep. Jeff Stone, R-Greenfield, has been at the forefront of spinning wild conspiracy theories about what went on in Milwaukee in November. He gets prime article space in nearly every single article related to the voter registration and alleged fraud that has taken place. Now, to be fair, he has sponsored a bill to require a photo ID for same-day registrants (in fact, all voters) but his particular take on what happened in Milwaukee is pure hokum.

Second, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had information shared with them by a group called Practical Political Consulting. They showed them their surveys of cities statewide and their comparisons between the number of registered voters and the actual number of ballots cast. This was something I was waiting for and it confirmed my suspicions. Milwaukee did not have the worst-run election in Wisconsin. Guess what city did the worst?

Waupun or Eau Claire. Waupun claimed in the article it had reconciled its figures (which could not account for 8.8 percent of the votes cast). Eau Claire was still working on why they had only 92.5 percent of their voters, leaving 2805 voters unaccounted. Madison does not even look into their discrepancy.

Yet, Milwaukee, with its 96.5 percent accurate election has the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel up in arms. Granted, that 3.5 percent gap represents nearly 7,000 voters the city cannot account for, but a telling quote in the article on statewide voter gaps is telling.

Alan Fox, an executive with Practical Political Consulting is quoted as saying, “It was the biggest election the state’s ever had. It was really very overwhelming. Clerks offices often don’t have a lot of technical know-how or a lot of bodies to do all the work when it hits them.”

The real problem in Wisconsin does not lie with nefarious groups of political organizers going out and encouraging voter fraud. In fact, not a single demonstrable piece of evidence of that has been brought forward. Except for the slashing of the tires of GOTV vans in Milwaukee by very misguided activists (including newly elected Congresswoman Gwen Moore’s son), no one has shown active voter fraud.

Incorrectly filled out voter registration cards, improper addresses — this is not voter fraud. Fraud involved organization with the intent to skew the election. No such thing has been shown, proven or established in any way.

Wisconsin needs to keep its same day registration, forget photo IDs and simply give more money to clerks’ offices and pay people more money to man the polls.

Like any machine, you get what you put into it, and our political machine is no better.

We cannot realistically expect our state elections to run on lemons and turn out lemonade — we need to invest, update and realistically expect it to do its best.

Otherwise, those darn Republicans in Fond du Lac (3.3 percent of voters unaccounted for) will try to steal the election again.

Rob Deters ([email protected]) is a third-year law student.