Pocan loses court fight on Accenture contract - voters & taxpayers screwed

[sybylla]

http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/jun05/330758.asp

Judge upholds voter list deal
State contract with Accenture is valid, he says
By PATRICK MARLEY
[e-mail]
Posted: June 2, 2005

Madison - A Dane County judge ruled Thursday that the state's contract with Accenture to create a voter database is valid.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) and others sued the state over the $13.9 million contract, saying that Elections Board Executive Director Kevin Kennedy did not have the authority to sign the Accenture deal without the board's explicit approval.

Circuit Judge William C. Foust concluded that Kennedy could not commit the board to that deal alone, but he found that the board's eventual ratification of the contract was adequate approval of the deal. Kennedy signed the contract last year. The board voted to affirm the deal in January, just weeks after being sued.

Foust also found that the board had given proper public notice of its plans for the statewide voter list, which under federal law must be operational by Jan. 1.

<snip>

So you can break the law, then after you're sued, get your friends on the board to bail your ass out by approving your bad act and that's okay. Those Republicans and their activist judges - sheesh. :crazy:

It's clear the entire state elections board needs to be replaced. Anyone know how that's done? Please tell me they don't have lifetime appointments.

[ewagner]

1. Here ya go

The State Elections Board was created under section 15.61, Wisconsin Statutes, in July 1974, at the time the Legislature enacted a comprehensive campaign finance disclosure law, Chapter 334, Laws of 1973. The Board consists of nine citizen members appointed by the governor for two-year terms beginning on May 1 of odd-numbered years. In addition to the governor's selection, one member each is designated by the chief justice of the supreme court, the speaker of the assembly, the senate majority leader, the minority leader in each house of the legislature, and the chief officer of each political party whose candidate for governor received at least ten percent of the vote cast in the most recent gubernatorial election. The Board is empowered with the responsibility of administering and enforcing the state's election and campaign finance laws. s.5.05, Wis. Stats.

[sybylla]

2. Thanks ewag

Sounds like there isn't much we can do but pressure our dem reps to appoint more responsible board members when the terms of the current board is up.

[ewagner]

3. The gov gets to appoint

9 of them as their terms expire.....I'm putting in a call to a friend who has the Gov's "ear".....we'll see what we can do.

[sybylla]

4. Update - get out the vaseline, Kevin Kennedy isn't done with us yet

I just received the following in an e-mail from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign

A circuit court judge ruled yesterday that the state Elections Board's director did not have the authority to sign a $13.9 million contract with the global outsourcing firm Accenture to create a statewide voter registration list, but nevertheless upheld the contract on the grounds that the board retroactively approved the contract - more than a month after the contract was challenged legally.

What's even weirder about the ruling is that it upholds a contract that neither Accenture nor the Elections Board seem intent on honoring. Accenture already has called for renegotiation of the terms of the agreement to push back deadlines the company can't meet, increase payments from the state for some work, and eliminate several contractual obligations that the company says are no longer necessary. The Elections Board's director (Republican Kevin Kennedy) agrees the contract needs to be rewritten and says he won't rule out paying Accenture more.(emphasis mine)

Wisconsin Democracy Campaign
210 North Bassett Street, Suite 215
Madison, WI 53703
Phone: [phone]
Web Site: http://www.wisdc.org

The only problem is, the WDC doesn't recommend any action but to be shocked and appalled and spread the word.

[ewagner]

5. Is this an opportunity?

If we can keep Kennedy from changing the contract, maybe Accenture will back out...or maybe both sides will agree to back out?

Or...another opportunity

Lobby the hell out of the Elections Board to refuse to ratify any changes in the contract...thereby making Accenture back out?

Strategy anyone? Any other strategies to employ?

[Lefta Dissenter]

6. I'm finally getting brave and posting about this

this is a cross-post from the Election forum, so some of it will be redundant here where I've already told you guys a little of this, but:

I work for a small municipality in Wisconsin that is part of the pilot program for SVRS with Accenture. Though I've only worked there since mid-January, part of my job has been maintaining the poll-list (through a Feb primary, the April Spring Election and a Special Meeting (similar to a referendum)), and it's my job to work on the registration compliance.

Let me just say already that this is going to be a disaster. We have about 4,260 registered voters in our town. The pollworkers know virtually everyone, and our election days (even November with over 95% turnout) have been run efficiently, with virtually no lines.

Our poll list has been a simple Excel spreadsheet, which is easy (and cheap) to update. There are improvements I would have made had I gotten there a few years ago, but all in all, the simple system has worked well for us. In February, we submitted our list to Accenture for the data conversion for SVRS compliance. We recently received our report, which had taken about 130 people off the rolls. Today is my day to deal with this, so I don't know all of the specifics, but just right off the bat, I see that about 30 names were dropped because the software simply deleted their names. The addresses are still there, with the names gone, so they are listed as invalid. I went back to my list, and the names are there, of course, but something in the conversion just made those people go poof.

It looks like most of the rest of the removals come with the code "unable to verify address with USPS or Census." I'll be sending out a mailing to those people to verify addresses, but my guess is that we're going to find that those were lost through conversion as well. Normally our pollworkers confirm addresses when people come to vote, so in November virtually our entire poll list would have been verified verbally.

I put a call in to our Accenture contact about a week and a half ago, with a question about one of the steps of the process, and I have yet to hear back from her. Yet they whine that they won't be able to complete their contract in a timely manner. At the end of next week, I'm attending a Clerk's conference, and the main topic will be SVRS, so I definitely will speak up there. However, our County Clerk has been so enthused about this whole process that I fear my complaints will fall on deaf ears.

At any rate, rest assured that in our little town we are doing everything we can to keep all of our qualified voters on the rolls, but it is not going to be an easy process, and in the precincts in Milwaukee and other large (poor, of course) areas, I can't imagine they have the manpower to track this every step of the way.

[sybylla]

7. Thanks for sharing, Lefta

And three cheers for you! You're doing the work of a saint and I hope you continue to feel brave enough to speak out about the problems with the new SVRS - even if sometimes it feels like you're talking to a wall.

Your post is very enlightening and to some degree confirms my worries about this Accenture deal. I hope you feel comfortable enough to continue to share your thoughts on the program as you work your way through it.