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[WI]Voter lawsuit cost taxpayers at least $43,000
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| Contributor | Penguin |
| Last Edited | Penguin Oct 31, 2008 08:31pm |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - Madison Capital Times |
| News Date | Saturday, November 1, 2008 02:30:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Since state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen sued the state's elections arm to force officials there to check more voter registrations, taxpayers have been stuck with $43,049 in legal bills on the case and arguably tens of thousands of dollars more in staff time.
But Van Hollen is sticking to his story that his office has only spent $155 so far on the complicated case.
"It strains credulity," Howard Schweber, an associate professor of political science and law at UW-Madison, said of Van Hollen's claim. "And specifically it strains credulity to assert that the attorneys (in the agency) are not taking any time or attention away from their other duties."
Van Hollen, a Republican, brought the lawsuit against the Government Accountability Board on Sept. 10 to force the board to check more voter names on its registration database against state driver records, saying that was needed to comply with federal law and prevent possible voter fraud.
The move has enraged Democrats who say it could lead to eligible voters being thrown off the rolls because of harmless discrepancies in the records.
So far, the state has been billed $43,049 for an outside attorney representing the Accountability Board, which won a victory last week when a Dane County judge tossed out the lawsuit. Van Hollen has said he'll appeal.
But in a letter Monday to Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, co-chairman of the Legislature's budget committee, Van Hollen said for the second time that the only added cost his agency had run up on the case was $155 in court filing fees. |
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