MADISON — Three Wisconsin voters have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop certification of presidential election results, claiming the risk of voter fraud from mail-in ballots casts doubt on the race’s outcome, according to the Courthouse News Service.
The complaint, filed by conservative elections integrity group True the Vote, seeks to disqualify votes in Democrat bastions of Dane, Milwaukee and Menominee counties.
Democrat Joe Biden unofficially beat President Donald Trump by a razor-thin 20,000 votes in battleground Wisconsin — less than 1 percent. Trump has not conceded and has been exploring a recount.
Allegations of various voter irregularities and claims of voter fraud have dogged the Wisconsin vote, just as they have in other close races called for Biden in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. Trump’s campaign has filed lawsuits contesting the results in those states.
The Wisconsin lawsuit, filed in Green Bay in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, seeks an injunction on certification of the votes in the three counties. It seeks to block the “inclusion of illegal Presidential Election results” that “unlawfully dilutes Voters’ lawful votes. The complaint asserts there is evidence that “sufficient illegal ballots were included in the results to change or place in doubt the results of the Nov. 3, 2020 presidential election” in Wisconsin.
“…Plaintiffs possess advanced technical capability to conduct statistical analyses identifying errors and anomalies such (as) double votes, votes by non-registered persons, votes by persons who are deceased or moved out of state, and the like. Plaintiffs seek immediate production of registration, election, and other data to conduct and present those analyses to the Court,” the lawsuit states.
Defendants include Laure Pecore, clerk of Menominee County; Milwaukee County Clerk George L. Christenson; Julietta Henry Milwaukee County, Elections director; Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell; the members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission; and Gov. Tony Evers.
The lawsuit seeks a determination from the court long before Dec. 8, when the state certifies presidential electors.
While election officials insist there has been no evidence of voter fraud, the lawsuit, in citing the U.S. Supreme Court, notes voter fraud occurs more with mailed ballots than in-person ballots. Last week’s election saw record numbers of absentee ballots in a mass mail-in vote campaign, driven by fears of the pandemic. By Oct. 28, 1,778,157 Wisconsin voters had requested absentee ballots.
The 2020 election saw a 238 percent increase in a type of absentee ballot that does not require the ID normally required of an absentee ballot, the lawsuit states.
Starting in early spring 2020, the Town of Menominee encouraged voters to vote absentee, included instructions and standards, including that “indefinitely confined” voters “are not required to provide a photo ID.” The same happened in Dane County.
The lawsuit points to several red flags raised on Election Day.
“Brown County’s elected County Clerk notified an attorney at the Wisconsin Election Commission that two partisan consultants who were not election inspectors, one working for a nonprofit via an outside grant to the city of Green Bay and the other a community liaison for the Democratic mayor of Green Bay, had, contrary to law, advised and instructed poll workers at the Brown County central counting facility with regard to handling and counting ballots,” the complaint states.
In Milwaukee, a resident identified as JC attempted to vote in person at her polling place. When she arrived, she said she was told she had already requested an absentee ballot by mail. She said she never requested an absentee ballot, according to the complaint.
Another witness, identified as LL, said she randomly checked several online obituaries in Dane and Milwaukee counties and crosschecked them with the Elections Commission online voter rolls.
“In less than 10 minutes, LL found three instances of deceased individuals in Dane and Milwaukee Counties who were still shown by myvotewi.gov as having voted absentee,” the lawsuit states.
The question remains, are there enough votes in question — illegal votes — to change the results of the election?
Brookfield Attorney Michael Dean and a team of out of state attorneys believe so.
“Because illegal votes dilute legal votes, the evidence establishes, and will establish, that the rights of Voters have been violated by vote-dilution disenfranchisement. Consequently, the presidential-election results from the counties identified should not be included in certified and reported totals for Presidential Electors from this state,” the lawsuit states.