It was revealed last week that a statewide voter list will not be ready for the upcoming April elections, missing the January deadline imposed by the federal government by several months.

In 2002 Congress passed the Help America Vote Act, an effort aiming to prevent a repeat of the debacle that erupted in Florida during the 2000 presidential race. The federal government offered states millions of dollars to comply with the voting regulations set forth — including a comprehensive voter list — as long as they meet the now rapidly approaching deadline.

Sadly, Wisconsin will soon have to return a large chunk of the $50 million it received in federal funding.

And while state lawmakers rush to demand individuals present a form of photo ID if they wish to vote — the Assembly passed a constitutional amendment to do so last month after Governor Doyle vetoed the measure three times, they have failed to enthusiastically embrace a measure to institute a legitimate voter registration list.

Many of the instances of potential vote fraud highlighted could have been avoided if the state had a working voter registration list. Roughly 200 felons are suspected of voting in the past election, yet an audit performed by the Legislative Audit Bureau found many of the felons in question were actually on the voter registration list. A photo ID would have done nothing to prevent a felon from voting. Since the felon was already on the voter registration list, the election official would have had no way of knowing this individual was breaking the law — with or without a license.

It would be the same as making individuals show a photo ID when boarding an airplane without any sort of comprehensive list to check the names — a terrorist could walk though customs unquestioned with a photo ID if security officials aren't privy to his or her background.

So what company did Wisconsin deem competent enough to take on a task so critical to ensuring clean elections?

The state picked private contractor Accenture — formerly the consulting arm of the now-reviled Arthur Andersen — to create the voter registration list, despite the company's murky and troubled past.

It truly should come as no surprise that the voter registration list has experienced setback after setback under the watchful eye of Accenture.

Many states that previously held contracts with Accenture have since killed the agreements for a variety of reasons. Colorado most recently had Accenture hit the dusty trail, citing programming problems and how the company consistently missed deadlines. Kansas also ended its contract with Accenture, officials in Pennsylvania continue to voice problems with the technology, IBM is suing Texas over the state allegedly giving preferential treatment to Accenture (the state also launched its own investigation into Accenture), and the company faced an investigation over questionable dealings half a world away in Australia.

Florida scrapped its contract with Accenture in July 2004 after several glaring mistakes were revealed in the voter registration list. The list was meant to prevent convicted felons from voting, but Accenture purged 2,500 ex-felons whose voting rights had legally been restored. Of those erroneously denied the right to vote, a sizeable percentage were African Americans, yet very few Hispanics were wrongly placed on the list of felons. African Americans, on one hand, are reliable Democratic voters, while many of the Hispanics in Florida are anti-Castro Cubans who consistently favor the elephant over the jackass.

But wait, there's more. Only this time we don't have to cross the Mason-Dixon Line.

Accenture has also been involved in shady business dealings in Ohio. Arnold Tompkins, the former director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services was accused and later confessed to steering state contracts toward Accenture. And after Mr. Tompkins retired from his government post he was rewarded with a $10,000 a month consulting salary with, yeah, you guessed it, Accenture!

However, Accenture's relationship with Ohio lasted only slightly longer than a keg of beer at a frat party, as the state prematurely bid adieu to Accenture and ordered the beleaguered company to return $5 million.

Citizens should feel confident their government is taking steps to curb voting fraud. Some of those in the state legislature realize this yet unfortunately manipulate the topic for partisan gain, as those advocating a voter ID bill only concern themselves with 200 possible vote irregularities in Milwaukee county, which cast nearly half a million votes and went to John Kerry in a landslide. If state lawmakers truly are committed to ensuring clean elections, they should strongly support a comprehensive voter registration list provided by a company that does not have a rap sheet like Al Capone.

Robert S. Hunger ([email protected]) is the editorial page content editor and is a senior majoring in political science and journalism.