Why won't they listen to me? I'm right more often than they are.

How many times have I said that Wisconsin's hiring of Andersen Consulting Accenture to do our voter list was a bad idea? It was a bad idea for Kevin Kennedy to sign the contract by himself, I said. After the lawsuit over the issue was tossed, I said this was a "mess turning into a disaster." The first rumblings of a delay in producing the voter lists elicited another frustrated post. Now, we have confirmation that Accenture will miss the January 1, 2006, federal deadline:

Changes in the statewide voter registration system won't be ready for a Jan. 1 federal deadline, state Elections Board officials said Friday.

A steering committee overseeing the testing of the new voter registration and election management software has decided the system is not ready, and the deadline to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 won't be met.

Testing of the system by Elections Board staff and volunteer clerks has shown there are too many system errors, said Kyle Richmond, public information officer for the Elections Board. [. . .]

County and municipal clerks expressed frustration Friday over the delays in the process, and some state legislators fear that missing the Jan. 1 deadline will jeopardize some or all of the $50.4 million the state expects to get from the federal government through voting act.

Sigh.