WIS GOP lawmakers: We won't pay for redistricting investigation ...the saga begins. Stay tuned.
It's interesting note that the local papers have all ready picked up the story. The findings from the investigation will not be submitted until May 10th. I think they realize this is going to sell lots of newspapers in the months to come.
The more light that get shined on this gerrymandering discussion the better.
MADISON — Republican lawmakers and a law firm they hired said in court filings Thursday that they have no intention of paying for the ongoing investigation into files deleted from computers used during the 2011 redistricting.
“There is no evidence that any attorney from Michael Best instructed or suggested that information contained in the redistricting computers be deleted,” according to the response filed by Ayad Paul Jacob, a Chicago attorney representing the Madison firm of Michael, Best and Friedrich.
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The filings are in response to a report filed with a three-judge federal panel last week that alleged “hundreds of thousands” of files had been deleted from two of the three computers used by Republican lawmakers to draw up new legislative and congressional district boundaries following the 2010 census.
Several individuals and Voces de la Frontera challenged the redistricting, but in 2012, the three-judge panel ordered changes to just two districts in Milwaukee to better protect the voting rights of Hispanic residents. After the decision, however, the plaintiffs alleged that the Republicans and Michael Best had withheld records from them.
Last week’s filing reported that the post-judgment investigation by a forensic computer expert was about 40 percent done and that costs were nearing $100,000. The plaintiffs asked the state or Michael Best to pay for it.
http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013304250373
