AG warns presidential race could be tainted

[undeterred]

MADISON (AP) — Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen warned Wednesday the presidential race “will be tainted by illegal, ineligible and fraudulent voters” unless Wisconsin elections officials verify the identities of thousands of registered voters.

The warning came in a legal motion asking a judge to rule promptly on his lawsuit seeking to force elections clerks to double-check the legality of at least 240,000 voters before the Nov. 4 election.
The lawsuit names the Government Accountability Board, which has declined to order elections officials to check information from voters who registered after Jan. 1, 2006 against other state databases. The board warns that step would disenfranchise legal voters if databases list their information differently and create chaos at the polls.

Van Hollen, a Republican, argues the state has no choice but to perform those checks and remove ineligible voters from the rolls under the federal Help America Vote Act.

The case is taking on a highly partisan tone and its outcome could have an impact on the tight race between Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. Van Hollen is a co-chair of McCain’s campaign, and Democrats are accusing him of trying to disenfranchise voters with the suit.

Board lawyer Lester Pines argued in a legal filing earlier Wednesday that Van Hollen and the Department of Justice lawyers he supervises have an ethical conflict in suing the board because they are defending the same board against two unrelated lawsuits.

State Supreme Court ethics rules say attorneys cannot sue their own clients without their consent, but it’s unclear whether the Department of Justice — which defends state agencies and enforces state law — is treated differently.

Van Hollen told reporters in Milwaukee on Wednesday he had no conflict because the department routinely sues state agencies that it is defending in other cases. “It’s fortunately not common but it’s not wholly unusual,” he said.

But Pines argued the ethics rules preventing lawyers from suing their clients apply to the attorney general the same as any attorney.

“For the attorney general, the chief law enforcement officer of this state, to blithely ignore those rules is behavior that is stunning in its audacity and an utter abdication of his duty of loyalty to clients,” Pines wrote.

The Justice Department is defending the board against a lawsuit in which a consulting firm seeks access to its voter database and a case involving enforcement of campaign disclosure rules.

Pines asked Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi to put the lawsuit on hold until she rules on the ethics matter. The judge scheduled a status conference today on the case.

Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat who supports Obama, said Wednesday he would be ready to appoint outside counsel to take over for Van Hollen if a judge requires that step.

If Van Hollen’s lawsuit succeeds, elections officials would have to cross-check the voters who registered after Jan. 1, 2006 against Department of Transportation and other records to confirm their identities.

More than 20 percent of voters have been flagged by such checks so far, which would force them to reregister or cast a provisional ballot on Election Day.

The software to perform such checks was not running until last month and the board has ordered elections officials to perform the checks only on voters who register after that. The checks were supposed to be in place by Jan. 1, 2006 under the federal Help America Vote Act and Van Hollen argues they should be retroactive to that date.

Doyle said Van Hollen should have respected the decision of the nonpartisan board, which was created in part to prevent partisan bickering. The board is made up of six retired judges.

“I really don’t think that the attorney general has a better idea than the six judges about how to handle this situation,” he said.

Van Hollen said he was simply trying to enforce election laws and, “I don’t think there’s any partisanship in this subject matter at all.”

http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2008/09/18/wi/00wis.txt

[midnight]

1. I agree.

“For the attorney general, the chief law enforcement officer of this state, to blithely ignore those rules is behavior that is stunning in its audacity and an utter abdication of his duty of loyalty to clients,” Pines wrote.

[undeterred]

2. Wisconsin has very little in the way of "voter fraud"

or "election fraud" and for him to stir this up is extremely suspicious. Is this the whole reason he ran for office?