Young family votes for those who cannot

LeiLani Camacho may be the youngest person at the polls in Racine today. The three-week-old baby came with Mom, Vanessa Tellez, and Dad, Roberto Camacho, to vote at Festival Park.

I joked LeiLani was on her way to being a politician, and Vanessa jumped right in.

"She better be," she said. "She better grow up to be something."

There was a kindness to the answer, but also a fierce determination. Voting for Vanessa and Roberto, both 21, is not something to take for granted.

When asked why they voted, Vanessa answered: "We have the right to. It's a right we had to fight for."

She added: "We also voted today for all of the people who can't vote."

Roberto saw voting as critically important.

"It's the way to a better life," he said.

Ex-felon casts his first vote

Michael Simpson, left, and Christopher Ward, right

Michael Simpson, of Racine, turned off ESPN to focus on CNN in recent months.

"I had CNN on all the time, no sports," he said. "I had to watch things close. I didn't want any slip ups."

Simpson, 35, voted for the first time in his life on Tuesday. It's the first time as an adult he's been off probation.

"I hope Obama wins by one and it's my vote that made the difference," he said.

Simpson was hanging out Tuesday in front of the Tyler-Domer Community Center with Christopher Ward, 28, who also voted for the first time.

Ward said the election brought him hope. "Maybe it will change," he said. "I never thought I'd see this happen."

"But to be honest," he added, "if Obama loses I'll probably never vote again. It'd be like my vote didn't even matter."

Talking about Obama, Ward made a distinction few in the media bother with. He pointed out Obama is biracial, which to Ward made his election even more signficant.

"It means a lot," he said. "He's making unity in this country. Maybe he can bring us together."

He added: "I feel he's somebody who relates to me and cares about the people where I live."

Ward said he already sees it in his little nephews, who asked him if he voted. "It's definitely changing things," he said.

"It shows that in America anyone can sit in the top chair in our country."

Election Updates

I'm turning this post into a reservoir for election-related news throughout the day. First, please note our front-page widget, which will keep track of vote tallies around the country, and county-by-county in Wisconsin. It will go live at 7 p.m. our time.

So far, polls appear to be running smoothly. A counting machine temporarily broke down at Tyler-Domer Community Center, but was fixed with minimal interruption.

At Festival Hall, a handful of volunteers from the Obama campaign were prevented from helping register or direct voters after a McCain supporter protested their presence at the polls. One of the election chiefs had no problem with the volunteers, who were not wearing Obama pins or clothing, but two others did.

Funnily, the volunteers were allowed to help when the lines got long this morning, but were sent away when things were more under control.

The volunteers were sent to the polls by the Obama campaign to help keep the lines moving during peak times. The thinking is if the lines move faster people won't get discouraged from voting by long wait times.

Stephen Bull Fine Arts polling site

Kitty Clark, front left, Ralph Henkes, front right, and Carol and Leroy Williams, back row, were the first voters at Stephen Bull Fine Arts Elementary School on Tuesday.

Hard to say who the first voter in Racine was on Tuesday, but Ralph Henkes had to be close.

A Racine alderman in the 1970s, Henkes showed up at Stephen Bull Fine Arts Elementary at 5 a.m. to cast his ballot. No one else was there at the time - not even poll workers - so he went home and came back at 5:45 a.m.

"I've never been first in my life and figured it was time," said Henkes, who had offered to allow Kitty Clark to step in front of him in line, even though she showed up at 6:10 a.m.

"He tried to let me be first," Clark said.

Carol and Leroy Williams were just behind. They showed up at 6:15 a.m., largely to avoid the long lines everyone is anticipating today.

"The one who gets the most votes is going to win," predicted Henkes, noting that in U.S. elections that's not always the case.

"I hope Florida gets through it this year," he said, referring to the controversial 2000 election that saw President George W. Bush elected by a handful of votes after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a full recount.

Like most poll workers, Dorothy Krause, right, and Diane Smith, middle, will work from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Poll workers at Stephen Bull started arriving around 5:30 a.m. Most of them will work all day for $100 and pizza for lunch. Diane Smith, who is working her third presidential election, said she didn't mind.

"I love seeing everyone come out," she said.

Smith will work today alongside Dorothy Krause and Lillie Price, who is the chief election inspector for District 2, Ward 4. They'll be at the school until at least 10 p.m. tonight.

