Last August, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen initially filed a lawsuit against the Government Accountability Board for not properly defending against voter fraud. Now that the Government Accountability Board has said it will check the identities of every registered voter since 2006, something the Help America Vote Act requires, there is no need for Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to continue his lawsuit against GAB.
Due to the GAB's inability to properly implement the HAVA voter registration standards before the 2008 election, Van Hollen initially filed a lawsuit in grievance to what Van Hollen said was a violation of federal law under HAVA. The election is over, and now the GAB has ample time to make the proper checks to ensure that all new registrations are legal.
Considering the wide margin of this year's election, there is no legitimate gripe that illegally registered voters helped sway the election, taking away any argument Van Hollen may have toward continuing his appeal after his lawsuit was dismissed. As a state employee, Van Hollen has an obligation to make the best use of his time; spending another minute on a moot issue such as this is a minute wasted.
It is unfortunate that the GAB could not execute the identity checks in the time necessary for the recent elections, but considering their concern of completing the checks within the two-month period afforded by the delay of the years-late voter database, this was the most reasonable course of action.
Hopefully, Van Hollen will see how inconsequential and wasteful his continued efforts against the GAB are, and concentrate his efforts toward his employer - the state.
