What did the WEC tell clerks about fixing problems with witness addresses on absentee ballot certificates?
Clerks are not required by state law to contact voters who submit absentee ballots with signatures or addresses missing from the certificate, but the WEC and its predecessor agencies have long advised clerks to attempt to contact voters to correct these kinds of problems if they can before the
Did military absentee ballot numbers unexpectedly decrease between 2020 and 2022?
The number of returned military absentee ballots did in fact decrease between the 2020 and 2022 General Elections. However, this decrease aligns with longstanding trends and follows a pattern dating to at least 2016. Determining the number of military members who voted absentee in an election is
Does Wisconsin have duplicate voter registration numbers?
No. All Wisconsin voter registration numbers are unique. Wisconsin voter registration numbers consist of at least 9 characters and are alpha-numeric. This means they may include both numbers and letters. They may also begin with any character, including a zero. Thus, the registration number is
Why are there thousands of voters with the same phone number listed in the statewide voter registration database?
This issue is almost exclusive to voters in the city of Racine, and almost exclusive to inactive voters. A default phone number appears in some Inactive Voter Records in the city of Racine because of data conversion more than 15 years ago from the city’s own legacy voter registration system into the
Why does the statewide voter registration database include multiple voters with birth dates of 1/1/1900 and registration dates of 1/1/1918?
Default dates of birth and voter registration dates in the WisVote database is not a newly discovered issue or an indication of voter fraud. This information has been in the State Voter Registration System (SVRS) and WisVote system since at least 2006 and is the result of data migration from over
Did “thousands of people” vote from the same address in the 2020 General Election?
No. Some people have circulated a spreadsheet showing multiple people at the same street address and claiming that, “thousands voted from the same address,” to imply fraudulent activity. Several different locations are mentioned but the two most commonly identified places are 1411 Ellis Avenue in
Did thousands of voters fail driver’s license checks because they are not real people and possess fraudulent licenses?
No. The Wisconsin Elections Commission has not received a single substantiated report of a specific person who misrepresented their identity and/or provided a fraudulent driver’s license to election officials. Driver’s license checks are a complicated subject. Some people are conflating and
What is a HAVA/DMV check and how do they work?
HAVA Checks are comparisons between a voter registration record and a DMV or Social Security record. They are also sometimes referred to as “DMV Checks.” They are designed to catch typos and data entry errors to improve the quality of the voter registration list. They are not designed to be a
When a person is no longer registered to vote, why does Wisconsin make their registration status “inactive?” Why not just delete their record?
There are two big reasons to retain the records of inactive, or ineligible, voters. First and foremost is that the law requires it. The retention of public records is essential to the maintenance of an open and transparent government. Wisconsin Stat. § 16.61 addresses the retention of records for