Boots & Sabers

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Tag: Wisconsin Elections Commission

Judge Orders WEC to Follow Law

by | 0739, 8 Sep 2222 | , | 17 Comments

The only reason this is even in court is because the WEC is a rogue agency that won’t follow the law.

WAUKESHA — A Waukesha County judge on Wednesday ruled that the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s guidance to municipal clerks about filling in missing witness information on absentee ballots runs counter to state law and banned the practice.

 

Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Michael Aprahamian issued a temporary restraining order and injunction against the Wisconsin Elections Commission, barring it from advising clerks to follow guidelines it issued in 2016 regarding incomplete witness information on absentee ballots. The WEC in 2016 said if information pertaining to witnesses on absentee ballots is missing a component like an address, clerks are to do all the reasonably can to “cure” the ballot and get that missing information, including relying on election records, personal knowledge, or other databases. Voters or witnesses “may” provide the missing information in person, by phone, fax, email or mail, or voters can request a new ballot. Clerks were advised they could return the ballot envelope to voters to get the information.

Knudson Resigns from WEC

by | 0618, 31 May 2222 | | 1 Comment

Good.

Former GOP state Rep. Dean Knudson Wednesday announced his resignation from the Elections Commission once a replacement is in place.

 

Knudson, appointed to the commission by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, said during a late afternoon meeting it has become clear to him that he’s no longer effective in his role as a Republican on the body.

 

He moved — and the commission approved — putting off selecting a new chair until a replacement is selected.

 

Knudson said he wasn’t interested in the role.

 

“It’s been made clear to me from the highest level of the Republican Party of Wisconsin that there’s a deep desire that I not be the chair. That’s fine,” Knudson said without offering specifics.

Knudson has been bad at this job. It curious, however, how his resignation came about. There have been calls for his removal and replacement from base Republicans and various Republican leaders since early 2020. It was early in 2020 when it became clear that the WEC was going to ignore laws, overstep its authority, and do so in favor of Democrats whenever possible.

And yet… those calls went unanswered until now. Knudson clearly felt that he should stay in the role because someone in the GOP leadership was telling him to do so. Vos? Of course. Who else? And who finally changed their mind? And why did it take so long?

People are policy

by | 1115, 16 Jan 2222 | , | 1 Comment

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

After another election cycle where the Wisconsin Election Commission did everything they could within and without of the law to tilt the election results to the Democrats, there is talk again of restructuring or rebuilding the WEC to make it less partisan. The problem is not with the structure or mission of the WEC. The problem is with the people who run it and the refusal of lawmakers to hold them accountable.

 

The history of the WEC is important to remember. The WEC came into existence in 2016 as a response to the corrupt Government Accountability Board. The GAB was an allegedly bipartisan board that was responsible for the oversight of elections and ethics. Particularly after Gov. Scott Walker won in 2010 and Republicans won majorities in the Legislature, the GAB was involved in multiple scandals as they used their power over elections and ethics to advance the cause of Democrats. It was one of the many cases of Democrats weaponizing a purportedly unbiased government agency for political gain.

 

But the GAB was created for the same reason as the WEC. The GAB was only in existence for less than a decade. It was formed in 2008 to assume the combined responsibilities of the State Ethics Board and the State Elections Board. The GAB was created because the State Ethics Board and State Elections Board had been involved in multiple scandals where they used their authority to influence outcomes instead of acting fairly and, ironically, ethically.

 

Do you see the pattern? While the response of politicians to the rogue actions of one of their creations is to reshape it with the vain notion that structure can be a substitute for leadership, they ignore the root of the problem. The problem is not the structure. The problem is the people.

 

The structure of the WEC is designed to balance competing interests. The commission is comprised of six appointed commissioners who serve staggered five-year terms. Two of the commissioners are appointed by the governor. Two commissioners are appointed by the Senate majority and minority Leaders. Two commissioners are appointed by the Assembly speaker and Assembly minority leader. As structured, no single political party would ever have complete control of the commission, but one party could control a majority of the commissioners.

