Swing state sued for illegal online absentee ballot application process.
Swing State Sued for Establishing ‘Clearinghouse’ Online Absentee Ballot Application Process in Violation of State Law
A lawsuit filed against the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) on Friday alleges that the agency is violating the law by allowing residents to apply for absentee ballots online instead of through individual municipal clerks’ offices.
The suit also charges that the WEC is unlawfully failing to maintain an accurate voter registration list, instead keeping a database that contains over 3 million ineligible voters.
In his motion for summary judgment, Wisconsin voter Scott Sidney states, “WEC is failing to comply with Wisconsin law by extralegally operating an online clearinghouse for the collection of absentee ballot requests via its website myvote.wi.gov.”
The court filing highlights that Wisconsin law explicitly aims to prevent fraud and abuse in the absentee ballot process. The statute states, “The legislature finds that the privilege of voting by absentee ballot must be carefully regulated to prevent the potential for fraud or abuse.”
Under the law, primary methods for applying for an absentee ballot are either by mail or in person at the municipal clerk’s office or through an authorized third-party representative.
“Wisconsin law provides no option for a voter to request an absentee ballot via filling out a form on a website, whether that website is maintained through WEC, a clerk, or anyone else. Nor does section 6.86 allow for persons to request an absentee ballot through an intermediary. Yet, that is exactly the function of the online clearinghouse,” Sidney’s brief in support of his motion for summary judgment states.
The Wisconsin voter calls on the judge to command WEC to cease the operation of the clearinghouse and require clerks to issue absentee ballots only upon receiving a written request directly from a voter through authorized methods.
Sidney argues that such a ruling would align with the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision in Teigen v. WEC in 2022, which declared the use of absentee ballot drop boxes illegal.
Conservative commentator Barry Farah supports the lawsuit, emphasizing that Wisconsin law aims to prevent abuse and fraud resulting from increased absentee ballot availability.
In addition to challenging the online absentee ballot application website, Sidney also calls on the judge to direct WEC to create and maintain an accurate voter registration list.
“Wisconsin law provides that WEC must maintain a ‘Registration List’ that contains only ‘electors that are properly registered to vote,’” Sidney said.
Instead of maintaining such a list, WEC keeps a database that includes ineligible voters, such as deceased individuals, felons, and those not properly registered. The database has grown to over 7.4 million names, exceeding the number of Wisconsin residents of voting age.
The lawsuit demands that WEC migrate properly registered, eligible voters to a new, separate electronic list and provide this list exclusively to clerks for future elections. Clerks should not have access to the database containing ineligible voters.
According to Farah, approximately 633,000 of the names in the database are deceased individuals.
The Western Journal reached out to WEC for comment, but the agency declined to comment on ongoing litigation.
The conservative group Judicial Watch has been successful in suing multiple states and localities since the 2020 election to clean up state voter registration rolls.
Source: The Western Journal
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