This time its in Milwaukee, WI, a city with a lot of Democrats in a battleground state. A Republican politician is blocking a request for sufficient ballots in the city. The city asked for the ballots because of record registration, noting that districts in the city have run out of ballots in the past. Better to have too many than too few.

But the Milwaukee County Executive, Republican Scott Walker–who just coincidentally happens to be co-chair of the Bush campaign in Wisconsin–is refusing to provide the extra 260,000 ballots requested, on the grounds that he thinks that they could possibly be used for multiple voting. This is absurd, and the explosion of new voter registration is very real and strongly documented nationwide. The real reason for the refusal is more likely the fact that the area he is depriving of ballots just happens to be a Democratic stronghold in the state.

The mayor of Milwaukee said “I’m going to lay this at the footsteps of the county if there aren’t enough ballots in the city.” In my opinion, that’s not nearly good enough; if there aren’t enough ballots, then it will be too late, and those Democrats will be denied their constitutional right to vote. As for Walker’s claim of potential abuse, it is a pitiful excuse–you cannot deprive whole segments of the state population of their right to vote on the potential and unproven suspicion that some may break the law. This is little more than yet another case of Republicans going to any and every extreme to steal another election. They’re absolutely shameless this year, and have to be checked at every single turn.