 

The commissioners are responsible for leading the WEC, but they hire a staff that does most of the work. The staff is also responsible for making recommendations to the commissioners on public policy matters. The WEC is not a lawmaking body. The extent of their mandate is to manage Wisconsin’s elections within the firm boundaries set forth in state statute. It is in the intentional violation of their legal boundaries where the WEC most often runs afoul of their charge.

 

In just the last few years, the WEC has bent or broken the law in a number of ways. They refused to purge the voter rolls in a timely fashion as directed by law. They reportedly allowed nursing home staffers to cast votes on behalf of residents in violation of the law. They allowed municipalities to use unattended ballot drop boxes, closed polling locations, prohibited special voting deputies from entering nursing homes, and repeatedly used the pandemic as an excuse to ignore state law. All of these actions made it easier to cheat and made our elections less likely to actually represent the will of the people.

 

Beyond the affirmative violations of the law, the WEC exploited its regulatory authority to favor Democrats. In almost every single dispute about an election process or action, the WEC ruled in favor of Democrats. It is remarkable that a purportedly nonpartisan and unbiased commission would make decisions in favor of one party so consistently.

 

The structure of the WEC is supposed to prevent such biased actions. The fact that the WEC is an appointed commission that is accountable to elected officials is supposed to hold them accountable to the law and mission of the commission. Here is where the actions, and inactions, of people is the root of the problem.

 

When the WEC was created, it was staffed almost entirely with the same Madison bureaucrats who worked in the GAB. Since the GAB was discredited and dissolved because it was corrupt, it was ludicrous to move the same staff to the new commission, but that is exactly what happened.

 

With the same biased and corrupt staff, the new commissioners of the WEC have the power and responsibility to act legally and fairly. Here again, the commissioners have failed in their duty to use their power to keep Wisconsin’s elections free and fair.

 

Even as the commissioners are failing in their duty, it is the duty and responsibility of the governor and legislative leaders to hold their appointees accountable when they violate the letter or spirit of the law. Here again, the elected leaders are failing in their duty.

 

The WEC has three layers of leadership and accountability, and all three layers are failing because of the weak and/or corrupt people who are in those leadership positions. There is no alternative commission structure than could instill ethics or backbone in people who do not have them already.

 

The problem with the WEC is not the structure. The problem with the WEC is the people responsible for running it. Until the people of Wisconsin hold elected officials accountable, the problem of corrupt and sloppy elections in Wisconsin is not going away.

People are policy

by | 0722, 11 Jan 2222 | | 0 Comments

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

After another election cycle where the Wisconsin Election Commission did everything they could within and without of the law to tilt the election results to the Democrats, there is talk again of restructuring or rebuilding the WEC to make it less partisan. The problem is not with the structure or mission of the WEC. The problem is with the people who run it and the refusal of lawmakers to hold them accountable.

 

[…]

 

The WEC has three layers of leadership and accountability, and all three layers are failing because of the weak and/or corrupt people who are in those leadership positions. There is no alternative commission structure than could instill ethics or backbone in people who do not have them already.

 

The problem with the WEC is not the structure. The problem with the WEC is the people responsible for running it. Until the people of Wisconsin hold elected officials accountable, the problem of corrupt and sloppy elections in Wisconsin is not going away.

Yes, the Wisconsin Elections Commission is Still Weaponized for the Left

by | 1138, 2 Jun 2121 | | 5 Comments

This story really illustrates the politicization of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Months after the state resolved a long-running dispute over its voter list, Wisconsin’s Elections Commission is poised to send out a routine mailer that could remove tens of thousands of inactive voters from its rolls.

 

The mailer — which is a postcard sent out every two years — will be delivered to more than 187,000 people who haven’t voted since November of 2016, a four-year span that covers more than a dozen elections.

 

In a state like Wisconsin, where the past two presidential races have been decided by around 20,000 votes out of more than 3 million cast, changes to the voting list can make national news.

 

That’s not the case with this latest mailer, which — at least so far — is flying under the radar.

 

“Generally, people who get this are people who have moved or just aren’t interested in voting anymore,” said Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesperson Reid Magney. “But we occasionally do get several thousand people out of this who will let us know, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m still here … So keep me on the list.'”

