It cost our company about $500,000 to create a statewide voter list. It cost approximately $400,000 more to update and maintain the file for another 4 years. It's not everything the state wants or needs, but it's similar.

The state Elections Board is proposing to pay a multi-national corporation (Accenture LLP) $10 million to tweak voter list software they developed for other states and input already computerized voter registration data into the database (only 50% of the voting age population).

Accenture is fleecing Wisconsin. It's a rip-off, plain and simple.

The $10 million for Accenture is on top of $1 million the state paid Virchow Krause to analyze the project and draft an RFP. Further, the Elections Board hired several new employees recently, and just last week they were advertising to hire more. They also told Gov. Doyle there is no way they can cut their budget.

The real cost of the state's registered voter list project to date is probably around $12-$13 million, and they still don't have a public plan to obtain and input handwritten and paper data for nearly 2 million voting-age adults. This is not covered in the contract with Accenture and it is the most difficult and time-consuming aspect of the project.

Virchow Krause last year estimated the voter list project would likely cost $26 million initially, and said in its planning report: "The state is also concerned that beyond the three years of federal funding, the ongoing costs of operating and maintaining the statewide voter registration system and new voting equipment will be considerably higher than current local budgets... The operation and maintenance of the new infrastructure will be a financial burden when (federal) HAVA funding is no longer available."

The state Elections Board potentially has between $30 and $50 million at its disposal to spend on the voter database or other election-related improvements in the next 3 years and they appear on track to blow it all.