Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News.

Once again Wisconsin finds itself in a heated legal battle over a common sense law because of the insistence of liberals that they be able to cheat in our elections. The latest skirmish comes over the routine business of cleaning up our voter rolls.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission was formed in 2016 after the monstrously corrupt Government Accountability Board was dismantled. The WEC is charged with administering and enforcing election laws in the state. The WEC does not make law. It is charged with administering and enforcing laws.

One of those administration tasks is to maintain the state’s voter rolls. Every Wisconsin voter registers in their local district to ensure that the people in a particular district, municipality, county, etc. are electing their government. It is a cornerstone of representative government that the elected leaders are elected by people who actually live in the area to be governed. It is critically important that these voter rolls are accurate for selfgovernance to be a reality. If people from Chicago, for example, can drive up to Racine and cast a vote, then the good people of Racine are being denied self-governance.

One of the mechanisms that the state uses to maintain the voter rolls is participation in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which is a coalition of 28 states and Washington, D.C. that monitors people’s movement. For example, if someone moves from Hudson, Wisconsin, to Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and gets a new driver’s license, the state of Minnesota would update the ERIC system. However, that person is still on the voting rolls in Hudson unless someone removes them.

In order to keep the voter rolls accurate, the state passed a law that requires the WEC to send notices to anyone who ERIC indicates moved within or without of the state to verify where the person actually lives. If they moved or if the person does not respond, then the WEC is directed to remove the person’s name from the voting rolls within 30 days and invite the person to reregister to vote in the correct precinct on or before the next date they want to vote.

This is truly a sensible, routine, administrative function that should not be controversial. There is absolutely no hardship on anyone here. The worst case is that someone might be accidentally removed from the voting rolls, but can reregister when they go to vote next time. Wisconsin has same day voting registration and requires a photo identification to vote. Being accidentally removed from the voting rolls might cause a minor inconvenience for a few people who have to reregister, but the benefit is that hundreds of thousands of incorrect voter registrations are removed, thus lessening the opportunity for election fraud.

In October, the WEC sent out about 234,000 of these confirmation notices, of which only 18,800 responded. By law, the WEC is supposed to use that information to update the voting rolls. The WEC refused, so the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty sued them in state court to make them follow the law. A state court judge ordered them to follow the law. The WEC commissioners — specifically the three Democrat commissioners — refused to follow the court order. The decision is being appealed in state court by the liberal Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and the liberal activist group the League of Women Voters is suing in federal court, but the court’s order still stands and the WEC is still refusing to comply with the law.

This is how our republic crumbles. Our government institutions refuse to comply with the will of the people or the law of the land. Our elections are undermined by the willful manipulation of bureaucrats and activists bent on their own agendas. We allow swamp creatures who supplant their will for the will of the people to hold dominion over us.

Wisconsin could be the deciding state in the next presidential election and that the election could be decided by a handful of votes. That is why the leftists are driven to undermine our electoral process any way they can to open up opportunities to cheat. That is why this exceedingly routine effort to maintain accurate voting rolls is being fought so vigorously. That is why we must insist that our government abide by the will of the people and follow the law.

 

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:

In October, the WEC sent out about 234,000 of these confirmation notices, of which only 18,800 responded. By law, the WEC is supposed to use that information to update the voting rolls. The WEC refused, so the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty sued them in state court to make them follow the law. A state court judge ordered them to follow the law. The WEC commissioners — specifically the three Democrat commissioners — refused to follow the court order. The decision is being appealed in state court by the liberal Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and the liberal activist group the League of Women Voters is suing in federal court, but the court’s order still stands and the WEC is still refusing to comply with the law.

This is how our republic crumbles. Our government institutions refuse to comply with the will of the people or the law of the land. Our elections are undermined by the willful manipulation of bureaucrats and activists bent on their own agendas. We allow swamp creatures who supplant their will for the will of the people to hold dominion over us.

Wisconsin could be the deciding state in the next presidential election and that the election could be decided by a handful of votes. That is why the leftists are driven to undermine our electoral process any way they can to open up opportunities to cheat. That is why this exceedingly routine effort to maintain accurate voting rolls is being fought so vigorously. That is why we must insist that our government abide by the will of the people and follow the law.