To the Editor:

Kudos to Tom Sheehan for calling it like it is ("Feds Tap Odd Choice To Police Voter Fraud," October 25, 2004). It's crazy to spend $50,000,000 for a voter list.

It's really crazy to give that kind of money to Accenture, a multi-national firm formerly known as Arthur Anderson Consulting, instead of local officials who do the real work to expedite Election Day activities and prevent voter fraud - especially given the state's troubled track record with outsourcing and overpriced database peddlers. Accenture's main claim to fame in this line of work is that they created the Florida voter list.

Mr. Sheehan blames the federal government for much of this mess, and they deserve some blame, but the State Elections Board is really the lead offender here. They have a huge pot of state and federal tax money at their disposal and a lot of discretion. They should give most of the money to local governments to offset the local costs of all the new election requirements. Instead, the Elections Board is hiring new staff and paying tens of millions of dollars more than they need to for a relatively simple database.

It shouldn't cost $50 million to have all the municipal clerks in Wisconsin send the Elections Board a list of their registered voters, combine those lists into one database, match that database to existing state databases listing felons and motor vehicle license holders, and have an Internet expert post the database online. That's essentially all that would be needed to comply with the federal mandate.

The crazy cost estimates for this voter database are especially appalling since an accurate, up-to-date and affordable list of eligible (not just "registered") Wisconsin voters is currently available and was offered to the Elections Board for a fraction of the cost of what they plan to spend. Plus, the existing list includes voter history information going back 6-10 years for every adult in Wisconsin. The state will undoubtedly pay tens of millions more to have Accenture re-create that information.

I work for the company that owns this database, and it cost us less than $500,000 to create a complete statewide Wisconsin voter file. Both major political parties use and approve of our voter database. It is used by major media outlets for research and analysis. Almost every organization that sends out political mail or makes campaign calls uses our database. We have over 30 years of combined experience with voter list creation and maintenance in Wisconsin and Michigan. Yet, when it came time to solve the state's voter list problems, the Elections Board told us we weren't qualified to help. We weren't even allowed to bid on the voter list project.

This may sound like sour grapes from a company that lost out on a lucrative state contract, and, sure, we'd like to have a piece of that $50 million. But, the fact is that we never will and the state is about to waste a lot of taxpayer money on a database that shouldn't cost more than $3 million. In addition to overpaying, as Mr. Sheehan points out by mentioning past and current computer consulting messes, the state is also likely to bungle this database project and thereby allow us to happily keep selling our voter file for many, many years to come.

So, to our friends in Wisconsin politics and government, we ask that you consider this a public service message and rein in the Elections Board before they break the bank. Spend less on the voter database and save the extra funds for future upkeep and maintenance. You'll need it. Or, equally good, give local governments some of the largesse. They deserve it, and they need the help.