NEWS CLIPS:

November 30, 2004 - Capital Times: "In what may go down as the most boneheaded move ever by a state agency, the state Elections Board has approved a $12 million contract with Accenture to create a voter registration system for Wisconsin."

June 24, 2005 - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "On Thursday, the General Accounting Office issued a report focused on systemic voter registration problems... The GAO said that Wisconsin does not have a system in place that lets local election officials receive state felony conviction information. And Wisconsin was the only state in the survey that did not use state vital statistics information on dead people to match against voter lists."

September 17, 2005 - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "A statewide audit of election procedures issued Friday reveals a system filled with inconsistencies, where mandated safeguards often aren't followed and where illegal votes and voter fraud likely exist beyond the investigation already under way in Milwaukee."

September 17, 2005 - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Changes in the statewide voter registration system won't be ready for a Jan. 1 federal deadline, state Elections Board officials said Friday."

Problems with elections and voting, both big and small, are rampant in Wisconsin. Local voter registration data and voter history information is disgracefully inaccurate or incomplete.

Who is to blame for this mess?

Is the Governor or the Legislature responsible for all these problems? Has the Elections Board been asleep at the switch? Are local election officials at fault? More importantly, how will it all get fixed? Don't bet on the state voter list to solve much of anything.

"Even if an entire voter registration system is finally put together and the bugs eliminated, what will have been accomplished?" asks Mark Grebner, owner or Wisconsin Voter Lists. "Accenture is struggling to implement a strategy they designed for other states, none of which have same day registration," Grebner said.

"Wisconsin needs a system which takes into account local conditions, not those in Florida or Kentucky. Over 70% of all registration activity in Wisconsin occurs on Election Day, not in the weeks before. Even a perfect list of registered voters can't prevent ineligible people from registering and casting ballots, nor help eligible ones find their polling places. Focusing on 'registered' voters, rather than 'eligible' ones means that Accenture is merely failing to achieve a useless result," said Grebner.