A marvel of malpractice
November 1, 2012
This past week, Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board (GAB) announced the settlement of a lawsuit filed by the Romney campaign. The lawsuit aimed to protect the rights of voters serving in the U.S. military, who were facing disenfranchisement by municipal officials who failed to meet legal deadlines in sending out absentee ballots.
Roll that one around in your mind for a minute: Local government officials slow-walk absentee ballot requests from the people who physically defend our right to vote, and the state agency responsible for administering elections has to be sued before it will do its job of guaranteeing that right in accordance with state and federal law.
It’s true that only a handful of voters were involved, but what’s important isn’t the small number. What’s important is that the GAB wasn’t going to do anything to make sure those people were able to vote until a political campaign organization sued.
The inevitable sports analogy would be that of players complaining because the referees refuse to call penalties. That is how absurd the GAB has become. Its executive director Kevin Kennedy appeared on Sunday morning TV acknowledging without embarrassment that volunteers observing same-day voter registrations Tuesday will be required to stay so far away from election workers that they’ll be unable to clearly see documents presented to verify residency.
We’ve often contended the GAB was wrongly named but we’ll reconsider, if the acronym is understood to mean “Getting it A** Backwards.
About Wisconsin Club for Growth
