The GOP Might Actually Be Right - But For The Wrong Reasons

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the Wisconsin Elections Board will be requesting an additional $1 million per year in the next budget to operate their statewide voter database, which is not yet fully operational.

I have long been a critic of the handling of the database. Our neighbor, Minnesota, got theirs done as required by federal law for about $5 million. Our elections board is nine months behind schedule, and the project is still unfinished. Oh, the cost? About $27 million and counting.

The Republicans are in outcry about the "partisan" elections board and their decision that Mark Green is breaking the law with his illegal transfer. It clearly is illegal.

But it is not the decision that's the problem. It is the makeup of the board alltogether.

Politicians appoint the members for the most part of the Elections Board. Now take a seat. And their appointments are often - really sit down - political. I've said it.

Well, surprise surprise.

It's not the decision they made (which again is correct) that is the problem. The problem is that we have political hacks appointing political people.

They are not bad people at all. But they are part-time volunteers essentially, without the capacity to truly exercise the job that is necessary.

The entire database issue should have raised the hairs of every GOPper in the Capitol. Yet you barely heard a pin drop about the issue outside of good government reform groups and a handful of legislators.

If you REALLY want reform (and I'm not sure many Republicans really do), you have to pass a bill like SB-1, the Ethics Reform bill. We need an INDEPENDENT body to make decisions about our elections. But it was the same GOP whiners who killed the bill only months ago.

So my GOP friends, you are actually right about the Elections Board being problematic. But you arrive at that decision $27 million too late and for all the wrong reasons. Go figure.