  Different formulations of the $4d$ compact lattice QED with staggered
fermions (standard Wilson and modified by suppression of lattice artifacts) are
investigated by Monte Carlo simulations within the quenched approximation. We
show that after suppressing lattice artifacts the system undergoes a phase
transition from the Coulomb phase into a presumably weakly chirally broken
phase only at (unphysical) negative $\beta$--values.
