AG John Byron Vanhollen: As you know, our blockade is perfectly legal

The latest party to come out swinging in the high-stakes legal brawl between Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and the Government Accountability Board is the Republican Party. That’s right. It’s almost as if having Van Hollen, John McCain’s state co-chair, going after the Board wasn't enough:

GOP Party Chairman Reince Priebus said the party needs to be added to the suit to protect its own interests. Van Hollen wants the Government Accountability Board to be ordered to do follow-up voter ID checks as of Jan. 1, 200 – and not Aug. 6 of this year.

In a statement, Priebus said: “Gov. Doyle appointed one of the state’s most well-known Democrat attorneys to represent the GAB, and with his focus on everything but the facts of the case, it is clear he doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on. The fact is the GAB failed to do its job and we have 42 days to correct it,” before the Nov. 4 presidential election.

Priebus certainly has the talking points down—our opponents are partisan, Van Hollen’s efforts to upend the election are perfectly legal and we have to hurry. Little more than a month until the election, you know. Drastic measures are needed. Now.

It’s that fact, among others, that demonstrates what a bad actor Van Hollen is in this situation. Not only does he see no conflict between his own partisan political interests and his department’s representation of the GAB in other cases, he seems to have waited until the last possible moment to file a lawsuit to force an issue that he could have raised months ago.

That’s a point Rick Esenberg, albeit while defending the premise of Van Hollen’s suit, makes. Assuming Van Hollen’s concerns are valid (which, given the state of his own voter record, is questionable) his proposed remedy is inappropriately harsh and impractical.

Van Hollen ought to have more than just a concern over some typos on registration cards, bad data entry, and a missed deadline as justification for potentially throwing thousands of people off the voting rolls. As it stands, he has presented no evidence—none—that any of the problems he cites in his lawsuit will lead to any voter fraud.

It’s a point also made by US Attorney General Steve Biskupic in an interview over the weekend. Biskupic notes again that he’s never uncovered evidence of any organized effort to manipulate the vote.

There’s a reason for that. As an investigation by the Brennan Center has uncovered, there simply isn’t a problem with voter fraud in Wisconsin. It’s little more than a fancy in the minds of Republican partisans.

There is, however, substantial evidence of voter intimidation and harassment that takes place, particularly in Milwaukee, that the state should be concerned about. But there’s been nary a peep from Van Hollen about these issues, which were detailed by attorney Raymond Dall’Osto in a Journal Sentinel piece over the weekend:

Let me tell you how it works in the streets. Not in the streets of Milwaukee County suburbs or Mequon or Brookfield, but in the big cities like Milwaukee. I have worked on nonpartisan election protection efforts for the past eight years along with many other volunteers who want to ensure that people qualified to vote who want to vote are allowed to vote and that the voting process and polling places are not disrupted.

Working with Election Protection volunteers in Milwaukee in the 2004 election, along with county, state and federal prosecutors, I learned of many instances in which supposed poll watchers approached and questioned voters waiting in line, asking for their names and identification papers. That is illegal.

…

In other polling places, groups of intimidators confronted not only voters waiting in line but also poll workers, demanding to see voter identification and challenging voters' credentials. Again, illegal and intentionally disruptive, meant to slow the process and keep the vote count down in certain areas of the city.

Van Hollen might have had some credibility on the issues he claims his lawsuit is addressing had he approached the GAB months ago about his concerns and had he also indicated his department would take actions about attempts to prevent legitimate voters from voting.

But he didn’t do that. The only conclusion one can draw at this point is that he knows he has no credibility and is pressing forward anyway. It’s just another bit of hyper-Chutzpah we’ve all come to expect in our elections these days.

The Journal Sentinel has a good Q and A on the lawsuit here.

Update: Van Hollen is now opposing all motions to intervene in this case, including the one filed by the RPW I mention above. WisPolitics has his statement here.

Plus Lester Pines, the attorney Governor Doyle hired to represent the GAB, blasts Van Hollen for failing to understand his responsibility as Attorney General.