Assembly Bill 600 and Assembly Bill 601
HAVA & Voter Registration Database

My firm, which does business here as Wisconsin Voter Lists, has built a complete and accurate voter database for Wisconsin. Our file includes names, addresses, dates-of-birth, phone numbers, political jurisdictions, and voter history from 1996 to the present for over 4 million eligible voters. It has a very good reputation for accuracy and completeness. We sell voter lists to political parties, candidates, and congressional representatives for official constituent mailings.

To first obtain and convert computerized files from approximately 300 municipalities and WisDOT, and to hand key data from the remaining 1600 units of government, cost approximately $500,000. In addition, we spend about $100,000 each year to maintain the file and add new voter history information. In total, since 2000, we have spent about $800,000.

I believe the state of Wisconsin is making a fundamental and expensive mistake by focusing on HAVA's requirement to build only a state list of "registered voters." To me, it appears the legislation (i.e. AB 600 & AB 601) was written only to satisfy the bare-bones requirements of HAVA while not accomplishing anything particularly useful for Wisconsin. The federal law takes a typical one-size-fits-all approach that doesn't fit Wisconsin very well. While this legislation would certainly earn the federal money, it would make little or no improvement in the administration of elections in Wisconsin.

It would be far more useful, in my opinion, to focus on Wisconsin's unique system of election law, particularly the provision authorizing same-day registration at the polls. Unlike virtually every other state in the country, the list of registered voters created for each election in Wisconsin does not restrict who may actually vote. In -- say Colorado or Arkansas -- if your name is not on the list of registered voters you're out of luck on Election Day. In those states, getting your name on the list is crucial for every voter, and removing names in the list is an effective method of blocking an ineligible person's vote.

In Wisconsin, however, if you appear at the polls and you're not on the list of registered voters the local officials simply add you to the list and let you vote in most cases. Over 70 percent of all voter registrations that are received by local officials in any given year in Wisconsin are taken at the polls on Election Day. As long as same-day registration is available, neither the voters nor the election officials have any reason to take pre-election voter registration seriously. This will of course compromise the quality of the data in the state list, and, again, not help in the administration of elections in Wisconsin.

There is also 30 percent of Wisconsin that currently does not have any voter registration system at all. AB 600 proposes that these smaller communities suddenly be required to institute registration. In these areas, which generally have only one polling place and virtually no full-time office staff, the lack of interest in voter registration (and the lack of accurate data) will be understandably high.

AB 600 simply creates additional and somewhat burdensome procedures, primarily on Election Day, at considerable expense. The fact that the bulk of the money is from the federal government doesn't mitigate the wastefulness. A better approach would still capture all the federal funding, keep initial costs low and bank the remainder for ongoing maintenance and upkeep of the database and aid to local officials. I think Wisconsin should use the federal money to create a list of "potential" or "eligible" voters, rather than just "registered" voters. This list would include, at a minimum, everyone who registered to vote as well as everyone in non-registration municipalities who has voted recently. It would also include persons with drivers licenses or state-issued personal ID's and perhaps names from other state data sources as well.

The "potential" voters list could also provide information, where known, establishing each potential voter's eligibility to vote under Wisconsin law (i.e. residency, age, citizenship, lack of felony record). This master file, which would be only slightly larger than the proposed file of "registered" voters (about 4 million records versus 3.1 million records) would ideally include every adult (18+) in the state. On Election Day, as voters appear at the polls, virtually every name would be found by election workers on the master list, greatly reducing the burden of recording and checking new registrations - and also facilitating expeditious voting.

Instead of wasting time on people whose eligibility is unquestioned, poll workers would focus on the handful of individuals whose names do not appear on the list, or for whom there appears to be some impediment to voting eligibility. For each such problematic voter, there would be a well-documented procedure for inquiring about the qualification and potentially curing it.

For example, imagine a person who appears at the polls and is noted (based on drivers license information) to be a non-citizen and therefore ineligible to vote. The election worker, whose attention has been drawn to a specific problem, asks a series of questions. Perhaps the individual is newly naturalized. The election worker, upon receiving the necessary proofs, clears the impediment and permits the new citizen to cast a ballot (or not, if the necessary proofs are not provided).

A comparable procedure would be devised to deal with each impediment to voting: lack of residency, conviction of felony, or whatever. The statewide list I propose -- of all "potential voters" rather than just "registered voters" -- would play an active and useful part in the conduct of elections in Wisconsin. With this broader approach, the money invested will pay off in tighter control of potential fraud, as well as making possible quick and easy voting for most voters. And the requirements of HAVA will be satisfied.

In contrast, I think the legislation as currently proposed will result in a slightly more difficult Election Day process without offering any real improvement in security or the facilitation of elections. AB 600 wastes an opportunity to make real improvements in the administration of elections, and essentially just creates an expensive centralized state storage facility for local poll lists. Because the overwhelming majority of voter registrations will continue to be taken at the polls on Election Day, especially for presidential elections, I expect that the quality of the data will be poor and voting at busy times will be slow and tedious. Poll workers, already facing lines of waiting voters, are simply not going to devote much attention or effort to what they see as a redundant procedure.

The first phase of this project (a consultant's study) has already consumed $200,000. The current planning phase (again by an outside consultant) cost $485,000 more. I imagine the costs of actually converting existing municipal files and keying data from paper records will be much, much more. The state's HAVA plan estimates that the SVRS will cost at least $26 million, and more over time. It's not that the proposed approach is infeasible -- I'm certain that all the money can be spent and all the data can be inputted. But what exactly will be accomplished? It doesn't seem to make sense to spend millions to simply create a repository for local poll lists. Why not build something useful?!