by Benjamin Yount
Wisconsin’s election managers are telling local clerks that they may ignore questions about their voter rolls if they’d like.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission last week sent a letter to all 1,850 municipal clerks plus the city of Milwaukee’s Election Commission and Milwaukee County’s Election Commission explaining that they have discretion in responding to outside requests for voter registration information.
“These private groups may help you identify errors and inaccuracies in your voter records. That said, third-party groups are not screened or vetted in any way by the Wisconsin Elections Commission or any other official agency. Groups may represent partisan political viewpoints, provide incomplete evidence, make incorrect characterizations of the law, or rely on hearsay,” WEC wrote in its letter.
The letter names the group Look Ahead America, and the Voter Integrity Project. Both are conservative groups that say they are focused on maintaining election integrity across the country.
“The 2020 General Election exposed many flaws and raised doubts about the way states conducted their elections. This has the dangerous impact of undermining the public’s confidence in future election outcomes. Look Ahead America’s state policy objectives are intended to eliminate these flaws and restore faith in our electoral system,” Look Ahead America states on its website. “Each of these policy objectives satisfies three key requirements: (1) eliminating vulnerabilities in our election system, (2) practicality of implementation, and (3) harmony with current state and federal laws and established legal precedence.”
The Voter Integrity Project is a North Carolina-based group with the same focus.
“When assessing a third-party communication, clerks may find it helpful to reexamine Wisconsin election laws,” the Commission added in its letter.
WEC is reminding local election managers about the rules for voters who may have moved, voters who claim to be indefinitely confined, and voters who have an address that is not an actual home.
All three were issues in Wisconsin during the 2020 presidential election.
“An allegation that a voter’s registration or ballot request is improper is serious, but it is also no more than an allegation. You have discretion to determine whether the information provided in support of the claim is reliable and whether you need to take any steps in response,” the letter concludes.
– – –
Bejamin Yount is a regular contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “Out to vote” by Ben Schumin CC BY-SA 3.0.
