Voter fraud is rare. Your ballot is protected for Wisconsin spring election. | Opinion

What do Democrats Hillary Clinton, Terry McAuliffe and Stacey Abrams as well as Republican Donald Trump have in common? They, along with politicians of both parties, have questioned or denied the legitimacy of election results.

Remember January 6, 2021, when many Republican members of the House and Senate objected to the electoral votes from five states in an effort to turn the 2020 election to Trump? It was not the first time members of Congress have objected to counting electoral votes. While fewer in number, some Democrats objected to counting electoral votes for former President George W. Bush following both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. 

To be sure, Trump and his allies have taken election denial to much higher level. Nevertheless, I fear that regardless of the result in November — whether the margin be large or small — elections deniers will push false claims about the result.

Wisconsin has taken numerous steps to prevent voter fraud

Ironically, at a time when Wisconsin has more safeguards against voter fraud than ever before, confidence in election seems to be at an all-time low. I served on the Wisconsin’s Elections Board in the late 1990s before Wisconsin required voter identification and before we had a statewide voter registration list and had the ability to match voter records across state lines. Because most communities lacked voter registration, the opportunities for voter fraud were much greater than today.

Voters going to the polls in a few days for the spring general election should know this has all changed.  As chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission for the past two years I can attest that voter ID, the statewide voter registration list and other changes have eliminated the ability to commit widespread election fraud. A few people still try.  But the voter list, along with training of local clerks and interstate matching of voter records, allows the Commission to catch these few instances of voter fraud.

Contrary to urban myth, it is not possible to change elections results by stuffing ballot boxes with pre-marked ballots. At every polling place, the number ballots must equal the number of people shown on the statewide voter list as voting at that location. Election observers from both parties can and do verify those shown as voting on the statewide as voting.

Another false conspiracy theory pushed by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein in 2016 and Trumpsters in 2020, is that tabulators — the machines that read paper ballots — could be hacked in favor of one party or the other. Aside from the total lack any evidence for this theory, the 2016 statewide recount requested by Stein demonstrated her theory was false. After recounting close to three million votes, Trump’s margin of victory increased 131 votes.

Voting system not susceptible to fraud election deniers claim

More recently, a statewide audit of tabulators in 10 percent of the 2022 polling places, selected at random, showed no interference or defects with tabulators. Comparing a hand count with the tabulators’ count of nearly 225,000 ballots in 357 polling places showed not a single ballot was misread due to a defect or outside interference with a tabulator.  

Another conspiracy theory is that malign groups can request absentee ballots for unsuspecting electors and vote these ballots. In 2022, Harry Wait admitted requesting absentee ballots for other voters in an effort to “expose” cracks in the system.  What was not widely reported was that due to safeguards in the system, the clerks involved never issued the requested absentee ballots.  The system worked.

The internet is forever.Kenneth Chesebro’s ‘random’ insurrection tweets.

Another way the current system works to eliminate fraud, is that both parties have access to the statewide voter list and other tools to act as a check on the other party and hold the other party’s candidates accountable. A great example of the potency of tools available to the parties is the speed with which Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and his team were able to challenge the recall petitions seeking Vos’s recall. Within days after the filing of these petitions, Vos’s team was able to challenge thousands of signatures, a feat that would have been much more difficult 20 years ago. 

The tools available to Vos’s team also allowed it to examine the petitions and allege that about 20 signatures appearing on the petitions were “forged.”  It would be rich irony if Vos’s team is able to prove fraud by the recall petitioners who themselves claim to want to recall Vos because he facilitates election fraud.

Is the current electoral system perfect? No.  Do I wish the Legislature and Governor Evers could agree on a few tweaks to make the system less susceptible to fraud? Absolutely.  The fact remains, however, Wisconsin’s electoral system is sound and not susceptible to the type of fraud or manipulation the election deniers claim.

Don Millis is chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.