While illegal voting is very rare, the state still takes it very seriously, experts say.
By Peter Cameron and Howard Hardee, THE BADGER PROJECT
Voter fraud is rare, in Wisconsin and nationally, but many checks exist to prevent and catch it, whether it be accidental or intentional.
In the 2020 presidential election, fewer than 0.003% of the nearly 3.3 million ballots cast in Wisconsin were submitted illegally by felons not yet eligible to vote because they hadn’t completed their full sentences, according to an investigation from the Associated Press. That’s the most common type of prohibited voting in Wisconsin, experts say.
After the 2020 election in Wisconsin, voter fraud charges were filed against at least 24 people in 12 different counties, according to the AP. Of those, 16 were suspected felons not yet eligible to vote. President Joe Biden won the state in the 2020 election by about 21,000 votes.
Because Wisconsin runs its elections at the municipal level, rather than county or state, it has one of the most decentralized election administration systems in the nation. The state has about 1,850 municipalities and nearly 2,500 polling places.
“What this means is that any attempted interference with the election process would have to entail widespread coordination and would have to target multiple systems that are run by different people,” said Aaron Weinschenk, a political science professor at UW-Green Bay.
The Badger Project talked to Weinschenk and Barry Burden, a political science professor and director of the Elections Research Center at UW-Madison, and also consulted the Wisconsin Elections Commission about the checks in place to deter and catch voter fraud in the state.
1. All voters are required to register
Residents must register to vote online at www.MyVote.wi.gov, by mail, or at their municipal clerk’s office, though it’s too late to do that now. But anyone eligible can register at their polling place on Election Day also. Only voters with a valid Wisconsin driver’s license or state ID card can register online. To prove residency when registering by mail, at their municipal clerk’s office, or at the polls on Election Day, voters must bring an official document, like a bank statement or a state ID, that has their name and current address.
2. Photo ID is required to vote by mail, and absentee ballots require a witness
Voters who request an absentee ballot must be registered to vote. For those who request a ballot online, most need to upload a copy of their photo ID if they haven’t done it previously.
Wisconsin also requires the filling out of absentee ballots be witnessed and signed by another person.
“It is not clear that this requirement is effective in inhibiting absentee ballot fraud, but it is an extra step that must be taken to cast an absentee ballot,” Burden said.
The state has online tools that let voters and election officials track ballots as they “wind their way through the system,” Burden said. “These tools are quite helpful for providing transparency and as a check on potential crimes such as theft of absentee ballots from mailboxes.”
3. Felons can’t legally vote until completing their entire sentence… Probation too
Safeguards are in place to prevent the most common form of prohibited voting — when a resident who is ineligible to vote due to a felony conviction attempts to cast a ballot. The Wisconsin Department of Corrections is required by law to provide the commission with an updated list of people convicted of felonies on a continuous basis, as well as felons who have completed their entire sentence and are eligible to vote again.
If a person who hasn’t completed their full felony sentence — for example, someone released from prison who hasn’t completed their parole or probation — tried to register to vote on Election Day, they would most likely get flagged by an election worker. It’s not a foolproof system; sometimes individuals slip through. But those cases are usually discovered during a post-election audit which is mandated by state law.
This type of illegal voting usually isn’t intentional, Burden said.
“People who are on parole or probation from felony convictions are often unaware of election laws and assume that they are able to vote once their incarceration ends,” Burden said. “Their attempts to vote can sometimes be labeled as purposeful vote fraud, but they are typically misunderstandings of the law.”
4. Dead people can’t vote
The state’s Department of Health Services, which issues death certificates, sends a list of deceased people to the Wisconsin Elections Commission each month, which is used to update voter registration information, Weinschenk noted. Also, local election officials regularly check death records (obituaries, funeral homes, etc.) to verify deaths, he said. When a registered voter dies, localities deactivate the person in the voter registration system, and a vote can’t be cast in their name.
“I think it is also important to note that if someone who has passed away got mailed a ballot and a relative completed it and mailed it in, there would be serious consequences,” Weinschenk continued. “If a person forged someone’s signature on a ballot, they would also need someone to sign as a witness in Wisconsin; both the person who forged the signature and the witness would risk facing fines, probation, or prison.”
5. Non-citizens can’t vote
Federal law clearly prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, Weinschenk said.
“It is not legal in any state for a noncitizen to cast a ballot in a federal election,” he added. “In Wisconsin, the state requires people to indicate whether or not they are citizens in the application process and doesn’t allow non-citizens to vote.”
6. Potential vote fraud is investigated
If voter fraud is suspected, municipal clerks will alert their county district attorney’s office for investigation. The Wisconsin Election Commission reports such cases to the Wisconsin State Legislature and posts them online for public viewing. The commission also checks to see if felons still serving their sentence have voted, in which case they would refer that case to law enforcement.
7. Voting equipment is double-checked
After an election, officials assess the performance of electronic voting equipment by auditing a random sampling of ballots.
During this process, election workers hand-count paper ballots. The total is compared to the election night voting system results. Audit materials are submitted to the Wisconsin Elections Commission for review, and any discrepancies are investigated.
8. People can’t vote more than once
The Voting Rights Act, a federal law, prohibits a person from voting twice in federal elections, Weinschenk noted.
If convicted, the person “shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both,” according to the law.
“So there is a high level of risk for trying to vote twice,” he said.
Also, Wisconsin is part of a 24-state organization known as the Electronic Registration Information Center that provides reports on potential duplicate registration records in different states and flags registrants who might have died or moved.
The Electronic Registration Information Center compares voter rolls with data from the post office, the Social Security Administration and driving records, Weinschenk said.
And the organization can detect when somebody tries to vote in more than one state.
9. Anyone (yes, you) can report suspected election crimes
If a person suspects they have witnessed an election crime, they can report it to local law enforcement or they can file a sworn complaint with the Wisconsin Election Commission. If you are unsure your complaint qualifies, you can ask the commission. The public’s eyes serve as another layer of protection for the integrity of the election.
The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.