 

The list in question is different than the one that sparked a year-and-a-half legal fight that was resolved in April by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

 

[…]

 

The state is scheduled to send the postcards on June 15. People who receive the postcards who want to remain registered should return them to the state.

 

“And if they don’t respond, then they are moved from the active to the inactive list, which means that they would have to reregister if they wanted to vote,” Magney said.

Clerks will have until July 15 to update their voter lists based on who responds. The Elections Commission will then remove those voters from the state’s registration list on July 31.

This is a perfectly normal and acceptable process to maintain the integrity and cleanliness of our voter rolls. After all, if the state has an indication that someone might have moved out state or died, then why wouldn’t we want to remove them from the rolls to avoid fraud or mistakes? And if they are removed in error, Wisconsin allows people to register at the polls. It’s a tiny hassle, but negligible when balanced against the benefit of cleaning up the rolls.

Furthermore, six weeks from mailing to purge is a reasonable amount of time for people to respond and for clerks to update the rolls. All. Perfectly. Acceptable.

Yet… in 2019 and 2020 this was a major issue. Liberals and the Elections Commission claimed that this normal sanitization of our electoral process was unjust and that there wasn’t possible enough time for the clerks to make changes before the election. It went to court. People spewed spittle on the interwebs about the impropriety of the process. In the end, the names were never removed from the rolls prior to election day.

What changed?

Simple. In 2020, the Democrats were expecting heavy turnout on their side and the liberals on the Elections Commission wanted to clear the decks for every possible attempt at fraud. In 2022, the Republicans are expecting a strong turnout and the liberal on the Elections Commission are willing to return to normal processes.

The WEC should complete this routing sanitization of the voter rolls. And it never should have been an issue in 2019/2020. The fact that it was tells us everything we need to know about the people who run that commission.

Wisconsin Elections Commission Violates Law… Again

by | 0735, 3 Mar 2121 | | 5 Comments

What do you do when an agency just ignores the law and does what they want? We are finding that our system of government breaks down.

Senator Steve Nass (R-Whitewater), Co-chair of the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR), was outraged by the failure of the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) to comply with state law regarding special voting deputies (SVDs) and the process for them going to nursing homes, residential care facilities and retirement homes to assist with absentee voting by residents of these facilities.

 

Today, the WEC knowingly issued another directive on SVDs for the April 6th Election that violates the law and ignores a lawful mandate given to the WEC by JCRAR (on February 11, 2021) to complete an emergency rule by March 13, 2021, before issuing any further directives. “The Wisconsin Elections Commission and its staff can’t be bothered to follow the law even after being given a lawful mandate from the legislature through the statutory powers of JCRAR. It is shocking that the people responsible for protecting the integrity of our elections would so openly violate the law even after being told what they were doing was improper” Nass said.

 

In early February, Nass released a legal opinion from the Wisconsin Legislative Council making clear that “state law does not empower the Elections Commission to waive” a statutory requirement that local clerks must dispatch SVDs to these facilities.

Lefty Attack Dog Appointed to Wisconsin Ethics Commission

by | 0736, 24 Apr 2020 | | 42 Comments

I guess we now know what Shilling thinks about ethics.

Scot Ross, former executive director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, has been appointed to the Wisconsin Ethics Commission.

Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, announced on Thursday that Ross had been appointed to the position previously held by Tamara Packard. The term will expire in May 2024.

It’s not just that Ross is a lefty attack dog, it’s that he has a history of being one of the most vile and dishonest politicos in Wisconsin. I can’t blame Ross. He is what he is. But for Shilling to appoint him to a board responsible for upholding ethics is a travesty and a deep stain on her character.

Wisconsin Elections Commission Affirms Uselessness in Ensuring Fair Elections

by | 2151, 20 Apr 2020 | | 0 Comments

The WEC continues to chip away at the integrity of our elections.

“Instead of having a trickle of people coming into these polling places you had a massive group,” Spindell explained. “What I’m disturbed about is we had to have people wait two hours in line, four hours in Green Bay and nobody else anywhere in the whole state had to do that and this was completely unnecessary.”

