Here & Now

Election Integrity

Frederica Freyberg:

The administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission is expected to testify at the joint legislative inquiry next week. This week, Meagan Wolfe has been publicly countering misinformation borne from social media and political websites that allege all kinds of vast election interference or fraud. And by week’s end a lawsuit had been filed similar to ones in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. The Wisconsin suit calls to throw out results from heavily Democratic Menominee, Dane and Milwaukee Counties. We turn to Meagan Wolfe for response. Thanks very much for being here.

Meagan Wolfe:

Well, good morning. Thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So the lawsuit brought by Republican attorneys wants to throw out all those results from those three counties based on sundry allegations of fraud. By my count that’s nearly 800,000 votes they want to stop the certification of results. What is your reaction to this lawsuit?

Meagan Wolfe:

Well, we’ll of course work with our legal counsel and the Department of Justice through the litigation process and provide any data that is presented as part of it. But at this time, again, even as part of this filing, we’re not aware of there being any actual evidence produced to show that there was any large scale fraud or anything that, you know, amounts to major issues in counting or other jurisdictions in counting their ballots or in ensuring that only eligible voters were able to cast their ballot.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, the lawsuit targets, among other things, 200,000 plus indefinitely confined voters who don’t have to include voter ID on absentee ballots. The legislative committee launching its investigation is also questioning those votes. Why do those votes count?

Meagan Wolfe:

Indefinitely confined is actually a provision of the photo ID law in the Wisconsin state statutes. And the Wisconsin state statutes say that if a voter certifies that they are indefinitely confined, and this is a self-certification of the voter, that they can apply as indefinitely confined for reason of age, illness, infirmity or disability. And this is something that they have to certify to. And if they do, they’re exempt from the photo ID requirement. For other voters, the first time they request an absentee ballot they have to provide a photo ID. If you’re indefinitely confined, you do not but no matter if you’re indefinitely confined or a regular voter casting an absentee ballot, you still must be registered to vote, at which point you have to provide personally identifiable information like your social security number or your driver’s license number as well as a proof of residence document. And all absentee voters are also required to sign the certification on their absentee ballot certificate envelope. And they’re also all required to have a witness as well. And so there are voters historically that utilize that provision and we’re seeing certainly there’s a larger number of absentee ballots in our state this year. But the percentage of people that certify they’re indefinitely confined remains relatively the same.

Frederica Freyberg:

More generally, what is your reaction to the legislative investigation into the administration of the Wisconsin election?

Meagan Wolfe:

I am always glad to cooperate with providing any information that I can about the elections process. Talking about elections, about the mechanics, about how elections work, presenting election facts is one of the core missions of an agency like ours and certainly my position. I’m always glad to present any information I can to the legislative body, to the legislative committee in making sure that they have the information that they need so that voters can have even more facts about the process and how they work and can feel confident in how our election was conducted.

Frederica Freyberg:

Because you have publicly countered this week eight top rumors being disseminated about our election and debunked all of them including things like whether the use of sharpies on ballots rendered them invalid. Does this new lawsuit at all give any more teeth to those kinds of allegations or rumors?

Meagan Wolfe:

We have not been provided with any additional evidence of any types of issues with our election and this suit does not do that either. So, no, I do not think that this changes everything and I still think that everything we’ve presented in terms of facts to counter the rumors and the misinformation that are really prevalent about our election still stand.

Frederica Freyberg:

In the 11 days since the election and through the ongoing county by county canvass, are election officials finding any major swings?

Meagan Wolfe:

There have not been any major issues or swings reported to our office. I should also note that the unofficial election night results are posted by reporting unit on the county websites. They will remain there as are the county-certified canvass results. So anybody is able to see any changes that happened between the unofficial results and the certified canvass results. Those are all publicly available data points. You can take a look at that information but you’ll see that the counties that have reported and we’re close to 60 counties out of the 72 that have now submitted their certified canvass, that we are not seeing any major changes in any of those numbers.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. We need to leave it there. Meagan Wolfe, thanks very much.

Meagan Wolfe:

Thank you.