Thursday, April 7, 2011

City of Milwaukee Alderman Witkowiak Claims Fraud In Recall Effort And Wants DA To Investigate

Alderman Witkowiak confident the recall effort against him will fail and calls on Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office to probe recall organizers for alleged fraud.

By H. Nelson Goodson
April 7, 2011

Milwaukee - On Thursday, Alderman James Witkowiak from the 12th Aldermanic District in the South side was knocking on doors trying to confirm signatures at addresses in a recall petition against him. Witkowiak has until 5:00 p.m. on Thursday to turn in any other signatures deemed invalid to the City Election Commission. Alderman Witkowiak has challenged over 800 signatures submitted in recall petitions and so far, the election commission has confirmed that 539 signatures of 1,603 signatures were invalid. At least, 1,064 were considered valid and only 1,040 valid signatures are required to force a recall, according to Susan Edman, executive director of the City of Milwaukee Election Commission.
Witkowiak said, he is confident that more than 24 signatures could be found invalid before the dateline today. Just before noon, he had talked with a man at an address who said the signature wasn't his and he had live in the address for the last six months. Two other signatures were also in the recall petition for the same address, which the man confirmed they were also false, according to Witkowiak.
Witkowiak said, he is confident that the recall effort against him will be thrown out by the City Election Commission. He is filing a complaint with the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office (DA) against the recall organizers for engaging in fraud. Witkowiak claims, his campaign committee can prove that half of the recall petitions with signatures were false, people who signed those petitions either didn't exist or did not live at addresses and some addresses were vacant lots.
Witkowiak supporters went to addresses found in the petitions and discovered the discrepancies or talked to signators who said, they thought they were signing a Governor Walker recall petition or Witkowiak supported prostitution in the district. Alderman Witkowiak sent some of the alleged fraudulent petitions to the DA requesting an investigation and seeks possible criminal charges, if the evidence is conclusive.
In late March through a press release, Friends of James Witkowiak (campaign committee) claimed the recall effort against Witkowiak would fail because more than half the signatures on petitions seeking the recall are fake, fraudulent or otherwise invalid and many were obtained under false pretenses, according to sworn affidavits  and other documents submitted to the City Election Commission on March 31.
“This organized conspiracy is a threat not only to me and the people in my district it is a threat to our city and our way of government,” said Alderman Witkowiak. “It’s nothing more than a sham and a conspiracy to intimidate our city government in a way that is fraudulent and I believe illegal.”
Witkowiak’s campaign volunteers, aided by legal support had combed through hundreds of signatures and visited scores of addresses to find many of those to be vacant lots or buildings where the signators did not live.
“First things first – we’re asking the City Election Commission to review these documents and throw out the recall,” said Witkowiak. “After that, I’m calling on the City Attorney and District Attorney to conduct a thorough investigation of who and what was involved here and consider criminal charges.”
Witkowiak said he was turning over copies of the documents submitted to the City Election Commission and examples of the fraudulent signatures to the Milwaukee County District Attorney.
The recall petition was filed by Mirna Santiago who lives in the 12th Aldermanic District and her daughter the recall treasurer Malinda Meller who lives outside of the district. She claims and alleges Alderman Witkowiak has used law enforcement resources in an attempt to close businesses and eliminate jobs...Witkowiak making false statements and using his staff Mike McGuire for political purposes and engaging to "eliminate jobs," according to the January 21 petition filing statement.

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