GAO finds shortcomings in Wisconsin voter registration
WASHINGTON - A congressional report released Thursday found flaws in voter registration systems of several states, including Wisconsin.
The report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, was requested by U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Rep. John N. Hostettler, R-Ind. The two lawmakers asked for the review prior to last year's election, in which reports of voter fraud in Milwaukee have since emerged.
The GAO did not get into that in its report, focusing instead on systemic voter registration problems in Wisconsin, Arizona, California, Michigan, New York, Texas and Virginia. The states were selected to represent a cross-section.
The report noted that only one of the seven states, Arizona, had met the Jan. 1, 2004, deadline of the 2002 Help America Vote Act, which requires states to maintain statewide voter registration lists and verification procedures. The other six states received waivers until Jan. 1, 2006.
And it found that with the exception of one state - Virginia - the states in the survey still needed to sign agreements with the Social Security Administration to verify voter registration against Social Security records.
"GAO's determination that states have put in place few safeguards to verify citizenship is dismaying given the millions of people here illegally," said Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "It's past time states get busy cleaning up their voter records - especially in my home state of Wisconsin."
The GAO said that Wisconsin does not have a system in place that lets local election officials receive state felony conviction information. And Wisconsin was the only state in the survey that did not use State Vital Statistics information on dead people to match against voter lists, the GAO said.
Last month, a task force looking into potential voter fraud in Milwaukee found that more than 200 felons voted illegally, people voted twice or used fake names and addresses in more than 100 instances, and some people used dead peoples' names to cast their ballots.
Overall, investigators said 4,600 more ballots than registered voters were counted in the city. This week, two people - one on probation and the other on parole - were charged with voting in last year's election, in violation of a state law that forbids felons under state supervision from voting. Another person was charged with casting two ballots in the election.
Sensenbrenner said that the integrity of the election system will remain susceptible to voter fraud until states become more conscientious in the accuracy of voter registration lists, "especially concerning whether people who are dead or are locked up in prison are still voting."
Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the state Elections Board, called the report "a picture of where things are right now, not where things will be once the Help America Vote Act kicks in" next year.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Jim Doyle, Melanie Fonder, noted that Doyle this spring introduced an election reform proposal. "The proposal would go to directly fix those type of problems," she said.
The GAO recommended two national fixes. One is that U.S. Attorneys share information on felony convictions in a standardized format with election officials. The other is looking into requiring jury administrators to notify election officials of potential jurors who identify themselves as non-citizens.