But when it came time to vote on that investigation, which some members of Green Bay’s city council demanded, a tie killed the request shortly after it was put on the table.

Wisconsin Elections Commission Fails Again

by | 2235, 29 Mar 2020 | | 6 Comments

It’s possible that the WEC is the most dysfunctional government agency in the state. The Democrats’ behavior here is despicable.

The state elections commission will not investigate county clerks in Milwaukee and Dane counties for encouraging absentee voters staying home due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak to use an indefinitely confined provision to avoid the state’s photo ID requirement.

In a Sunday meeting, the Wisconsin Elections Commission — which consists of three Democrats and three Republicans — was deadlocked on motions that would have tabled investigations into the two clerks, while warning them their use of indefinite confinement violated state elections laws. Motions by Democratic members to do away with the proposed investigations entirely also failed along party line votes. With all votes split 3-3, none of the motions passed.

MyVote Wisconsin Voting Site is Down

by | 1644, 18 Feb 2020 | | 43 Comments

Goodness… could the WEC be any more dysfunctional? This is a basic service.

An online system that allows voters to look up their polling location experienced problems Tuesday as spring primary voters went to the polls.

The problem with MyVote Wisconsin stemmed from a server that crashed and had to be taken offline, Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesman Reid Magney said. The site was crashing for some visitors, while others experienced long delays as it retrieved information.

As of late Tuesday afternoon, the Elections Commission was in the process of configuring a replacement server.

The Elections Commission does have a backup polling location service, gettothepolls.com, for voters and clerks to access while they fix the problem.

“If you need to look up your polling place, continue to use the backup site,” Magney said. “If you need to find out if you’re registered to vote, go to MyVote.”

Wisconsin Elections Commission Is a Disgrace

by | 2136, 12 Feb 2020 | | 0 Comments

Their incompetence is only matched by their arrogance.

Members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Wednesday voted unanimously to delay enforcing a state law on the books since 2011 that they argued could sow confusion and open the state up to an Iowa-style election meltdown during Wisconsin’s presidential primary in April.

With a 6-0 vote, both Democratic and Republican commissioners scrapped a plan for local elections officials to send two separate ballots to all absentee Wisconsin voters — at least 81,000 people — ahead of the statewide April 7 election, even while acknowledging their action is likely violating state law. The April 7 election features a presidential primary, state Supreme Court general election and other local races.

“The law here is very clear, but the law isn’t going to be easy for our clerks to follow,” WEC chairman Dean Knudson, a Republican, said. “In following the law, there’s at least going to be inconvenience and confusion, and, at the worst, there could be chaos.”

Senator Stroebel: “The judicial order was clear”

by | 1143, 3 Jan 2020 | | 2 Comments

Yep

Madison, WI – The Wisconsin Election Commission continues to ignore state law, and a judicial order, by refusing to update our voter rolls. The fact that Democratic members of the Elections Commission are disobeying a judicial order is troubling for anyone concerned with elections in our state.

Senator Stroebel made the following statement in reaction to the Election Commission’s refusal to follow Judge Malloy’s Order:

“The judicial order was clear, the Wisconsin Elections Commission must maintain voter lists as per state law. This law is clear and the judicial order leaves no room for the Democratic members of the Election Commission to find excuses.

“My constituents expect fair and transparent elections and disregarding state law and a judicial order undermine those expectations.”

Wisconsin continues to have same day voter registration. This means that any citizen who is eligible to vote and can register to vote almost any day between now until Election Day, whether they have moved or are voting for the first time.

Wisconsin Elections Commission Breaks Law

by | 0840, 31 Dec 1919 | | 71 Comments

Lawless. Our Republic falls apart when arrogant bureaucrats refuse to implement the laws that the people pass. If they don’t have to follow the laws they don’t like, why should I?

With a 3-3 party line vote, a Republican motion that would have ordered the commission to remove some voters from the rolls failed to advance. Voters removed from the rolls would need to register at their new address if they moved or at their same address if they didn’t. Wisconsin offers same-day registration, so voters can register at the polls the day of an election with proper ID and proof of address.

