Here & Now

Claire Woodall-Vogg on Voters and the 2022 Partisan Primary

Frederica Freyberg:

The Wisconsin Elections Commission this week voted unanimously to send an email to local clerks, reminding them that federal and state law allow people to assist disabled people in voting. How does that square with the recent state Supreme Court ruling that banned absentee ballot drop boxes and requires voters to themselves put a ballot in the mail or deliver in person? And is this just one more gray area as next Tuesday’s primary election fast approaches? We check in with the executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, Claire Woodall-Vogg, for her take, now four days until the election. Thanks very much for being here.

Claire Woodall-Vogg:

Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So as for voters with a disability, what’s your guidance for them and for clerks with returning their absentee ballots?

Claire Woodall-Vogg:

So in the city of Milwaukee, we have been very consistent ever since the Supreme Court ruling came out that voters with disabilities do have federal protections, and so if they need an agent to return their absentee ballot for them, we have been accepting it. We just need confirmation that they needed assistance returning their ballot. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court ruling left it very gray, and so many clerks have been left to interpret it themselves and, you know, there’s 1800 clerks in the state, so luckily with the Wisconsin Election Commission guidance and reminder, hopefully all clerks will be making sure that voters with disabilities are protected.

Frederica Freyberg:

So also what are clerks to do after votes and rulings in the legislature and the state elections commission about filling in missing information on absentee ballots?

Claire Woodall-Vogg:

Again, another gray area where clerks have been really left to interpret things themselves. The guidance from 2016 that the Wisconsin Elections Commission issued is still valid, and so if a voter’s witness didn’t complete their full address, we see a lot of times they leave off — here in Milwaukee, they leave off Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We have been hearing those and contacting voters if we need information.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is it like to have all of these changes swirling around as you ready to administer this election?

Claire Woodall-Vogg:

You know, for us, we are very used to it. Election administrators are used to interpreting and reacting, but unfortunately for Wisconsin voters, it’s adding to greater confusion, and that ultimately results in more distrust of the process itself when you’re having court rulings within 30 days of an election, when absentee ballots had already been mailed out two weeks before that ruling.

Frederica Freyberg:

Your city polling places like other municipalities across the state tested your voting equipment this past week. Were any problems encountered?

Claire Woodall-Vogg:

No, there were no problems. We test all 180 machines here in Milwaukee, and then we held our public test where we did have one member of the public who came and a few news media, but there were no issues. Our machines are reading and transmitting results exactly as those paper ballots are cast.

Frederica Freyberg:

Still, Milwaukee County has been singled out by Republicans for potential fraud. Does Milwaukee administer elections any differently than in the rest of the state?

Claire Woodall-Vogg:

No. You know, I think that’s one thing to really highlight, is that we continue to be singled out but we are administering elections just like every other municipality, every other county in the state. Our equipment is used elsewhere in the state, and our policies and procedures are following state law and Wisconsin Election Commission guidance.

Frederica Freyberg:

Following the 2020 election, you were threatened by election deniers. Does that persist?

Claire Woodall-Vogg:

It does persist unfortunately. I think that it was odd in that we saw the greatest amount of threats actually come almost a year after the election, and nearly two years after the election, we are still seeing a lot of election deniers, conspiracy theorists that I battle and that our election officials, you know, are answering questions that are very complicated on Election Day, and we’ve had to do additional training to make sure that they’re comfortable working on Election Day.

Frederica Freyberg:

What kinds of trainings and preparations have you made with any kind of expectation of continuing threats to election officials?

Claire Woodall-Vogg:

So just this summer, we trained all of our chief election inspectors on managing and maintaining control of the polling place, de-escalation techniques and really trying to prevent anything from becoming a potential violent situation, trying to kind of nip it in the bud before it would escalate to that point, and really going over the polling place procedures in case you need to remove someone.

Frederica Freyberg:

Have you lost a number of people working at the polling places because of all this?

Claire Woodall-Vogg:

You know, to our knowledge, we haven’t. I think most of our election officials really feel like this is a civic duty, and you know, feel like if they were to abandon their civic duty, that that would be a greater threat to democracy. But it’s really important to us that we make sure they feel equipped to go to work on Election Day and feel safe doing so.

Frederica Freyberg:

Just with about a minute left, what concern do you have that people may have tried to illegally test the online absentee ballot request process, like those people in Racine who are now under investigation?

Claire Woodall-Vogg:

You know, before they were trying to highlight and test it and did so illegally, we have not seen any evidence of any type of widespread abuse or misuse of the online system. We monitor and see if there’s any type of unusual mailing address being requested. Voters had to submit photo ID unless they’re indefinitely confined, and I would just say as a reminder, that’s a felony. It is voter fraud to abuse the system, and we take that very seriously and anything that we see, we refer to the district attorney’s office.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Well, we wish you luck with this primary election upcoming and with the general election, Claire Woodall-Vogg, thank you.

Claire Woodall-Vogg:

Thank you.