State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen should be disqualified from a controversial lawsuit against state election officials because he ignored lawyers' ethics rules, according to a filing expected to be made in the case.

Van Hollen, a Republican, cannot continue in the lawsuit because he and state Department of Justice attorneys also are representing the elections officials in two separate lawsuits, according to a filing to be made today in Dane County Circuit Court. Wisconsin's ethics rules for lawyers prohibit a lawyer from both representing a client and suing that client at the same time without the client's consent.

Lester Pines, an attorney representing the Government Accountability Board, said that lawyers at the Department of Justice were aware of the need to seek a go-ahead from the Accountability Board before filing the lawsuit but that Van Hollen ignored it.

"For the attorney general, the chief law enforcement officer in this state, to blithely ignore these rules is behavior that is stunning in its audacity," the motion by Pines and attorney Tamara Packard argues.

The lawsuit by Van Hollen seeks to force the Accountability Board to run checks of voters registering since January 2006 to purge ineligible voters from the rolls. The Accountability Board wants to run the checks on voters registering since Aug. 6, but Van Hollen argues that federal law requires the earlier date.

Kevin St. John, a spokesman for Van Hollen, said that he hadn't seen the proposed filing. But, he said, the attorney general's office had taken into account its representation of the board on "entirely unrelated matters."

Pines said Tuesday that Van Hollen was already representing the Accountability Board in two open records cases.

Pines said that if Van Hollen were disqualified, the attorney general might be able to seek outside lawyers to undertake the lawsuit for him. But to do so he would need the approval of Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat. The state Democratic Party separately sought to join and oppose the lawsuit by Van Hollen as a party Tuesday, saying the checks the attorney general seeks are inaccurate and would disenfranchise voters.

In the proposed filing, Pines alleged that DOJ assistant attorney general Alan Lee asked Kevin Kennedy, the head of the Accountability Board, to sign a waiver that would allow Van Hollen to sue the board. Kennedy never agreed to such a waiver but Van Hollen filed the lawsuit anyway, Pines said.

St. John wouldn't comment on whether a DOJ lawyer asked Kennedy for a waiver.