Green Bay Press-Gazette, February 16, 2005

By Mike Hoeft

The information was compiled by the Michigan-based firm Practical Political Consulting, which operates in the state as Wisconsin Voter Lists. The company is updating the files it uses to sell voter lists to political candidates, campaigns and parties.

Officials say the disparities had no impact on the outcome of any elections, but the gap underscored the importance of accurate records.

Wisconsin Voter Lists found several communities with gaps between the number of people municipalities listed as having voted and the number of votes cast Nov. 2, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

In some cases, the problem was because of an incomplete voter list election officials sent to the company. In others, municipalities recorded more voters than votes.

In Howard, Deputy Clerk Michelle Olman found a gap of more than 200 in her figures after responding to a request from the Journal Sentinel. Olman said when some newly registered voters were entered into the voter database, the village's computer system automatically recorded that person as having voted in the November election.

The system also erroneously entered some names twice, said Howard President Bob Strazishar.

He said the village database would be rectified, and noted it did not throw any races. "The manual tally is what's important," he said.

Brown County Clerk Darlene Marcelle said there was no discrepancy in the official county votes. In that canvass, officials compared the poll list of voters to the votes recorded on the machines. And those numbers matched, she said.

The disparity in Howard vote records shows the need for a uniform statewide system "that would be more user-friendly and more accurate," Strazishar said.

Alan Fox, a partner in Practical Political Consulting in East Lansing, Mich., said the company was still compiling vote records for local communities including Bellevue, Suamico and De Pere.

He said there was little need for municipal clerks to put a lot of resources into trying to perfect the system because a statewide voter list will make theirs obsolete.

The disparity in voter records is not as critical in Wisconsin as it is in Michigan, which requires voters to be registered 30 days before the election, Fox said. A person not entered on municipal records may be turned away at the polls, he said.

"That's not a big deal in Wisconsin because you can register the same day as you vote," Fox said.

Wisconsin is creating its first statewide list of voters, a requirement of the federal Help America Vote Act.

The state has a January 2006 deadline to create an online list of its estimated 4 million voters -- a list required to be in place for elections for governor, U.S. Senate, the Legislature and other offices that year. It must include state records on drivers and criminals and voter names compiled by municipal clerks.

A statewide system would help bring uniformity to what is now a hodgepodge of different municipal systems, said Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the state Elections Board.