Van Hollen files suit against GAB
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen is suing the state's Government Accountability Board (GAB), because they've refused to comply with state and federal law regarding mailed-in voter registration forms.
From the press release:
It seems unlikely that this could move through the courts fast enough to beat the November election, unless the court and the GAB really put their backs into it and both sides agreed not to appeal.
Thus, expect the other side to call this a pre-emptive attempt to erode public faith in the outcome. To delegitimize the pending Obama victory in Wisconsin.
Of course, finding out after the fact that ballots were cast illegally is even more likely to delegitimize it, but as long as Democrats get their guy sworn in, they don't really care where the votes came from.
GAB did begin checking mailed registrations on August 6 of this year. A few weeks later, those checks showed that 22% of nearly 20,000 registration forms didn't match driver's license and social security records.
Now, those could have been (and probably were) clerical errors or some such, but unless we're checking, we can never really know. We can know that this is an easily-exploitable hole in state elections law.
Good for JB.
From the press release:
In 2002, the United States Congress enacted the Help America Vote Act (HAVA)...Although Wisconsin was required to have its system in place no later than January 1, 2006, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board did not have a functioning system until August of this year.Here's the whole release.
Had Wisconsin complied with the HAVA deadline, new voters who registered by mail since January 1, 2006 would have been subject to a “HAVA check” to ensure that the information they provided to election officials matched the information in other public databases...
In the legal action I filed today, I outline my concern that the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board...has refused to run HAVA checks on voter registrations received prior to August 6, 2008. This means that the statewide computerized voter registration list required by HAVA includes thousands, if not tens of thousands, of names whose information has not been verified through the HAVA checks mandated by Congress and required by state law.
Unless action is taken by the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, these names will remain on the list during the November 4, 2008 presidential election and there is a significant risk, if not a certainty, that unlawful votes will be cast and counted.
Make no mistake, HAVA disenfranchises no one and protects the right to vote. Law contains numerous safeguards to ensure that every qualified voter may cast a ballot on Election Day. HAVA checks are an important safeguard – one mandated by Congress and state law – to help make sure those lawful votes are not diluted by unlawful votes.
It seems unlikely that this could move through the courts fast enough to beat the November election, unless the court and the GAB really put their backs into it and both sides agreed not to appeal.
Thus, expect the other side to call this a pre-emptive attempt to erode public faith in the outcome. To delegitimize the pending Obama victory in Wisconsin.
Of course, finding out after the fact that ballots were cast illegally is even more likely to delegitimize it, but as long as Democrats get their guy sworn in, they don't really care where the votes came from.
GAB did begin checking mailed registrations on August 6 of this year. A few weeks later, those checks showed that 22% of nearly 20,000 registration forms didn't match driver's license and social security records.
Now, those could have been (and probably were) clerical errors or some such, but unless we're checking, we can never really know. We can know that this is an easily-exploitable hole in state elections law.
Good for JB.
posted by Lance Burri @ 7:14 PM
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