Voters File Legal Complaint Accusing Wisconsin Election Commission Of Violating Federal Election Law

Shawn FleetwoodSeptember 8, 2022

Wisconsin voters filed a legal complaint against the state’s elections commission on Thursday, accusing the body “and its members of violating the federal Help America Vote Act by its contracted use of [the] Electronic Registration Information Center [ERIC].”

Filed by the Thomas More Society on behalf of the Wisconsin Voter Alliance, the complaint alleges that “in violation of the federal Help America Vote Act, the Wisconsin Election Commission [WEC] has contracted with Electronic Registration Information Center, Inc. to maintain and implement WisVote” and that the “delegation of this government function to an outside entity has enabled the potential rigging of Wisconsin’s federal elections towards particular federal candidates.”

According to a Thomas More Society press release, the Help America Vote Act “requires that the Wisconsin Elections Commission and its officials, by itself and by themselves, respectively, maintain and implement WisVote, the state’s voter information database.”

Also included in the legal complaint are details on “how, rather than complying with the Congressionally enacted Help America Vote Act, the Wisconsin Elections Commission has entered into a membership agreement with [the] Electronic Registration Information Center, Inc., authorizing ‘the transmission of information and data related to the registration of electors in this state [by the Wisconsin Elections Commission] to the Electronic Registration Information Center, Inc., for processing and sharing with other member states and governmental units.’”

As reported by Federalist Staff Writer Victoria Marshall, ERIC was “[s]tarted in 2012 by far-left activist David Becker and the left-leaning Pew Charitable Trusts” and “sold to states as a quick and easy way to update their voter rolls.”

“ERIC shares voter roll data — including records of unregistered voters — it receives from the states with [The Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR)],” one of the “two leftist groups used to funnel Mark Zuckerberg’s $419 million that funded the private takeover of government election offices in 2020,” Marshall wrote. “CEIR then develops targeted mailing lists and sends them back to the states to use for voter registration outreach. As part of their agreement with ERIC, states are not allowed to disclose any data they send to nor receive from ERIC, however, ERIC is not under the same constraints and is able to work with CEIR.”

In essence, ERIC acts as a cover for left-wing operatives to “accomplish their partisan goals and drive Democratic voter turnout” in dozens of states across the country.

“Under the Help America Vote Act, the United States Congress deemed that maintaining the statewide voter registration system database is seen as such a core governmental purpose that it cannot be delegated to any other organization, including the Electronic Registration Information Center, Inc.,” said Thomas More Society Special Counsel Erick Kaardal in a statement. “As every Wisconsinite knows … some things must be done by oneself, if at all possible, even if done badly, like our elders eating, dressing, and going to the bathroom. Similarly, the Help America Vote Act requires the Wisconsin Election Commission to maintain WisVote by itself, even if it does so poorly.”

“The commission has made a catastrophic mistake by allowing the Electronic Registration Information Center into Wisconsin’s database management. Wisconsinites will never be satisfied until they get control of their voter database back,” he added.

Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood