Wisconsin’s Top Election Official Says ‘No Evidence’ of ‘Systemic or Widespread’ Issues

Poll workers sort out early and absentee ballots at the Kenosha Municipal building on Election Day in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 3, 2020. Wong Maye-E/AP Photo

Wisconsin’s top election official said this week that she has seen no evidence supporting claims of “systemic or widespread election issues.”

“Wisconsin’s election was conducted according to law and in the open. While the results are still unofficial and are currently being triple checked as part of the canvass and certification process, we have not seen any credible information to cast any doubt on those unofficial results," Meagan Wolfe, who was appointed in 2018 by a bipartisan election commission, said in a statement.

“When issues are reported to our office, we take them very seriously. We look into each allegation and request evidence from parties involved. At this time, no evidence has been provided that supports allegations of systemic or widespread election issues,” she added.

President Donald Trump narrowly won Wisconsin in 2016 and hopes to win it again this year. According to unofficial results, Trump has lost the state by about 20,000 votes to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

But the margin between the candidates was less than 1 percent, giving Trump an opportunity to request a recount.

Wisconsin's top election official, Meagan Wolfe, speaks during a virtual press conference on Nov. 4, 2020. Wisconsin State Handout via Reuters

The Trump campaign took steps last week to seek a recount in the state.

“There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results,” Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager, said in a statement after Election Day.

Along with other battleground states, allegations of election fraud or voting irregularities have emerged in Wisconsin.

Guidance issued by the Wisconsin Elections Commission resulted in municipal clerks filling out missing witness addresses on absentee ballot certificates, contrary to the plain language of the state law, Michael Gableman, a former state Supreme Court justice, told The Epoch Times.

Gableman saw the addresses filled in with red ink and four poll watchers told The Epoch Times that they saw red ink on absentee ballots that were counted on Election Day in Milwaukee.

Wolfe said clerks were following state law in “curing” absentee ballots in the described manner.

Concern over “mail-in ballot dumps and voter fraud” led state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican, to last week request the chamber’s Committee on Campaigns and Elections to review how the election was administered.

“There should be no question as to whether the vote was fair and legitimate, and there must be absolute certainty that the impending recount finds any and all irregularities,” he said in a press release. “Wisconsin’s election system is one of the best in the country. We have well-trained staff that finished counting the ballots well before most other states. However, we can always look for ways to improve it even more.

“I hope the committee investigates the inefficiency of Milwaukee’s central counting of absentee ballots, as well as the removal of voters from the rolls who no longer live here.”

Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Claire Woodall-Vogg delivers flash drives with absentee voter tallies from a central count location to Milwaukee County election officials early Nov. 4, 2020. Stephen Groves/AP Photo

In response, Claire Woodall-Vogg, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, told news outlets that the accusations were “absurd and insulting.”

“Our Central Count was open, transparent, well-organized and made up of nearly 70 election workers from Representative Vos’s own Republican Party,” she added.

State Rep. Joe Sanfelippo, a Republican, said on Nov. 9 that the Wisconsin Election Commission ignored state law when it refused to deactivate the eligibility of more than 230,000 unverified names on the voter list, as he echoed calls for an investigation.

Sanfelippo floated holding a new election or requiring Wisconsin’s Electoral College delegates to “correct the injustice with their votes.”

Wolfe said every stop of the election process was publicly observable and transparent, and asserted that absentee ballots were counted properly.

“Despite this transparency, we have seen unfounded allegations that clerks and poll workers stopped counting, that they mysteriously found absentee ballots in the middle of the night, or that all the votes on absentee ballots were only for one candidate,” Wolfe said. “It’s just not true.”