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Wis. AG: Voter lawsuit cost another $567

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The state Justice Department’s lawsuit against state election officials has cost the agency only about $720, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said in a letter to lawmakers Wednesday.

But Van Hollen, a Republican, reiterated the agency didn’t keep track of attorney hours spent on the lawsuit because there was no chance of recovering legal fees in the suit.

“The Department of Justice used base resources to discharge its statutory responsibility to enforce the state’s election laws,” Van Hollen wrote in the letter to Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, and Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison.

Van Hollen filed the lawsuit in September. He demanded the state Government Accountability Board verify the identities of tens of thousands of voters dating back to 2006 before the Nov. 4 election, arguing the federal Help America Vote Act mandated such checks.

Democrats ripped Van Hollen, accusing him of trying to disenfranchise voters. The Government Accountability Board refused to order the checks, saying local clerks were too busy preparing for the election to perform them.

A Dane County judge threw the lawsuit out weeks before the election, but Van Hollen appealed. He dropped the lawsuit completely earlier this month after the Government Accountability Board agreed to order the checks.

Miller and Pocan, who run the Legislature’s budget-writing committee, have asked Van Hollen three times since he filed the lawsuit how much it has cost the Justice Department.

Twice Van Hollen has responded by saying it cost only $155. In Wednesday’s letter he said the agency had incurred an additional $567 filing the appeal.