Former Cellblock Is a Voting Bloc?

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Rules Were Meant to Be Broken?

Officials in Milwaukee say they've now established that, in their city alone, 4,600 more votes were cast in November elections, than there were voters listed as having gone to the polls. They also found that more than 100 people voted twice, used fake names, or voted in the name of a dead person and hundreds of felons ineligible to vote did so anyway.

In Wisconsin, only felons who have completed probation or parole are allowed to vote. But, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (search), that didn't stop at least 200 felons from voting illegally and that number is likely much higher, since the Sentinel could only review about a third of the 2.98 million votes cast in the state. The Sentinel says most of those who committed fraud might not face any legal action, because city records are too sloppy for prosecutors to put together their cases.

Former Cellblock Is a Voting Bloc?

Speaking of felons voting, a national study — cited byThe Tacoma News Tribune (search) in Washington state — shows that, on average, felons vote Democratic by a margin of three to one. What's more, the study, published in the American Sociological Review, shows that if disenfranchised felons were allowed to vote, they would have swung the 2000 presidential race to Al Gore and could swing national and state elections in the future.

Mcconnell Suing The School

Scott McConnell (search) — an A student in the masters education program at LeMoyne College (search) in New York who was expelled for writing a paper, which he got an A- on, that advocated corporal punishment in the classroom, when needed — is now suing the college for millions of dollars. McConnell's department chair said his beliefs were a "mismatch" with the goals of the program.

In his lawsuit, McConnell accuses the school of violating his First Amendment rights to "freedom of thought and speech." He is seeking four million dollars in restitution and punitive damages, and reinstatement in the program.

Sabotaged By False Accusations?

The Republican chairman of Seminole County, Florida is accusing a former colleague of sabotaging his bid to head the state party by distributing a letter that falsely accused him of having been married six times. Chairman Jim Stelling (search) says such a statistic is "unconscionable," insisting that, in fact, he has been married only five times. Stelling is now suing for unspecified damages.

— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report