Madison Capital Times, April 26, 2006

By Mike Miller

The troubled state voter list is indeed a public record, state officials decided Monday, thus paving the way to ending a legal squabble in which a political consulting business was suing to obtain copies of the list.

As Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi was about to begin a hearing on the lawsuit Monday afternoon, attorney Jennifer Peterson, who represents Practical Political Consulting of Michigan and its Wisconsin branch, said it would be willing to dismiss the lawsuit if the State Elections Board would turn over the latest version of the list.

At first, Assistant Attorney General Maureen McGlynn Flanagan appeared to agree but then began qualifying what it was she was agreeing to, and the judge left the bench to give the two sides time to try to iron out their differences.

Practical Political Consulting sued the Elections Board April 7 after it asked to get the voter list and was told the list was incomplete, had not been checked for accuracy and was considered to be a draft. After that rejection the company filed its lawsuit, arguing that even an incomplete list was a public record.

Since that time the firm has asked in court documents for updated versions of the list, as well as lists of voters from the primary in February and the general election on April 4.

After Sumi left the bench, the lawyers began discussions of the deal they were to work out in the courtroom, with members of the press present. They then moved to a closed-door room to continue their discussion until they reached a deal.

Essentially, Practical Political Consulting will get the lists by May 15, and if that happens it will move to dismiss the lawsuit. The state does not have to pay legal fees or costs for Practical Political Consulting.

Congress passed legislation in 2002 requiring all states to create a state-wide voter list by Jan. 1, 2006. Creation of the list has been a massive headache for the Elections Board, whose executive director, Kevin Kennedy, decided to contract out the work to a private firm instead of using state employees.

The Bermuda firm that got the work, Accenture, also had contracts in other states but those states dropped the firm, citing continuous delays in getting the work done. Wisconsin is the only state still using Accenture.