State Journal's Dee Halls Blows John Doe-GAB Piece

Wisconsin John Doe Statute

Update: Further knockdown of Wisconsin discredited rightwinger, subject of State Journal stenography. From Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
"The attorney for the state's ethics and elections board on Saturday said he will soon file court papers disputing claims that the agency had violated Wisconsin laws in pursing a campaign finance investigation of Gov. Scott Walker's campaign and conservative groups."

The Government Accountability Board will present evidence that 'will refute and disprove specific allegations as well as the general hyperbole of the plaintiff's complaint,' said a statement from the board's attorney, Paul Schwarzenbart."
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What is the Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wisconsin) newsroom doing to its reporter Dee Hall?

Hall is typically a solid and occasionally brilliant journalist but errs and misreports badly in today's Page One piece, "GAB didn't OK secret inquiry, records say."

Hall's reporting is uninformed, contrived and is constructed in the manner of a GOP operative's.

In fairness to Hall, uninformed reporting in Wisconsin on the John Doe probes of criminality associated with Scott Walker and his former staff is on a par of the low-grade journalism put out by Gannett Co. and Wisconsin's rightwing propaganda mill, the Wisconsin Reporter and other GOP organs.

The piece reports on the release of Government Accountability Board (GAB) documents, ordered by a Waukesha County judge at the request of rightwinger Eric O'Keefe of the extremist group, Wisconsin Club for Growth.

Writes Hall:

The state Government Accountability Board’s top officials proceeded with a secret probe into coordination between Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign and conservative political groups for months without authorization from the six retired judges who run the board, court records unsealed Friday allege.

The documents filed by a target of the investigation also allege that the board voted to end its involvement in the probe in July but that staff continued to work on it.

The records add ammunition to Republicans in the state Legislature seeking to overhaul or abolish Wisconsin’s elections and ethics watchdog agency.

Some corrections:

Target

There are no targets (ala federal grand juries and many other state grand jury systems) in Wisconsin John Doe proceedings until a probe determines individual(s) are to be criminally charged and served with a probable cause warrant.

Wisconsin John Doe probes investigate if and by whom crimes may have been committed when conflicts of interest, practical difficulties (such as stonewalling) and protection of privacy is judged imperative by a district attorney(s) and a supervising judge, per Wisconsin statute, who determine that reasonable suspicion of criminality merit further investigation in the above circumstances.

For Hall to refer to Mr. O'Keefe as a "target of the investigation" is an error in reporting, and one which furthers the GOP PR line that the John Doe probe is a "witch hunt" though the fact is the John Doe probe that has determined Scott Walker is at the center of a "criminal scheme" is being run by Wisconsin constitutional law enforcement officials who are publicly proclaimed to be Republican and Democratic, and who are sworn officers of the sovereign state of Wisconsin.

Knockdown

In the ninth graf, readers are treated to the knockdown by "David Deininger, the retired appeals court judge who chaired the board during the launching of the John Doe investigation, defended Kennedy and the GAB staff Friday."

"Deininger was skeptical about the assertions made in the complaint. He said he didn’t recall exactly when the board was made aware of the investigation, 'but something of this magnitude would have been brought to our attention at the earliest opening.'"

'They would know this would have been something the board needed to be up to speed on from the get-go,' Deininger said.

He also vouched for Kennedy and Becker, saying impartial administration of election laws was their 'modus operandi.'"

Deininger's quote demolishes Hall's piece and should have killed it.

Omission

Hall quotes Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and another Republican without mentioning that Vos and the Republicans have already insisted publicly on direct gubernatorial appointments to the GAB, a partisan power grab of which Hall is certainly aware.

Hall opines "The records add ammunition to Republicans in the state Legislature seeking to overhaul or abolish Wisconsin’s elections and ethics watchdog agency," as though the proposed dismantling of the non-partisan agency has not been part of Republican machinations in the manner of Walker's appointments to the Wisconsin Judicial Commission in 2012, picked by a corporate lobbyist (Millhiser, ThinkProgress).

Tell me Hall could not get a jurist or elected officeholder to describe Vos' nonsense as a power grab on the record. Hall omits what is common knowledge of the GOP's aversion to the GAB or any independent agency that would hold GOP officials to account for criminality and corruption.

There's more, but Hall blew this piece, and the Republican Party of Wisconsin can celebrate the news columns of the Wisconsin State Journal once again.

