No surprise, but still good news.
A Dane County circuit judge today dismissed a lawsuit by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to require the state elections agency to check voter registrations against other state databases dating to 2006, which critics said could have thrown hundreds of thousands of registrations into doubt.electionline.org, which tracks election issues.
Judge Maryann Sumi said Van Hollen failed to state an adequate claim for bringing the lawsuit and noted that state law has consistently favored protecting citizens’ right to vote. Sumi also said that Van Hollen did not have standing to bring the lawsuit.
Van Hollen had sought to require the state Government Accountability Board to enforce the federal Help America Vote Act, which required Wisconsin election officials to verify registrants’ names and ages against state driver, death and felon records beginning on Jan. 1, 2006.
But Sumi said only the U.S. attorney general can enforce that federal law.
Van Hollen filed the lawsuit after the accountability board decided to conduct the registration checks starting Aug. 6, when the state’s registration database became operational.
Wisconsin is one of ten states that missed the January 2006 deadline, and the next to last to develop a functioning database, according to officials in those states and
DOJ spokesman Kevin St. John said the Department of Justice plans to appeal, possibly directly to the state Supreme Court.
The accountability board contended Van Hollen’s suit could compel the board and local clerks to check the voting records of the 1 million voters who registered between January 2006 and Aug. 5 of this year.
Most of those voters have already shown the necessary proof of residency, said Barbara Hansen, director of the state voting system. But about 241,000 people who registered in person at a clerk’s office, by mail or with a special deputy authorized to register voters would not have had to show proof of residence, and their checks would be the most time consuming, Hansen said.
It’s not clear what checks back to January 2006 would turn up. A check by the accountability board of voters who registered between Aug. 6 and Aug. 26 this year showed discrepancies in the information of 22 percent of the registrations. But most of those mismatches related to transcription errors or names being recorded one way on a driver’s license and another way on a voter registration card.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 
Yes it would be a terrible thing to follow the actual law wouldn’t it.
Democrats cheat.
“Democrats cheat.”
More playground style accusations please. This entire election, as many before it, has become downright silly. Thank you, my fellow Americans, for focusing on ethnicity, class, age and gender instead of foreign affairs, economics and education. Wardrobes, hairstyles, ages (too young or too old), skin color and underwear (or Depends) will not improve my country.
People worry more over who WILL vote than who will NOT vote. Fear, smear and sneer tactics are the potatoes of both parties. The meat is both parties pointing at the other party for blame while not accepting responsibility for themselves. And sadly, for dessert, all us common citizens of America who claim to want “change” by our words but not our deeds.
America is simple in one way. Each citizen has the opportunity to make change WITHOUT a politician. Households can reduce energy use. Parents can educate children where the school systems fail. We, as individuals, can maintain ties to the family members we have abroad to strengthen our country’s foreign relations. We can buy locally. We can clean up our communities and national lands. We can focus on what we have in common while respecting what separates us.
Instead we point at “that one” as our change orchestrator. We each feel discouraged and alone in trying to change both ourselves and the country. For many Americans, money and career often express themselves as more important than family and values. We try to pass responsibility off to the government, taxes, and the education system. In reality, regardless of who wins the white house, each of us needs to change our life habits, our lack of practicing empathy and our level of compassion and encouragement or the slogan of “change” both parties claim they will bring WILL FAIL.
Recess is over. It’s time to leave the playground politics behind and work on that group project called America.