Editor's Note: Bill Glauber of the Milwuakee Journal-Sentinel has a profile of this grandmother convicted of voter fraud by US Atty Stephen Biskupic (Eastern Dist of Wis). Biskupic went on a voter fraud tear since his appoitment in 2002. Biskupic reached outside his district into the city of Madison, a liberal stronghold located in the Western dist. of Wisconsin, to probe voter fraud, even requesting the voting rolls of Madison, according to a weekend report in the Capital Times, based on DoJ documents released last week to a Senate congressional oversight committee.
Union Grove - Kimberly Prude is 43, a grandmother of three and the face of voter fraud in Wisconsin.
The first vote she cast in her life, in the 2004 presidential election, landed her in the middle of a political storm and put her on a road to a two-year sentence inside the Robert E. Ellsworth Correctional Center. ...
GOP warned of fraud
In the days leading to the election, Republicans leveled accusations that the vote was subject to fraud and challenged 5,600 addresses of voters on Milwaukee's rolls, while Democrats warned of intimidation and potential suppression of minority voters including African-Americans, such as Prude.
The election was held. The votes were counted. The debate died down.
But the issue did not go away.
In early 2005, Republican officials in Wisconsin complained to senior White House political adviser Karl Rove that Milwaukee U.S. Attorney Steven M. Biskupic was not being aggressive enough in pursuing voter fraud cases.
Biskupic has said he was unaware of those complaints and has repeatedly denied that his office prosecuted any voter fraud case because of White House pressure. As early as 2005, Biskupic was on an "evolving list" of 26 U.S. attorneys to be fired by the Bush administration, according to The Washington Post.
After all the allegations of voter fraud made during the 2004 presidential campaign, federal attorneys in Milwaukee brought 14 cases. Six of those were dismissed before trial, and only five convictions were secured, all Milwaukee residents. Prosecutors had to prove that the voters intended to defraud the system.
10% of all U.S. cases
Although 14 cases may not sound like a lot, they made up more than 10% of all the federal voter fraud cases brought in the United States from 2002 to 2006, according to The Christian Science Monitor. ...
She worked as a local volunteer for the John Kerry-John Edwards campaign, even calling people to inform them how they could vote.
Went to Sharpton rally
On Oct. 22, 2004, she volunteered for a rally that featured the Rev. Al Sharpton. As the rally ended, Sharpton encouraged the crowd to follow him to City Hall, where people could register to vote. Prude joined the crowd, registered to vote and then submitted an absentee ballot. While waiting in line, she said, she heard someone asking for people to work the election-day polls. Prude signed up. ...
Wow, she was just asking for it. More at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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