Monday’s inaction by the commission is the second time this month commissioners deadlocked on a path forward on the state’s voter roll issue, which has garnered national attention.

The commission’s meeting comes after Ozaukee County Judge Paul Malloy earlier this month ordered the state to purge voters flagged as having moved. Earlier in December, commissioners deadlocked 3-3 along party lines, failing to advance a motion that would have removed voters from the rolls within seven business days of Malloy’s order.
For the record, these are the commissioners who are voting to violate the law and a very clear court order. These are the people who are unfit and should never be trusted with the public’s business. Frankly, I wouldn’t trust any of them with private business either.
Julie M Glancey – Sheboygan Falls
Ann S. Jacobs – Milwaukee
Mark L. Thomsen – Milwaukee

Rogue bureaucrats and leftist aggression against self-governance

by | 1139, 25 Dec 1919 | , | 34 Comments

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.

 

Rogue bureaucrats and leftist aggression against self-governance

by | 1031, 24 Dec 1919 | , | 3 Comments

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.

Judge Orders State Elections Commission to Comply with Clear Law

by | 1641, 13 Dec 1919 | | 18 Comments

Wow. Isn’t that a slanted opening paragraph?

PORT WASHINGTON — A Wisconsin judge on Friday ordered that the registration of up to 234,000 voters be tossed out because they may have moved, a victory for conservatives that could make it more difficult for people to vote next year in the key swing state.

No, it won’t make it harder for any legitimate voter to vote. That’s a BS argument.

The judge sided with three voters represented by a conservative law firm who argued the state elections commission should have immediately deactivated any of the roughly 234,000 voters who didn’t respond to an October mailing within 30 days. The voters were flagged as having potentially moved.

Ozaukee County Judge Paul Malloy denied a request by elections commission attorneys to put his decision on hold. He ordered the state Elections Commission to follow the law requiring voters who didn’t respond to be deactivated.

“I can’t tell them how to do that, they’re going to have to figure that out,” Malloy said of the commission deactivating the voters.

The law is clear as day and easy to follow. The folks in the Elections Commission just don’t want to do it and are throwing up lame excuses for why they won’t do their jobs.

WILL Sues Election Commission for Violating State Law

by | 1949, 16 Oct 1919 | , | 1 Comment

This seems pretty cut and dry.

Background: To maintain accurate voter registration data, Wisconsin participates with 28 other states in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). ERIC flags “movers” – individuals who report an official government transaction from an address different than their voter registration address – to state election agencies.

The Wisconsin Election Commission first reviews the information on “movers” for accuracy and reliability. State law then provides specific direction to WEC on how to handle “movers” flagged by ERIC.

  • WEC is to send a notice to the mover at the address of their voter registration.
  • A voter has 30 days to affirm whether they still live at the address.
    • If the voter affirms they live at the address – by returning the postcard or completing a brief form online – nothing happens.
  • If the voter takes no action for 30 days, WEC is to change the voter’s registration status from eligible to ineligible.

But on June 11, 2019 the Wisconsin Election Commission decided, contrary to state law, that changes in eligibility for a voter flagged as a “mover” by ERIC will not occur for 12 to 24 months.

The timing by the Election Commission conveniently pushes out any correcting of the voter roll until after the next presidential election. Coincidence?

Wisconsin Elections Commission Chooses New Director

by | 1207, 2 Mar 1818 | | 0 Comments

Ehhh….

The commission of three Republicans and three Democrats voted unanimously to appoint Assistant Director Meagan Wolfe as interim director and put her on a path to be permanent director. The commission is to discuss the issue further in closed session, when issues like her salary will be determined.

[…]

Republican Commissioner Dean Knudson wanted to make Wolfe the temporary director while the commission conducted a national search for a permanent director, but the commission on a 1-5 vote rejected that idea. Knudson then joined the other commissioners in voting to pursue making Wolfe the permanent director.

It just seems like a missed opportunity to not actually put the job out there and see who else might be interested. The commissioners are just taking the easy “next person up” approach, which is lazy management.

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