Wisconsin AG, JB Van Hollen, wants to hassle up to 1 million newly registered voters. Of course, he's a Republican and the state Co-chair of the John McCain Campaign but he insists this is a matter purely of law enforcement. He's so very concerned that a few dozen people with out IDs or Addresses might cast a vote without clearly being legally registered that he's willing to risk incorrectly invalidating tens of thousands of registrations, potentially disenfranchising hundreds or thousands just by confusion alone.
In an update to my earlier diary on this; Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi scheduled a hearing on the issue Wednesday, the 24th. The Hearing will be to determine if Van Hollen can remain as the attorney against the GAB.
The board's attorney argues that Van Hollen has a conflict because the Department of Justice represents the board in other lawsuits.
A lot of other people see this as a hollow attempt by the state Co-Chair of the McCain campaign to challenge newly registered voters by pushing them through a highly flawed system which he feels is mandated by the HAVA act. Problem is, the state Government Accountability Board (GAB), the body that regulates elections, decided that the new system was too bug infested and poorly installed to work.
Potentially 20% to 25% of these new voters could have their registrations challenged merely because they do not match perfectly between the two data bases. How many new registrants may be affected varies depending on who you ask.
According to Government Accountability Board estimates, about 1 million people have registered to vote since Jan. 1, 2006. Election clerks say they would have to check each one, although Justice Department spokesman Kevin St. John has said they would have to check only people who registered by mail, which amounts to about 240,000 between Jan. 1, 2006, and this Aug. 6.
So Van Hollen is willing to obstruct between 48,000 and potentially 250,000 newly registered voters. I'm guessing that if there were 50% or more Republican registrations, Van Hollen would have agreed with the GAB's decision to not use this flawed system. Interesting, Mr Van Hollen may not pass his own review. Michael Horne is covering this like a blanket.
But a search of "J. B. Van Hollen" (with or without the space) would not turn up his name in the state register of voters, even though he uses the initials and the space as his legal designation in court documents and when he ran for election, and in his official biography in the Wisconsin Blue Book.
Many thanks to Mr Horne for adding this link to the offical court web page on the case in an earlier article. I need to find the articles but I know I've read that Van Hollen is motivated by all the fraudulent ballots that were cast in Milwaukee County in the 2006 election. I'll try to find citations for this for my next update. I believe there were around 20 charged with voter fraud but none were convicted because they were just confused or uninformed. No one in Wisconsin is purposely trying to defraud the election so why is this law enforcement issue so pressing the the Attorney Gengeral..?