From an email I received:

The state has entered into a multi-million contract with Accenture, a global management consulting and outsourcing firm, to help create Wisconsin's first statewide list of registered voters. The system to be developed under the contract also would be used in making the final tabulation of votes on election day.

To say Accenture's past is checkered is a vast understatement. The firm was involved in the notorious purge of supposed felons and dead people from Florida voting lists before the 2000 elections. Accenture was known as Andersen Consulting before the Arthur Andersen division's association with the Enron accounting scandal forced a name change.

Accenture's parent company is headquartered in Bermuda to avoid paying taxes in the United States. The company recently came under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for a possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the federal law banning bribery of foreign officials.

To call for the cancellation of the Accenture contract, you can contact the state Elections Board by e-mail at seb@seb.state.wi.us or by calling 608-266-8005.

But don't stop there. The outsourcing of voter registration is part of a much larger trend in state governmment. Chronic state budget deficits and no-tax-increase pledges by state political leaders are leading to deep cuts in the size of the state government workforce. The elimination of so many state jobs is in turn prompting outsourcing of government services to private contractors.

The privatization wave is about to wash over the most basic building blocks of a representative democracy - our elections. In more ways than one....

The Doyle Administration has instructed state agencies to submit a plan that implements a 10% cut in their budgets. For the state Elections Board, this would mean cutting over $92,000. Much of the agency's budget is off-limits because of federal mandates, and the Elections Board still has to administer elections. So as the Board's executive director explains in a letter to the administration's budget director, a cut of this magnitude would "effectively eliminate regulation of campaign finance by the agency," including enforcement of campaign contribution limits, disclosure requirements and other campaign finance laws.

The Elections Board has been chronically understaffed for years, which is why the agency cannot handle the federal mandate to create a statewide voter registration list on its own and is contracting with Accenture. If the Elections Board is not spared in the next wave of cuts, it will no longer have the means to enforce campaign finance laws.

Contact the governor to let him know how you feel about the Accenture contract and the effects of budget cutting and outsourcing on our democracy. Also contact your state legislators by calling the toll-free legislative hotline at 1-800-362-9472 (266-9960 in Madison). If you aren't sure who represents you in the state Assembly or Senate, go here.