Bill Lorge Belongs On The Ballot

by Tony Palmeri

July 22, 2004

Yesterday I attended the Wisconsin State Elections Board (SEB) nomination signature appeals meeting in support of my friend Carol Ann Rittenhouse's bid to become the first Green Party candidate ever to run for Congress in the 6th Congressional District. After clearing up some confusion about the accuracy of affidavits filed on Carol's behalf, the SEB voted unanimously to place her name on the ballot.

Unfortunately, Bill Lorge was not as fortunate. Mr. Lorge, fondly nicknamed "Elvis" by friends, served for 10 years as one of the most effective maverick Republican members of the State Assembly in Wisconsin history. Lorge needed 400 signatures to get on the ballot in the 14th Senate District. The SEB counted only 398 valid signatures for Mr. Lorge. 2 short. Amazing!

Mr. Lorge, happily married, who has three jobs and is the father of four children, maintains two homes, is involved in numerous volunteer and community activities, announced his candidacy less than one week before the July 13th deadline for turning in signatures. He submitted over 500 signatures to the SEB, getting 441 of them by himself. The SEB eliminated some of the signatures, but Lorge's Republican opponent Roger Cross challenged another 43 signatures.

Mr. Cross, a former Dept. of Transportation Administrator, did not come to the meeting to confront Mr. Lorge directly. Instead, he sent his campaign manager Ellen Voie, who claimed that 10 signatures should be discounted because they resembled other signatures. She could not prove her claim, saying "I'm not a handwriting expert." Sitting in the audience watching all this, I thought the fact that Ms. Voie could not prove her case would logically mean that the SEB would have to count all the signatures, as they said, they always do. Instead, the SEB probed Mr. Lorge and he candidly told them that there was one occasion he recalled where a wife signed for her husband who was away in Iraq fighting in the War, and another instance where a woman signed for her mother, who she had Power of Attorney to do so, as the Mother was present and wanted her daughter to sign for her so Lorge could be on the ballot. Lorge's honesty, which is rare in the political arena, ended up being used against him later when the Board discussed what to do. I was there; I heard it all. First they voted to throw out all 10, but Judge Gordon Myse, a member of the Board interrupted and said, "We just did something here we have never done before", which was throwing out signatures that were not proven to be valid. All 10 are valid, as Cross did not prove anything. They must count all 10. So, knowing Lorge needed 6 signatures to get on the ballot, they only counted 4, not 10. Giving Lorge a total of 398, 2 short of the 400 needed. What a farce!

But even if the SEB was correct not to count these signatures, there were still more signatures that could have been counted which would have put Lorge over 400. A Lorge nomination paper circulator Charles Zietlow of Marion sent his signatures directly to the State Elections Board (SEB) via UPS, "Next Day Air". Unfortunately, Mr. Zietlow used the wrong address and the signatures sat in Middleton for an entire day and did not arrive to the SEB until the 14th of July. Lorge presented the SEB with the tracking information showing clearly that Mr. Zietlow had started the process on July 12 so that the package would arrive at the SEB before the July 13th deadline. The SEB would not accept the Zietlow signatures, even though the delay in arrival had nothing to do with Mr. Lorge and was not something he could have been reasonably expected to prevent. One of the SEB members, in cold bureaucratic fashion, made a statement to the effect that to accept the Zietlow signatures would mean that the SEB would set some kind of precedent that would force them to give other candidates more consideration when a deadline is missed. I sat their thinking, "that's correct sir. It's called being HUMAN." Now you know why there are so few Candidates to vote for when you get your ballot. Personally, I'd appreciate leniency and want to see more Candidates on the ballot - Lots more!

At a time when the state is suffering from a record shortage of qualified candidates to run for office, the SEB's failure to place Bill Lorge on the ballot, even though his challenger could not prove her case, and even though good signatures that would have put Lorge over 400 arrived late through no fault of his own, was sickening.

Speaking of Lorge's challenger, his Republican opponent Roger Cross, I say, "This is how a Bureaucrat tries to win an election". Listening to Cross' campaign manager look for any possible way to keep Lorge off the ballot, it sounded obvious that they are afraid to face a strong challenger like Lorge who has great name recognition and much to offer the voters. They would rather push papers around and find bureaucratic ways to improve their chances of winning an election by finding places where the I's may not be dotted or the T's not all crossed.

Bill Lorge will now have to go to Court to get his name on the ballot. In the name of decency and fair play, I hope he makes it. I am confident he will. He has the numbers in his favor, if it is a fair court, unlike the sickening display of abuse of authority that the SEB showed on Wednesday. Bill Lorge has served this state with a great deal of integrity for a decade and to deny him ballot status due to pressure from an opponent who would clearly rather beat him with bureaucratic technicalities than with ideas in an open forum is again, sickening.

Tony Palmeri is a Green Party candidate for the 54th Assembly District