Very Few Cases of Voter Fraud in Wisconsin

Monday, November 2nd, 2020 -- 9:05 AM

(Eric Litke, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) -Voter fraud is hardly a new topic in Wisconsin.

According to Eric Litke of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, it took center stage as the state passed a voter ID law in 2011, then stayed in the news as elements were blocked and reinstated by various court rulings in the ensuing years. This year, the President has kept the issue front-of-mind with an avalanche of claims seeking to cast doubt on the integrity of the 2020 election. But is voter fraud an actual problem here? We’re better able to answer that question since the Wisconsin Elections Commission began tallying voter fraud cases referred to prosecutors in 2016. Their listing isn’t comprehensive, the commission relies on local election officials to notify them, which doesn’t always happen, but the list sheds light on how often suspected cases arise. The commission list shows 158 election cases referred to 46 county prosecutors between 2016 and 2018. The Journal Sentinel reached out to those district attorneys to find out the nature of those cases and what became of them. They heard back from all but six. After reviewing the list, prosecutors’ responses and court records, a few things became clear: Illegal voting is exceptionally rare in Wisconsin. They identified just a couple dozen cases of confirmed improper voting across three years of elections. Also, even counting all suspected illegal votes, those are a minute fraction of ballots cast. The highest number of referrals came in the 2018 general election after the elections commission expanded its capability to detect fraud across state lines. That generated 58 referrals out of 2.7 million votes cast. That’s 0.002% of all votes, or about 1 in every 46,000. Finally, the improper voting that does occur is more often due to errors than intentional fraud. That’s consistent with other findings in Wisconsin and nationwide, said Kenneth Mayer, professor of American politics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “In case after case and time after time, allegations of material numbers of people intentionally committing vote fraud, they just don’t withstand any scrutiny,” Mayer said. “The numbers are not literally zero, but they are so close to zero that it just puts to lie the arguments that this is a big problem.”

The 158 referrals since 2016 cover about 270 voters, since some involved multiple people. Here’s how those broke down. Unverified addresses: Few if any charges. The largest portion, 102 people, stemmed from address verification postcards officials send to anyone who registers to vote at the polls. If that postcard is returned as undeliverable and clerks can’t determine a reasonable explanation of why, the matter is referred to the local district attorney for investigation. Double voting: Many accidents, little evidence. The commission list included 82 voters suspected of voting twice, the majority from 2018, when the state started using the national Electronic Registration Information Center to check whether Wisconsin voters also voted in other states. It identified 44 cases where staff at the commission suspected people had done that. Those out-of-state referrals were sent to prosecutors in March, so many investigations are ongoing, prosecutors said. But many double-voting allegations, whether in multiple states or just Wisconsin, have proven difficult to prosecute. Underage voting: Confusion spurred spike in 2016.

Another 70 people were referred for underage voting, a situation unique to the 2016 presidential election. Wisconsin requires voters to be 18 on the day of the election in which they are voting, but other states allow 17-year-olds to vote in the primary if they turn 18 before the general election. Media coverage of this nuance and a related court case in Ohio caused confusion among Wisconsin 17-year-olds, which coupled with poll worker mistakes to allow numerous 17-year-olds to vote. Though underage voting is a felony, none of the prosecutors responding to our questions sought a conviction. Some prosecutors sent warning letters. Finally, ineligible voters: Felons vote when poll lists not checked. The list included a dozen referrals for ineligible voters, most of them felons discovered by the elections commission during the statutorily required post-election felon voter audit. Convicted felons are ineligible to vote while behind bars, or after release during the time they’re still on probation or parole.

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