Wisconsin Hits GOP Voter Suppression

Update: See Voter Database Glitches Could Disenfranchise Thousands (Kim Zetter) and J.B. Van Hollen's amusing Protecting the right to vote.

A recent report from the Academies of Sciences noted that 'many (if not most) of the matching procedures used by the states have been developed on the basis of intuitive reasoning without further systematic validation or mathematically rigorous analysis, do not reflect the state of the art in matching techniques, and have not been validated in the market, scientifically, or otherwise.'
- Kim Zetter, Wired Magazine

Van Hollen writes accurately that, "Among (the Help America Vote Act of 2002) HAVA's mandates is that each state maintain an accurate and regularly updated statewide computerized voter registration system ... ."

Van Hollen does not mention that he is calling for the partisan GOP to decide how and when the federally-mandated state voter list is implemented and maintained on the state level in Wisconsin, and not the non-partisan GAB.

Simply put, Van Hollen is a liar and partisan acting in the despicable tradition of suppressing voters whose preference his party does not care for.

The Wisconsin Attorney's General's attempt to frustrate and suppress an expected record voter turn-out is drawing the heat from a wide cross section of Wisconsin citizens.

It's not just the bloggers.

Opposition to vote suppression includes the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB), the Democratic Party and even the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The GOP knows the only way it will win Wisconsin is to frustrate the efforts of voters to: Vote.

And it knows the score and inning: The GOP needs Wisconsin to reach 270 electoral votes in November.

As the Capital Times writes:

When Republicans gathered in St. Paul for their national convention at the start of September, former White House political czar Karl Rove met with the Wisconsin delegation. Rove, who has been repeatedly implicated in a drive by the Bush White House to get U.S. attorneys to take steps to make it harder for minority voters and new voters to cast ballots, counseled the Wisconsin Republicans that they would need to go to extraordinary means to win the battleground state for party presidential nominee John McCain this year.

Just days after returning from the Republican convention, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, a co-chair of the McCain campaign in Wisconsin, took an action that a leading state legislator suggests could "undermine democracy" going into the election about which Rove expressed so much concern.

Van Hollen has sued the state Government Accountability Board, seeking to review -- and potentially disqualify -- the names of as many as 1 million eligible voters whose names appear on the state's poll list.

For more information:

Democratic Party asks to Intervene in Voter Suppression Lawsuit

Democratic Party Briefs

J.B. Van Hollen vs. Government Accountability Board et al
Dane County Case Number 2008CV004085

WI State Journal: State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen should be disqualified from a controversial lawsuit against state election officials because he ignored lawyers' ethics rules, according to a (GAB) filing expected to be made in the case.

Subject Matter Experts or Partisan Hack

Update: See Dane County Case Number 2008CV004085 for more information on this DoJ Petition for a Writ of Mandamus.

As reported in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel,

Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen sued the state this week to require more checks of voter information against driver's license records - a move that critics say could force people off the voter rolls and require them to cast provisional ballots. Provisional ballots are counted only when voters provide proof of residence by the next day.

Van Hollen asked a Dane County judge Friday to expedite proceedings in the case because the election is fast approaching. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

The imperative of Wisconsin to establish a centralized, computerized voter registration list "coordinated with other agency databases within the State" like the DOT comes from federal law, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which Van Hollen cites in the DOJ Complaint.

But the administrative implementation of HAVA is at best problematic for states with limited resources.

But instead of ceding to the subject matter experts (the Government Accountability Board (GAB)) on implementing HAVA, the partisan Van Hollen wants to call the shots, taking his cues from the GOP voter suppression campaign, in the name of stamping out voter fraud and removing voters from the state voter list, as Van Hollen writes in his complaint, referencing fraud though refusing to mention that it almost never occurs:

The state maintains the obligation of "… preventing election fraud and illegally cast ballots…" and has "...an express obligation to ensure that ineligible voters are removed from Wisconsin’s statewide computerized voter registration list."

As noted widely, Van Hollen seeks a judicial order requiring all election clerks to coordinate voter information with DOT driver's license records for those voters who registered to vote or changed their address from Jan. 1, 2006, to Aug. 5, 2008.

Van Hollen files his complaint fully aware that correlating voter names from the state voter list with driver’s licenses has already been demonstrated to result in 100,000s of mismatches of eligible voters, including GAB members being mismatched, and that what he seeking would cause massive confusion and delay, and force 100,000s of voters to come back the day after Election Day with corroborating information to make their provisional ballots count.

