Wisconsin elections chief defends November election, says ‘data speaks for itself’
(The Center Square) – The official in charge of elections in Wisconsin says the numbers tell the story of the November election.
Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe on Thursday defended the 2020 election amid questions about ballot harvesting, absentee and indefinitely confined voting, and the largest number of votes ever cast in a presidential election in Wisconsin.
“I am not paid to have an opinion,” Wolfe said at a hearing of the legislature’s Audit Committee. “Data drives what we say, data drives what we do as Elections Commission staff. We put out the data on the election. How many people voted? By what method? How many voter registrations did we have versus participation? That data is all out there, and from my perspective, that data speaks for itself.”
The Elections Commission’s data states:
Nearly 3.3 million Wisconsin residents voted in the General Election – representing more than 72% of the state’s voting age population of 4,536,417. Voter registrations climbed by 11.9% from 3,406,952 on July 1 to 3,811,193 on December 1.The statewide absentee ballot rejection rate was exceptionally low in November – 0.2% statewide compared to 1.8% in April 2020.Of the 216,490 absentee voters who claimed status of indefinitely confined, 79.6% have provided an acceptable photo ID to receive a ballot since 2016.
Wolfe did not speak to that last data point. She didn’t address the nearly 50,000 voters who cast an indefinitely confined ballot without any proof of voter ID in the past four years.
“I’m not going to tell people how to think about that [election data], or how to feel about that data” Wolfe added. “But I think the data is black and white facts that should be used to drive a data-driven conversation about elections.”
Wolfe was one of several people called before the Joint Legislative Audit Committee for a hearing on the November election, specifically with a focus on ballot security and what needs to be fixed before voters go to the polls next.
“I am hoping this audit answers two questions,” Rep. Joe Sanfelippo, R-New Berlin told the committee. “First, are our election laws being followed consistently? And within the spirit, and intent, and letter of the statue? And the second question we need to answer is, are our elections being conducted uniformly throughout the entire state?”
Sanfelippo said lawmakers need to answer those two questions to give voters confidence that they can trust the election process and the election outcomes.
“When laws are not followed, or they’re selectively followed it creates a suspicion of nefarious activity,” Sanfelippo added. “And that opens the door to all sorts of questions.”
The audit committee hearing came at the same time as a rules hearing at the Capitol.
Republicans in that meeting approved a resolution requiring the Elections Commission follow the law when it comes to special voting deputies and how they collect or assist people in nursing homes with their ballots.
Rep. Adam Neylon, R-Pewaukee, said the way that the Elections Commission limited those SVDs was “a flagrant violation of the law.”
Republicans in Madison are focusing on the state’s election system after seeing former President Donald Trump lose the state by about 20,000 votes. Democrats have derided the attention as little more than sour political grapes.
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