Steal the Vote 2004, part 20
In West Virginia, the Republican Party is gearing up to challenge 37,000 voters on election day Tuesday:
Citing a new list of more than 37,000 questionable addresses, the state Republican Party demanded Saturday that Milwaukee city officials require identification from all of those voters Tuesday.
If the city doesn’t, the party says it is prepared to have volunteers challenge each individual – including thousands who might be missing an apartment number on their registration – at the polls.
The move, which dramatically escalates the party’s claims of bad addresses and potential fraud, was condemned by Democrats as a last-minute effort to suppress turnout in the city by creating long delays at the polls.
City officials, who already were trying to establish safeguards in response to the party’s claim of 5,619 bad addresses, were surprised by the 37,180 number, nearly seven times larger.
[…]
City Attorney Grant Langley labeled the GOP request “outrageous.”
“We have already uncovered hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of addresses on their (original list) that do exist,” said Langley, who holds a non-partisan office. “Why should I take their word for the fact this new list is good? I’m out of the politics on this, but this is purely political.”
The article mentions that this challenge was brought after the deadline, after an initial chalelnge had already been squashed. City officials have rightly said they’re not going to review this list, sow hy did the Republican Party do this? Probably to confuse and scare away voters, as well as laying the basis for post-election claims that it was rigged, because in Milwaukee there were 37,000 illegal voters!