9.13.2008

Perfection is the enemy of the good

Republican efforts to disenfranchise voters in Wisconsin

The Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin reported recently that Wisconsin's Attorney General J.B Van Hollen (R) filed a lawsuit which, if successful, would require Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board to crosscheck voters who register after January 1, 2006 with the records of the Department of Transportation, with criminal and death records. The lawsuit seeks to force Wisconsin to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act (Public Law 107-252).

Recently registered voters that have records problems will be required to reregister even if their problems were not due to fraud. This 'remedy' would not only promise to disenfranchise those voters who were required to and who could validly reregister, but it would also disenfranchise those voters who would choose not to vote because of delays caused by election day registration bottlenecks.

It thus appears Van Hollen considers it desirable to disenfranchise every voter with a record discrepancy along with each voter who would or could not tolerate election day delays in order to identify and strike from the rolls a small number of fraudulently registered voters.

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