Constitutional Law

Wisconsin Judge Tosses Lawsuit Challenging Voter Registrations

A Wisconsin judge dismissed a lawsuit today aimed at forcing state election officials to use the Social Security database to check voters’ registrations, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The lawsuit was lodged against the state’s Government Accountability Board by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, who also serves as the co-chair of Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain’s Wisconsin campaign. The state’s Republican Party also joined Van Hollen in the case. Their lawsuit alleged that federal law required Wisconsin election officials to make sure voters’ registration information matched information on driver’s licenses and Social Security records.

Judge Maryann Sumi concluded that Van Hollen failed to show that Wisconsin officials had violated the federal Help America Vote Act and that the Wisconsin Republican Party had no standing to be involved in the case. “On Nov. 4, each qualified voter in Wisconsin will go to the polls,” Sumi wrote. “It doesn’t matter if the (Department of Transportation) has misspelled his name or if his middle initial is missing on voter rolls.”

Late last week, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled a federal appeals court decision that would have forced Ohio election officials to use arduous procedures that could have purged thousands of voters from Ohio’s rolls.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on October 23, 2008 (boomark / email).