    
Bev Harris
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 8965
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008 - 8:41 am: | 
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(From BBV Admin: Wisconsin, a swing state, STILL hasn't gotten its voter registration system up to speed. They haven't even pinned down the error rates, and still haven't figured out what their provisional ballot procedures will be. This is a voter disenfranchisement & vote-stuffer gala waiting to happen.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - July 19, 2008, by Stacy Forster
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=774257
Wisconsin voter database kinks persist
State board delays setting rules on provisional ballots
Madison - The state Government Accountability Board will wait to see how the state's new voter database works before developing rules for dealing with voters whose registration information doesn't match state records.
Voter Registration
Background
12/26/07: Voter system vendor to repay state
11/29/07: Audit finds voting issues
9/17/05: Voter registration system delayed
9/4/05: Voter database behind schedule
6/2/05: Judge upholds voter list deal
5/19/05: New talks ahead on voter database
4/14/05: State panel OKs plan for funding voter list
3/6/05: Foes put sights on voter list pact
12/30/04: Elections Board gets scrutiny over pact
12/24/04: Elections Board voter-list deal draws lawsuit
12/22/04: Lawmaker to propose contract disclosures
12/9/04: Editorial: Make voting user-friendly
11/27/04: Critics oppose state pact
10/18/04: State looks to Accenture to create list of voters
The board had been poised to adopt a rule allowing voters to cast provisional ballots on election day if election officials aren’t able to match their voter registration data with state records and they don’t bring necessary proof of residence to the polls. Provisional ballots would be counted only if a voter provided the proof by the next day.
But the board decided last week not to put a rule in place until it knows how the system is working and how many voters are affected by an inability to match data.
“The key thing people said is, ‘We want numbers,’ ” rather than making assumptions based on other states’ experiences, Government Accountability Board Director Kevin Kennedy said. The board met Tuesday and Wednesday.
The board is waiting for the state Department of Administration to fix problems with data matching, Kennedy said.
Wisconsin is behind schedule in fully implementing its voter registration system, which under the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 was supposed to have been in place by Jan. 1, 2006.
Many Wisconsin voters will have to register for this fall’s presidential election, the first since the federal law required hundreds of the smallest municipalities in Wisconsin to register voters.
Some — including the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama — argued the proposed rule could create a barrier for voters, but state Republican Party officials fear that if the system isn’t flagging non-compliant voters by the Nov. 4 election, Wisconsin could be open to fraud.
Nat Robinson, director of the board’s elections division, said the latest matching problems — especially with Department of Transportation data — need to be fixed by the Department of Administration. The state took over the system when it severed ties with its vendor, Accenture, in February.
Robinson will take up the matter with officials from that agency later this month.
“Our word is out there that we’re going to have this thing running for the fall election,” Robinson told the board.
Tests matching voter information with data from other state agencies should be completed by the end of the month, Oskar Anderson, chief information officer for the Department of Administration, said in an e-mail.
If the problems are fixed soon, the board could discuss how the system is working at its next meeting Aug. 28, Kennedy said.
Allowing residents whose information doesn’t match to be registered presents a troubling scenario if the Nov. 4 election produces a close finish, Republican Party officials said.
“The requirements were designed to make it easier to vote and harder for voter fraud to happen, and by allowing noncompliant voters to vote in November, the board is putting the credibility of our election in danger,” Republican Party of Wisconsin spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said, adding later, “Think about Florida.”
Kennedy called such concerns hyperbole and said confirmation postcards are also sent to newly registered voters to guard against fraud.
The state doesn’t know yet how well voter registration data will line up with driver records. In Pennsylvania, 15% of the records didn’t match, but two-thirds of the problems were caused by data entry errors, Kennedy said.
Adam Skaggs, counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, said that matching in other states failed about 20% to 30% of the time. There are many reasons why an eligible voter’s information wouldn’t match with other data, such as use of a middle name or two last names, or a transposition of names, he said.
While there are concerns about fraud, “you could just as easily say this could put barriers in the way of voters and many more legitimate voters would not have their ballots counted,” said Paul Malischke, a Madison poll worker and member of Fair Elections Wisconsin, a group that advocates for transparent and well-run elections. Malischke argued for the board to hold off on the rule.
Board member Gordon Myse pointed to his driver’s license and told the board if he were to have to re-register, he’d likely be a non-match, because his license doesn’t have his middle initial.
“There are a lot of non-matches that are going to be exactly that,” he said. |