Van Hollen’s remedy, if his wins his suit, would erect barriers on the very Election Day that is expected to break records in the number of Wisconsin citizens casting ballots.

So at next Thursday’s hearing, we may get to see who wins at Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi's courtroom:

- The subject matter experts (the Government Accountability Board (GAB)) protecting the rights of Wisconsin voters, and responsible for the administration and enforcement of campaign finance, elections, ethics and lobbying laws in Wisconsin

- Or the partisan, voter-suppressing GOP lead by our own Attorney General and McCain campaign co-chair, J.B. Van Hollen

Judge Hearing DOJ Voter Suppression Case Is No GOP Tool

Update: Observers fear Van Hollen’s election lawsuit will cause problems

We have a corrupt Attorney General Van Hollen fronting for the national GOP against Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board (GAB) that is sticking up for Wisconsin voters.

Van Hollen's DOJ Complaint was filed with Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi's office.

So who is Maryann Sumi?

Sumi is listed as a supporter of former Wisconsin Supreme Court Judge Louis Butler on his website for his unsuccessful reelection bid.

Butler was defeated by the GOP political machine on April 1 by former Burnett County Circuit Judge Michael Gableman.

Sumi has been on the bench since 1998 and enjoys a reputation as a fine jurist and political liberal, informed observers say.

Old South in Wisconsin

Update II: See The Truth About Vote Fraud.

Update: It was all of one week ago that Van Hollen was making a speech to Wisconsin GOP delegates extolling the virtues of Sarah Palin, saying she will help expand the Republican Party (MJS, Greg J. Borowski, Sept. 4, 2008). Now this McCain Co-Chair says with a straight face that he has no conflict of interest and that he does not act for partisan or political reasons. Borowski's MJS piece notes that, "Van Hollen stressed Palin's pro-life credentials, terming her 'somebody who believes in God, who believes in family, who believes in life.'"
Van Hollen also called the Republican Party a "family".

It's fitting in a sad, ironic sense that the state and its record number of voters that catapulted Barack Obama to the nomination on February 17 now sees the GOP going old south in bringing the machinery of government to halt people from voting in November.

J.B. Van Hollen is attempting to sow delay and erect barriers on election day in the hope that the suppression (a la Ohio in 2004) will sufficiently frustrate the efforts of working people to swing an election to the GOP.

Wisconsin is seen by the GOP as a critical state in its path to 270 electoral votes.

“The rule Attorney General Van Hollen wants the (board) to implement would cause long lines and confusion at the polls on a day when a record number of citizens will be seeking to exercise their right to vote,” writes the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin said in a news release. The League added: “Worst of all, it would mean that many, many Wisconsin citizens would not be able to cast a vote and have it counted.” (MJS, September 12)

It's time for elected officials of all political stripes to speak up and challenge the shameful efforts by the corrupt GOP Wisconsin Attorney General (Wisconsin's co-chair for McCain's presidential campaign), the latest in a long line of GOP voter suppression players.

Van Hollen files his legal complaint with the full knowledge that correlating voter names with driver’s licenses has already been demonstrated to result in 100,000s of mismatches of eligible voters.

The remedy for such voters: Delay, confusion and frustration as voters make their way through bureaucratic barriers Van Hollen and the GOP want to see erected.

“Van Hollen is doing the bidding of the Republican Party to compromise the right to vote for hundreds of thousands of legal Wisconsin voters,” said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. “And he’s making taxpayers pick up the tab both for filing the frivolous, partisan suit and defending against it.”

Some links:
- One Wisconsin Now
- WI DOJ site
- August 27 Letter to the Government Accountability Board
- Aug 28 Response From the Government Accountability Board
- Sept 10 Accountability Board Replies to Attorney General’s Lawsuit

Voter Suppression Fight Is On

On first read of DOJ correspondence and complaint, I do not find any DOJ response to GAB's stated concern about eligible voters getting disenfranchised:

"... preliminary data that showed more than a fifth of voters’ data mismatched due to variations in names, differing data entry standards, or typographical errors. A check conducted of G.A.B. members’ data resulted in four of six Board members’ information mis-matching." [Sept 10 Accountability Board Replies to Attorney General’s Lawsuit]

The DOJ Complaint could have been written by the RNC: "Because of the defendants' inaction, properly qualified voters are at risk of having their vote diminished and diluted by the votes of unqualified, ineligible voters who are not entitled to cast ballots."

