ACE volunteers summoned in Holloway Black voting fraud probe

Volunteers summoned in Holloway voting probe

Six offer testimony in absentee ballot investigation

By LEONARD SYKES JR. and DAVE UMHOEFER

lsykes@journalsentinel.com

Last Updated: March 26, 2003

Six volunteers trained by the African-American Coalition for Empowerment were summoned Wednesday before a secret John Doe investigation into allegations of absentee vote fraud in the March 4 recall election of Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway.

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What is ACE?

The African-American Coalition for Empowerment describes itself as a non-partisan voter education and mobilization group. ACE was paid $6,300 by County Board Chairman Lee Holloway's campaign for printing, literature drops and consulting. ACE says the services given to Holloway would have been extended to any other candidate.

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The volunteers appeared before Circuit Judge Karen Christenson to offer testimony in connection with the probe.

Attorney Alan D. Eisenberg, who is representing the volunteers, said he did not have a clue yet on who was being targeted in the investigation.

"So far I haven't been able to figure out why my clients have been ordered in," Eisenberg said.

Eisenberg accompanied clients into Christenson's chambers Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors were present as well. Later, he said he was bound by a secrecy order and could not talk about the session.

John Doe proceedings allow prosecutors to subpoena and question witnesses and collect evidence for possible charges. The presiding judge can file charges or direct a district attorney to do so, or can order that none be filed.

The volunteers worked with the African-American Coalition for Empowerment, or ACE, apparently to educate potential voters about the use of absentee ballots during Holloway's race against Yolanda Staples-Lassiter in the special election.

Thus far, neither Holloway nor ACE officials Barbara White or Vincent Knox has been subpoenaed. But White acknowledged that she is probably a target of the investigation, which was started by the Milwaukee County district attorney's office.

ACE, which has close ties to Holloway, used a bold new tactic on absentee balloting, persuading hundreds of residents to allow absentee ballots to be sent to ACE's offices rather than to the would-be voters' addresses. ACE volunteers then delivered the ballots to the requesters and acted as witnesses for the votes. The tactic is legal, but investigators are checking apparent signature discrepancies and other alleged irregularities on nearly 100 ballots cast in the March 4 election.

On March 4, after a Journal Sentinel story revealed details of the absentee drive, the DA's office challenged and sealed 96 ballots as potential criminal evidence.

On Wednesday, the top official at the City Election Commission, citing the questions surrounding ACE's absentee drive, said she had set aside 222 absentee ballot requests for Tuesday's election that also were generated by ACE's door-to-door drive.

The office sent those 222 potential voters new applications to return if they wish; as of Wednesday, four had done so, said Julietta Henry, the commission's executive director. Rather than send ballots to ACE's office, the commission will send them to the electors' home addresses unless they direct otherwise. The application deadline is Friday.

"We believe that taking this extra step will help protect the integrity of the election," said Henry, who consulted with city lawyers.

Knox, of ACE, attributed the low response to the follow-up letter to the fact that ACE's door-to-door campaign targeted chronic non-voters in the African-American community in an attempt to spur them into voting.

The group is visiting those 200-plus residents to encourage them to fill out another absentee ballot application, Knox said.

Thirty-six of those residents live in the 10th Aldermanic District and are eligible to vote in that district's special election, which will fill the seat vacated by imprisoned former Ald. Rosa Cameron. Also on Tuesday's ballot are contests for Milwaukee School Board and judicial seats, and, in the 2nd Aldermanic District, a primary for the seat formerly held by Terrance Herron, who moved to Washington, D.C.

Staples-Lassiter tried unsuccessfully to stop the March 4 recall vote, citing fraud allegations and ACE's ties to Holloway's campaign. White, who ran Holloway's campaign, is ACE's president. In addition, Holloway's campaign paid ACE for consulting, literature drops and printing, records show.

White said Wednesday that Holloway had nothing to do with the absentee ballots in question and that everything ACE did in connection with the election was aboveboard. ACE officials have said they did not steer residents to vote absentee for Holloway.

Holloway, who decisively defeated Staples-Lassiter, did not respond to an interview request. He, too, has said he was not involved with the absentee ballot drive run out of ACE's offices.

White said she had no idea what authorities are searching for. She said if there was anything wrong, "it wasn't under our direction.

"Perhaps there were mistakes made by the people we were training," she said.

A version of this story appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on March 27, 2003.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/Metro/mar03/128766.asp