Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 24, 2006

By Patrick Marley

Madison - The troubled statewide voter database likely won't be finished until after the November election for governor, making Wisconsin miss a federal deadline by almost a year and driving up costs.

The expected delay means the state must keep about 50 people on the payroll for longer than expected, which will wipe out a $2.5 million fund that was meant to cover future maintenance costs for the voter list, said Kevin Kennedy, the executive director of the state Elections Board.

"That's pretty likely (that) we wouldn't have everybody up by September," Kennedy said Wednesday, adding that the state would be unable to add others to the system between the September and November elections because municipal clerks will be so busy during that period.

But on Thursday, Kyle Richmond, a spokesman for the board, tried to back away from Kennedy's comments. "We're not willing to say flat out we won't make it by September," he said. "We just don't know."

The disclosure of additional delays comes two weeks after Wyoming dumped consultant Accenture for its voter database, leaving Wisconsin as the only state to retain the company. Kansas and Colorado canceled their contracts with Accenture last year.

Kennedy said the board is unlikely to fire Accenture because doing so would put Wisconsin even farther behind schedule.

"A delayed rollout that gets everybody up and running is probably better than stopping and starting with something else, because if we do, we know we probably won't have it up for the 2008 election," he said.

Under a 2002 federal law, all states were to have a state-run database of voters by Jan. 1, 2006. Many other states are behind schedule.

Once running properly, the statewide list will make it easier to track voters, helping to ensure that no one votes more than once and that felons under state supervision do not cast ballots.

Peter Soh, a spokesman for Accenture, said the company expects the Wisconsin list to be ready by the fall.

"We're working to have the full deployment for the November elections, but we are reviewing other options with the (board) in case the timetable becomes unachievable," he said.

Changes sought
State Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison), a longtime critic of the Elections Board and Accenture, said Thursday that he is working with other legislators to take responsibility for the database away from Kennedy. Among those legislators is Sen. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), the co-chairman of the Joint Finance Committee.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau and the Legislative Audit Bureau are reviewing the matter for them and are expected to present them with options in about two weeks, Pocan said.

"There is little legislative confidence in where Kevin Kennedy is taking this. . . . I think to continue on this course borders on incompetency," Pocan said.

Pocan has long urged that the state cancel the contract. He was part of a group that unsuccessfully sued the Elections Board last year, arguing that it had improperly entered into the contract with Accenture.

The $27.5 million project is funded largely with federal aid, and federal officials could conceivably take back some or all of the money because the state missed the deadline. But Kennedy said that was unlikely because the U.S. Department of Justice appears satisfied that Wisconsin is making progress.

Municipalities in 20 counties used the database for the first time in the February primary. Racine County likely will join them for the April election, Kennedy said.

Municipal and county clerks have been frustrated by bugs in the system, particularly because the program often moves slowly.

"I am not exaggerating when I say that sometimes you can click on a drop-down menu, then go get a cup of coffee, and you will be lucky if it is there upon your return," Barron County Clerk DeeAnn Cook wrote in a recent e-mail to Pocan.

But Cook added in her e-mail that the counties that come online later would probably have an easier time because the state is learning from earlier mistakes.

This spring and summer, the Elections Board will add Milwaukee County to the system. The City of Milwaukee has had numerous election problems, most notably during the 2004 presidential election.

The Elections Board will also focus on putting communities onto the system that have never before had a voter registration system. Until this year, the smallest municipalities in Wisconsin were not required to register voters.

After those communities and Milwaukee County are taken care of, the Elections Board will bring the remaining municipalities onto the system, Kennedy said. But some of those municipalities probably won't be added until after the November election, he said.

Last fall, Kennedy announced that the state would miss the Jan. 1 deadline, but said he expected to have the system ready by the April election. He later said that it wouldn't be ready until sometime after that.

On Wednesday, he acknowledged it likely wouldn't be ready for all municipalities for the November election.

About 50 people working on the project for the state had been expected to go off the payroll by the end of June, but now will be retained through at least the end of the year, Kennedy said.

Accenture is being paid $13.9 million for its work. None of the additional funds will go to the company.