Who and what ineligible voters?

Van Hollen writes in the DOJ PR that "I promised that I would work to restore integrity to this office and state government." Funny.

I want to see the GAB response complaint.

This is a national civil rights story.

Where are Feingold, Tammy and Co? And where, excepting liberal blogs, is the outrage?

Some links:
- WI DOJ site
- August 27 Letter to the Government Accountability Board
- Aug 28 Response From the Government Accountability Board
- Sept 10 Accountability Board Replies to Attorney General’s Lawsuit

WI Elect Board Hits DOJ, GOP Voter Suppression

Update: MJS: State lawsuit could affect 1 million voters

The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB) is hitting back at Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's and the GOP's voter suppression efforts.

The GAB statement released today concerns Wisconsin's implementation of the Help America Vote Act, (HAVA) a huge project that could disenfranchise some 200,000 Wisconsin voters in the process.

The national and Wisconsin Republican parties have used voter suppression programs as an electoral tool for decades, though the efforts have been rolled out more aggressively the last two presidential elections.

HAVA is proving an irresistible tool for such voter suppression efforts.

The GAB's statement is an aggressive response that is certain to draw howls from the GOP and its tool in this matter, Wisonsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.

See Accountability Board Replies to Attorney General’s Lawsuit for a full copy of the Government Accountability Board (GAB) statement.

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's (R) suit drew the following response from the Government Accountability Board (GAB):

The Board believes it would be counter-productive to rush this effort [cross-checking the voter registration base with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT)] and to create a significant risk, at best, of unnecessary hardship and confusion at the polls, and at worst, the disenfranchisement of Wisconsin citizens with a clear and legitimate right to vote.

The GAB statement noted the following:

In its deliberations, the Board was concerned about preliminary data that showed more than a fifth of voters’ data mismatched due to variations in names, differing data entry standards, or typographical errors. A check conducted of G.A.B. members’ data resulted in four of six Board members’ information mis-matching.

Full PR is below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 Kyle R. Richmond, 608-267-7887
MADISON, WI – In response to a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the Government Accountability Board (G.A.B.), G.A.B. Director and General Counsel Kevin Kennedy issued the following statement:

“Attorney General Van Hollen has advised the Board that he has filed a lawsuit about a recent decision of the Board concerning the use of a new cross-checking tool developed for its Statewide Voter Registration System (SVRS).

“The SVRS has been in place and used effectively for seven statewide elections since 2006. The Board began using the new cross-checking feature in August 2008. At two public meetings in July and August, G.A.B. members considered a request from the Republican Party of Wisconsin to cross-check the data of all Wisconsin voters entered into the SVRS since January 2006.

“The Republican Party asked that all voters whose records did not match Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) records be required to provide proof of residence at the polling place or to vote on a provisional ballot.
“The Attorney General has asked the court to compel the Board to adopt that position. Neither state nor federal law specifies what must be done with information gathered from the cross-checking function.

“The Board heard testimony from a number of individuals, and carefully considered the issues presented. The Board voted to continue its practice of requiring all new voter registration applications entered into the SVRS to be cross-checked against DOT records, but not to require a retroactive cross-check of individuals who had registered and voted in previous elections.

“In its deliberations, the Board was concerned about preliminary data that showed more than a fifth of voters’ data mismatched due to variations in names, differing data entry standards, or typographical errors. A check conducted of G.A.B. members’ data resulted in four of six Board members’ information mis-matching.

“The Board is committed to properly protecting the electoral process from potential fraud. At the same time, the Board is equally committed to protecting the right of every eligible person to vote in Wisconsin, and that every valid vote must be counted.

“The Board balanced these two fundamental concerns and concluded that it is in the best interest of the citizens of this state to continue its cross-checking efforts until the entire voter database is as accurate as possible.

“The Board believes it would be counter-productive to rush this effort and to create a significant risk, at best, of unnecessary hardship and confusion at the polls, and at worst, the disenfranchisement of Wisconsin citizens with a clear and legitimate right to vote.”
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The Government Accountability Board (G.A.B.) is responsible for administration and enforcement of campaign finance, elections, ethics and lobbying laws in Wisconsin. The G.A.B. is made up of six non-partisan, former judges and is supported by an agency of non-partisan staff members.