The state of Wisconsin has reported 30 instances of suspected fraud and voting irregularities to prosecutors over the past year, according to a new report. Despite these cases, election administrators from both the Democratic and Republican parties agree that the nation’s election processes have numerous safeguards in place to prevent voter fraud. With elections decentralized into thousands of independent voting jurisdictions, large-scale vote-rigging operations are almost impossible to execute, making fraud rare but occasional.
Wisconsin law mandates that election clerks notify the Wisconsin Election Commission whenever they suspect fraud or encounter voting irregularities, which are then compiled into an annual report submitted to the Legislature. The forthcoming report is set to be approved by the commission and will detail the referrals made between July 1, 2023, and September 12 of this year. Among the cases reported, 18 involved individuals voting twice, with instances in Milwaukee County during both the 2023 and 2024 spring elections.
Additional cases in Douglas and Kenosha counties involved individuals voting twice during the 2024 spring election, either in-person and absentee or across different municipalities. Certain counties, such as Calumet, reported cases of individuals voting twice in-person absentee during the 2024 partisan primary. Kenosha County also noted six instances of felons registering to vote during the 2024 spring election, while Polk County referred a case of someone voting in Wisconsin after registering in another state during the 2023 spring election. Discrepancies in write-in candidate totals were reported in Douglas County during the 2024 spring election.
The report submitted to the Legislature does not disclose the identities of those involved in the suspected fraud cases nor the outcomes of the investigations. In the 2023 report, 44 cases of suspected fraud were referred to district attorneys between June 25, 2022, and June 30, 2023. With Wisconsin’s voting-age population standing at nearly 4.7 million as of 2022, the election commission remains vigilant in monitoring and addressing any instances of fraud or irregularities to uphold the integrity of the state’s electoral process.
