Doyle changes tune from last election; says state AG has no right to supervise elections

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Gov. Jim Doyle says the state Justice Department has no right to supervise elections.

But the department said Doyle remained silent four years ago, when the attorney general of his own party did the exact same thing.

Democrat Peg Lautenschlager sent 40 assistants and investigators to polling places in 2004, to make sure election laws are followed.

But Thursday, Doyle slammed Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen’s plan to send 50 agents to a dozen places around the state

Doyle spokesman Lee Sensenbrenner said the motives are different.

He said Lautenschlager was making sure voters could exercise their rights, while Van Hollen appears interested in disrupting the process.

The attorney general contends that almost a quarter-million registered voters may not be valid, because no one has compared their voter registrations to their other public records as required by federal law.

Last week, Van Hollen failed to get a judge to require those checks and he’s appealing that decision.

In the meantime, he says his agents have been trained on election laws and they’ll follow the same rules as other election observers.

Sensenbrenner questioned the type of training they received.

Doyle says it’s all part of a national Republican strategy to put Tuesday’s vote into question.

Tags: wisconsin news, justice, department, supervising, elections