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Wis. moves to require retroactive voter checks
By RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press Writer
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- The Government Accountability Board decided Tuesday it will require clerks to perform identity checks on all voters who registered since 2006, a move it resisted before last week's election.
The checks in which voters' personal information is compared against other government databases are required under a federal law designed to ensure clean elections.
But the board had declined to order clerks to do the checks before the Nov. 4 election, saying they did not have enough time and rushing the process could disenfranchise voters whose information did not match. The shortage of time was created because the board's statewide database of voters was not running until August, years behind schedule.
The refusal to perform the checks on thousands of voters who registered since Jan. 1, 2006, prompted a lawsuit by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen that claimed the board was not in compliance with the Help America Vote Act, which requires them. But a judge dismissed the case before the election, saying Van Hollen didn't have the authority to bring the suit and she could see no violation of the law.
Van Hollen last week filed notice that he would appeal the decision. Democrats have accused Van Hollen, a supporter of John McCain's failed presidential bid, of trying to suppress voter turnout with the suit. Van Hollen says he was simply trying to enforce the law and is continuing the case because the state needs a clean voter list for future elections. . . . "