Update: Gov Doyle, Sheboygan DA criticize Van Hollen plan for agents at polling placesSheboygan County District Attorney Joe DeCocco, a Democrat, called Van Hollen's plan to use state agents and lawyers to monitor polls Tuesday a "dog and pony" show. DeCocco said his search of state law "did not locate any mandates of providing prosecutor coverage at polling sites, or any authority to do so.""The attorney general has no authority in this state to supervise elections," Doyle told reporters. He again said the move by Van Hollen is part of a national effort by Republican Party leaders to "try and raise questions" about the voting process - questions that they hope keep some voters from casting ballots.

We most likely are goin to win Wisconsin. But we are faced with our own government trying to prevent us from exercising our right to vote. It's anti-American but it's also a fact that Republicans have no respect for the victories of the civil rights movement.

Father Groppi, Dr. King, Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney? Attorney General Van Hollen could not give a damn about these heroes and 10,000s more civil rights workers. In Wisconsin, in this election, Milwaukee is ground zero

McCain's only shot at winning Wisconsin is to suppress Milwaukee blacks, and they know this fact well. Fight back! And McCain needs Wisconsin if Virginia goes Obama, otherwise it's over for them.

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Update: Politics of bigotry may finally be over

Amid the voter suppression, the GOP corruption (for example Wisconsin Atty Gen. J.B. Van Hollen, US Atty Gen. Michael Mukasey), the appeals to fear and xenophobia (one can go on), an observer can plainly see why John McCain is going to lose.

Sure, the structure of the campaign in light of the economy and a divided GOP are instructive.

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From the diaries. This story is growing here in Wisconsin...a clearly coordinated Republican move to chill voting - Josh

Update: Get audio at Talking Points Memo.

Contradicting his earlier claims that "(there was no discussion with anybody involved in leadership with the Republican Party (or the McCain campaign) about this (voting rule) lawsuit before it was brought," as Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has said earlier last month, WiscPolitics has uncovered new audio (posted at WiscPolitics) revealing Van Hollen promising action on alleged "voter fraud" during an address at the Republican National Convention held in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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It has brought to our attention that "(s)enior Justice Department officials told civil-rights organizations they plan to deploy hundreds of poll monitors in November to prevent voting-rights violations and deter fraud (Perez, Wall Street Journal, September 9. 2008).

In light of the Wisconsin DOJ/GOP's efforts at voter suppression (that now looks to fail) and the McCain Campaign project sending misleading absentee ballots to voters, the presence of U.S. DOJ officials at polling places has civil rights groups nervous, though it's not confirmed that the DOJ officials will be in Wisconsin at this point.

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Update: See Dane County Case Number 2008CV004085 for more information on this DoJ Petition for a Writ of Mandamus.

As reported in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel,

Republican (Wisconsin) Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen sued the state this week to require more checks of voter information against driver's license records - a move that critics say could force people off the voter rolls and require them to cast provisional ballots. Provisional ballots are counted only when voters provide proof of residence by the next day.

Van Hollen asked a Dane County judge Friday to expedite proceedings in the case because the election is fast approaching. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

The imperative of Wisconsin to establish a centralized, computerized voter registration list "coordinated with other agency databases within the State" like the DOT comes from federal law, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which Van Hollen cites in the WI DOJ Complaint.

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