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Check-up coming on voter records

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After months of lawsuits, court dates and appeals, the Government Accountability Board decided Tuesday to perform retroactive new voter registrations checks back to Jan. 1, 2006, the goal of Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen’s recently appealed lawsuit.

On Aug. 6, the GAB decided to perform new registrations checks from then onward instead of going back to Jan. 1, 2006 as specified by the 2002 Help America Vote Act.

This move prompted Van Hollen to file a lawsuit in mid-September, saying federal law required them to perform these checks back to 2002, all before the Nov. 4 election.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin joined the lawsuit, accusing Van Hollen of partisanship in the lawsuit due his position on the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in Wisconsin. The Republican Party of Wisconsin also joined to back Van Hollen and protect their voters’ interests in the Nov. 4 election.

On Oct. 23, Dane County District Court Judge Maryann Sumi ruled it was in the board’s full discretion to make that decision and dropped the lawsuit, adding that Van Hollen had no authority to bring the lawsuit.

Van Hollen later announced his decision to appeal the lawsuit in hopes of forcing the GAB to perform HAVA checks.

Four days later, the board voted to start the retroactive voter checks back to Jan. 1, 2006. According to its August ruling, the board always planned on fixing the problem, but the decision was to fix the database after the Nov. 4 election. Now that it has passed, there is more time to properly perform the checks.

According to William Cosh, spokesperson for the Department of Justice, Van Hollen is extremely pleased.

“The Attorney General’s position on the necessity of performing HAVA checks has been consistent and that the law is clear,” Cosh said in an e-mail. “Attorney General Van Hollen is pleased that the GAB has taken a step in the direction of vindicating this interest and complying with the law.”

Cosh added that the lawsuit is not made moot by the GAB’s announcement, because the checks still need to be performed, which has not happened yet. The DOJ also plans on keeping a close eye on the steps the GAB will make in the near future.