Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 27, 2004

To the Editor:

If you don't have a lot of money and you only need to run errands around town, you shouldn't buy a Humvee loaded with all the extras. You could easily get by with a more sensible car that costs much, much less.

If you are the Elections Board in a state with a billion-dollar deficit and you only need to create a list of registered voters that poll workers can use on election day, you don't need some extravagant $14 million computer program with all the bells and whistles ("Elections Board voter-list deal draws lawsuit," Dec. 24). You could easily get by with standard database software and a little elbow grease for much, much less.

This spendthrift state agency is going to blow $20 million, all told, on a list of registered voters. Taxpayers deserve a better deal.