Wisconsin Voter Alliance Says State Violates Federal Election Law

Residents cast their ballots during in-person absentee voting at City Hall in Green Bay, Wis., on Nov. 4, 2022. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Wisconsin state Rep. Janel Brandtjen was shocked to find three military ballots in her home mailbox on Oct. 27, 2022.

The ballots were addressed to “Holly” with three different last names. None of these individuals have ever lived at her address. Ms. Brandtjen had not requested the ballots and after checking into it further, she realized these three “Hollys” probably don’t exist.

“I believe someone was trying to point out how easy it is to get military ballots in Wisconsin. Registration for military ballots is not required, so a fictitious name and birthdate is all that is required to obtain a military ballot online,” Ms. Brandtjen said in a statement last year. “It demonstrates stolen valor from those who protect this nation.”

Ron Heuer, president of the Wisconsin Voter Alliance, an election integrity watchdog group, was disturbed when he heard about this incident and wondered how many more questionable ballots were out there.

After an investigation, Wisconsin Voter Alliance, Mr. Heuer, and alliance member Ken Brown joined as plaintiffs and filed a complaint on Oct. 2 against the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), alleging its policy not to verify the identity and eligibility of all overseas absentee voters violates federal election law.

Two Important Acts

The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), passed by Congress in 1986, allows absentee voting by members of the U.S. military and Merchant Marine; their family members; and U.S. citizens residing outside the United States. This includes people who have never lived in the United States and never intend to. People born outside the Unites States to U.S. citizens are themselves considered U.S. citizens and may vote in U.S. elections in some states.

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) established minimum standards for the administration of federal elections including the requirement for verification of identity and eligibility for individuals who seek to vote in a federal election. Many states exceed the low minimum verification requirements set by HAVA, but no state can legally implement a lesser standard.

In recent years, more out-of-country nonmilitary people have voted in U.S. elections than military voters.

Wisconsin law requires clerks to provide a ballot to UOCAVA applicants only “upon receipt of a valid application.”

In Wisconsin, UOCAVA applicants get a ballot even if they don’t show identification proving their identity and connection to the United States.

“Through unlawful guidance, WEC has instructed clerks to send ballots without first verifying that the application is valid. This is a violation of HAVA and risks the dilution of military votes by allowing ineligible individuals to receive and vote an absentee overseas ballot,” a Wisconsin Voter Alliance statement said.

More Than Military

Often UOCAVA is thought of as the military vote, but today most UOCAVA voters are nonmilitary people.

Nationwide in 2022, nonmilitary voters made up 65 percent of UOCAVA voters and 35 percent were military or military dependents combined. In Madison, Wisconsin, 13 percent of the 2022 UOCAVA votes were military, and 87 percent were nonmilitary.

In 2020, with the COVID pandemic at its height, many U.S. citizens returned home from abroad. Internal Revenue Service records show a decrease of at least 805,000 tax returns from overseas. Yet the 2020 election showed 7,482 more UOCAVA ballots in 2020 compared to 2016.

“Progressive billionaires and their nonprofits are encouraging people that are abroad and home to vote, regardless of citizenship,” said attorney Erick Kaardal, who is handling the complaint, in a video conference call announcing the lawsuit on Monday. “We have to take care of two problems: noncitizens voting overseas, which we’re dealing with here, and noncitizens voting within the United States. And one of the reasons we have to do that is because, for noncitizens voting overseas, the system is particularly vulnerable to this kind of abuse so we really have to hone in on this.

“It is two aspects of the same problem, but we have to challenge it so people should be concerned about noncitizens voting within our borders. But we should also be concerned about noncitizens voting overseas, and that’s what this administrative complaint’s about and that’s what we’re intending to stop.”

The Epoch Times asked the WEC to comment on this story.

It is clear the state is aware of the issue. In a 2021 report by the Wisconsin Joint Legislative Audit Committee (pdf), the Legislative Audit Bureau noted that WEC was out of compliance with federal legal requirements to match the personal information on the overseas voter applications.

“Two years have passed since the Legislative Audit Bureau identified that WEC was out of compliance,” Mr. Kaardal said. “WEC, in response, has done nothing. Wisconsin Voter Alliance files this complaint to legally compel WEC into compliance with federal law requiring WEC to verify the identity and eligibility for all overseas voter applications.”

The alliance asks WEC for an administrative declaration that WEC’s guidance exempting would-be UOCAVA-eligible voters from first meeting the HAVA identify-verification requirement violates HAVA; and that WEC’s directives must be corrected to a legally compliant policy that meets the minimum HAVA identity verification requirements for voter applications.

Similar administrative complaints have been filed in Pennsylvania and Minnesota.