Election fraud task force expanding

GREEN BAY - Wisconsin's attorney general launched an effort Thursday to help local prosecutors investigate voter fraud, which he called a widespread problem that taints elections.

J.B. Van Hollen said his office will join with 11 district attorneys to expand a task force that has investigated hundreds of complaints of irregularities from the 2008 presidential election in Milwaukee County. Prosecutors have charged 17 individuals with counts that include voting illegally as a felon, voting twice and committing voter registration fraud.

Van Hollen, a first-term Republican running for re-election in November, said the expanded group will help ensure the uniform statewide enforcement of election laws. He said some district attorneys have declined to prosecute such cases in the past because they lack expertise on the laws and staff to tackle time-consuming investigations.

The task force will help solve that problem by developing and sharing common investigative and prosecution strategies, Van Hollen said.

"If we have some good guidance as to how to handle election integrity cases, more of these cases are going to be addressed," he said in an interview before announcing the plan at a news conference in Green Bay. But he said the bipartisan effort also would deter fraud by sending a message that enforcement was a priority.

The district attorneys of Brown, Waukesha, Dane and Outagamie counties are among those joining the task force. Their offices would still make decisions on whether to file charges, but the Department of Justice could offer help investigating and prosecuting cases.

The announcement comes amid a raging partisan debate over how widespread voter fraud really is in Wisconsin. Republicans have long made the case, without much proof, that voter fraud is rampant, in part because the state allows election-day registration. Democrats accuse Republicans of hyping a bogus issue and trying to suppress minority voters.

The Government Accountability Board, which runs elections, said recently that it had found no evidence of "any widespread, organized or systemic cases" of voter fraud in the 2008 election. But the board acknowledged a growing perception that it is a problem.

Van Hollen, for his part, said: "I personally believe that we do, and have had, widespread voter fraud."

Van Hollen's Democratic opponent, former Department of Natural Resources Secretary Scott Hassett, called any problems isolated and the task force "a waste of resources."

"If there was evidence or a pattern of widespread, systemic voter fraud in this state, then it deserves some attention. That does not exist," he said. "I think he's just playing to his base."

The Milwaukee cases filed so far include voter registration workers who turned in fake and duplicate names, a husband and wife who voted absentee and again at the polls, a man who voted under his dead wife's name and felons who voted illegally.

Van Hollen said Assistant Attorney General David Maas, who has been leading the Milwaukee County effort, also would work with the broader task force and he doesn't expect to add additional staff. He envisions the task force as a permanent entity that would exist long after this election cycle.

Hassett would not say whether he would disband the group if elected, but added, "I suspect I'll have much greater priorities than this."