Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, August 20, 2004

By Steven Walters

Madison - It's one of the largest contracts state officials will award this year, and it will lead to the first computer list of Wisconsin's 4 million registered voters in 2006.

But everything surrounding the $20 million to $40 million contract is a secret.

As a select committee sorts through the bids and bidders, all details have been kept private, including the number of bidders, the amounts of their bids and how many companies are finalists.

Officials say the secrecy is needed as the state moves to comply with the new federal Help America Vote Act - passed after the bitter presidential election of 2000, which went to the U.S. Supreme Court.

But some legislative leaders have publicly questioned why details of the process aren't public.

"That surprises me, that it's that tight," said state Rep. Stephen Freese (R-Dodgeville), chairman of the Assembly Campaigns and Elections Committee.

The so-called HAVA law requires that every state fight potential voter fraud by having a single, uniform computerized list of all of its registered voters. Wisconsin will get $50.2 million in federal aid to comply with the law, which requires the state to come up with $2.2 million in matching funds.

The list will work this way:

Beginning in 2006, local officials will get a list of registered voters in their communities before the next election, so they can keep track of who comes to vote. Local officials will add the names of voters registering that day, and note when voters move or when their names or addresses change, so that the statewide master list can be updated within 30 days of the election.

The list must be linked to state driver's license and vehicle registration records, lists of felons who can't vote and death records. The list also will be available on the Internet, after individual voters' ages and other personal information are deleted.

It will be a big change for Wisconsin, which traditionally has given local officials a free hand in running their elections. In rural areas, for example, the only official record of eligible voters has been the poll list created on election day as individuals show up to vote.

All of that changes in January 2006, when Wisconsin's statewide list of registered voters must be up and running.

Secrecy defended Secrecy surrounding the contract is necessary to prevent "political meddling" and any attempts by vendors or their lobbyists to undercut the bids of rivals, said Kevin J. Kennedy, state Elections Board executive director.

"The whole idea of government contracting is to keep politics out of the selection process," Kennedy said.

Officials are following state law that requires that such information be kept secret until the bidding process is complete, said Department of Administration spokesman Scott Larrivee.

Secrecy "puts everyone on a level playing field," Larrivee said. "This process guarantees that taxpayers get the biggest bang for the buck."

Larrivee called the process "very standard." When a company is finally recommended, he said, information submitted by all companies will be made public.

But the secrecy surrounding the bidding has led legislators and others to recall how Kennedy and the Elections Board failed in the mid-1990s to comply with a legislative directive to post campaign-finance reports - including contributors, late donations and candidate spending - on the Internet for all candidates for state office.

Kennedy said there have been many "lessons learned" since the failure of the campaign-finance project, which is dead until legislators vote to spend the money to revive it.

Vendor disqualified Barry Ashenfelter, an official of Wisconsin Voter Lists, has told legislators that the Elections Board is on the verge of wasting tax money by signing a contract with another company for up to $40 million. Wisconsin Voter Lists is a private company that says it has compiled the names and voting records of 3.75 million Wisconsin voters.

Ashenfelter said his company could furnish a list of voters statewide for about $2 million - a fraction of what the state will spend on a private consultant - and update it for an additional $500,000 to $1 million a year.

But Kennedy said Wisconsin Voter Lists was not qualified to bid on the job because it had not met the requirement of having created and managed a system with the names of more than 1 million voters.

"We don't want to be someone else's training ground," Kennedy said.