“Category Killers”

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Brand Autopsy has an interesting discussion on category killers:

Costco has a very loyal clientele (who pay a membership fee). Costco understands the taste level of this group and caters to their wants and needs–for wine, apparel, technology, jewelry, etc. Costco communicates with those customers through an excellent monthly magazine, the Costco Connection. Because many of Costco’s customers are small business owners, the magazine (and, of course, the stores) cater to their needs and interests.

Now, Costco’s customers are also attracted by the deals. There is an implicit understanding that Costco is offering the best possible price on that particular product on that particular day. The product may not be offered tomorrow. So, if you want it, you better buy it today.

More on Milwaukee New Voter Address Problems

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Greg Borowski continues on the trail of Milwaukee’s new voter address validation problems.

As a state, Wisconsin has long prided itself on the openness of its voting system. It is a place where voters don’t have to declare a party, can register right at the polls and – if they have registered in advance – get a ballot simply by stating their name and address.

But after a second straight razor-close presidential election, where some see positives in a system that makes it easy to vote, others see problems that they argue make it too easy to vote fraudulently.

More here.

Madison Broadband: Fiber to the Home in Morristown, TN

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Another community making true two way broadband happen, Morristown, TN:

Morristown, Tennessee, population 24,965, is building fiber to the home. According to an article in the Knoxville News Sentinel, the city responded to a doubling of commercial cable TV rates by chartering its municipal utility to build a fiber network. Morristown’s first customers will come on line in June, 2005. The build will cost $18,000,000, or $720 per person, or $1400 per home. The article says

Milwaukee Vote: 1200+ invalid new voter addresses

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Greg Borowski:

A review of Milwaukee voting records from the Nov. 2 presidential election has found more than 1,200 ballots cast from invalid addresses in the city, including many cases in which the voter could not be located at all.

The number is a result of a detailed computer analysis by the Journal Sentinel of the city’s voter records and represents about 0.4% of the 277,535 ballots cast in the city in the hard-fought election. Some of the problems may be due to flawed record keeping, such as transposed digits or incorrect street names. Many others, however, cannot easily be explained.

The newspaper’s review, the most extensive analysis done so far of the election, revealed 1,242 votes coming from a total of 1,135 invalid addresses. That is, in some cases more than one person is listed as voting from the address. Of the 1,242 voters with invalid addresses, 75% registered on site on election day, according to city records.

New Voter Address Verification

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Wisconsin Counties are required by law to send voter address verification cards to new voters. Evidently, this law is not enforced, according to this AP article.

Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the state Elections Board, said local officials have said prosecutors rarely follow up on the undeliverable cards, even though they could lead to charges if voter fraud was involved.
“Municipalities have complained for years the D.A.’s don’t do anything with it,” Kennedy said. “That’s the feedback we get when we hold training sessions.”
In Milwaukee, there have been “several hundred” cards returned as undeliverable, said Lisa Artison, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission. The cards are still arriving and have not yet been sent to the district attorney’s office, she said.
In Dane County, District Attorney Brian Blanchard said he didn’t know how many cards had been returned but noted a clerk had bundled up a 6-inch stack.