Attorney Chester Slaughter

Sitting behind them, six feet away, was Attorney Chester Slaughter from Chicago. He's an election observer from Obama Vote Protect, an organization that placed 1,200 attorneys at Wisconsin polling sites to monitor voting activities.

"Wisconsin's voting laws are the most liberal in the nation," said Slaughter, who is a general practice attorney. "Most people don't realize, and that can lead to confusion."

Several other election observers sat behind the poll workers monitoring voters as the polls opened at 7 a.m. with the cry, "Hear ye, hear ye, the polls are now open."

Line outside of Stephen Bull

One woman ran to the polling table to vote with her husband. The line that had been inside the school's gym spilled out the door into the parking lot. Beautiful weather today should make waiting outside a little easier. Temperatures were in the mid-50s at 7 a.m.

Over 10,000 early votes in Racine, Mount Pleasant

Caught this stat in the JT's story this morning:

Before Saturday’s voting, 5,200 absentee ballots had been cast in Mount Pleasant and 6,459 in Racine.

No matter who wins Tuesday, this year's election definitely got people involved.

UPDATE: Racine poll worker asked for ID, even though state law says she shouldn't have

UPDATE: Some readers were asking good questions about how, exactly, a ballot can be challenged. Here's what the Racine City Clerk's office said:

1. Poll workers are not allowed to ask for ID.
2. If you go to the polls, pretend to be someone else and know their address, they have to give you a ballot.
3. But, if a voter is suspicious, they can challenge the ballot. At that point, the voter needs to prove their identity.
4. If you go to vote, and someone has already voted under your name, the poll workers call in the state to investigate.
5. If fraud is discovered, the case is sent to the District Attorney's office for possible charges.

One point to remember: You need some sort of identification to register to vote. People who register before the election needed a driver's license number or state ID number. If they don't have either, they could use the last four digits of their Social Security number.

On the day of the polls, you can register with a utility bill or other piece of official mail to prove your address.

In summary, it is possible for someone to vote as someone else without presenting an ID. But doing so puts the person at risk for criminal charges, and even if someone did it 50 times on election days (a huge number considering the long lines, time driving between polls, risk of getting caught, etc.), it would barely sway an election where millions of ballots are cast.

Also, registering to vote requires you to prove your address and puts you at risk for criminal charges.

It would take a massive conspiracy - thousands of people voting multiple times - to sway a presidential election in Wisconsin. Try as some may, there is simply no evidence of that occurring in recent elections.


Original post:

I voted Saturday at City Hall. When I stepped up to receive my ballot, the poll worker asked to see my driver's license. I handed it over, but also told her she couldn't ask for ID to give people a ballot. She mumbled it was about "being safe."

Afterward, I asked my wife (we went together) if she was asked for ID. She wasn't.

That's how the system is supposed to work. Once you're registered, you do not have to provide identification at the polls. Asking a registered voter for ID creates an additional obstacle to voting that the state specifically eliminated to increase voter turnout.

A lot of people worry this will lead to fraud. But in reality, there are low levels of voter fraud in Wisconsin. Aside from a handful of felons who vote, there are no cases of outright voter fraud in the state.

Some people will claim there are cases of voter registration fraud, which is true. But this amounts to someone sending in a falsified request for a ballot, not an actual vote being cast in an election.

As for the ID, I didn't make a scene with the city employee on Saturday. But this should be corrected. Poll workers should not be asking registered voters for identification.

If you don't like it, start by voting Nov. 4 in favor of candidates who want to require a photo ID at the polls.

Over 4,000 people have voted early in Racine

Over 4,000 people have voted early at City Hall, according to a city employee taking ballots on Saturday. Another 2,000 ballots have been sent out to voters, the employee said.

To put that into context, 37,628 city residents voted in the 2004 presidential election. Based on the 2004 turnout, between 11 and 16 percent of city voters have already connected the arrows on their ballots.

That's good news for poll workers, who should see smaller crowds on Nov. 4 with so many people voting early. Then again, a big turnout for Obama could still make for long waits outside of the voting booths.

Couple of interesting numbers from 2004:

* City of Racine turnout was 69 percent of registered voters

* Countywide turnout was 82 percent

* Bush beat Kerry in Racine County 52,456 to 48,229.