McIlheran Should Return His AFP Award

Last year, Americans for Prosperity rewarded Patrick McIlheran with their "Defenders of the American Dream" Award. He needs to give it back, unless they mean the American Dream is to deny minorities and young people their voters' rights.

It has been revealed by One Wisconsin Now that Americans for Prosperity has been in cahoots with the Republican Party and some Tea Party Groups to conspire to commit the illegal act of voter caging.

Voter caging is an illegal method to try to suppress voters' rights and is usually aimed at college students and minorities:

Usually, caging occurs when an official-looking, non-forwardable piece of mail is sent to a group of registered voters, often to minorities and students. The parties involved in caging then compile a list of voters whose mail was returned as undeliverable. On Election Day, these organizations will use the undeliverable mail to challenge voters at the polls, utilizing law enforcement and attorneys to support their challenges.

The goal of caging is two-fold. First, is to force as many voters as possible to cast provisional ballots, which require voters to follow-up the day after an election for the ballot to be counted. Historically, about 35% of all provisional ballots are never counted. Additionally, voters whose registration is challenged at the polling place are unlikely to have the required material to complete an Election Day registration, meaning the voter will be turned away at the polls.

The second goal is to create long lines at the polling place as the caging operation challenges voter after voter. Many people cannot afford to sit in line to vote for hours on end. Long lines discourage voters and many simply leave without casting a ballot.

Via OWN, you can read the conspirators' outline of how they were going to do this and the transcript of the tape of Tim Dake of the Grandsons of Liberty talking about this plot.

Even McIlheran's own Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who tried to minimize the reality of this grave injustice, ends up showing Dake, Reince Priebus of the WISGOP and Mark Block of the AFP tripping themselves up in one contradiction after another.

So now will P-Mac give his award back and stand of for voters' rights? Of course not. He probably won't even acknowledge this exposure of wrong doing.