If you live in Wisconsin, you can order an absentee ballot online for any registered voter and have it sent to your address. All you need is the other person’s date of birth; as long as he has a photo ID on file, the system will mail his ballot to whatever address you supply.
Jim Hoft broke this bombshell at The Gateway Pundit earlier this week and published an update Thursday. He said an election-integrity investigator identified only as “Harry W. recently discovered the absolute ease of harvesting election ballots in the state online.” Hoft says that Harry W. has worked with his local sheriff’s office during testing.
Based on the revelation, Wisconsin’s Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling is asking the state attorney general and election commission to suspend the “vulnerabilities to fraudulent voting within the website My Vote Wisconsin” and to launch investigations. Schmaling identified two “complainants” who successfully obtained others’ absentee ballots through the election commission website.
“With only a person’s name and date of birth, anyone can request another person’s ballot and have that ballot sent to any address entered,” reads his statement. “No photo identification is needed, and the requester can make a declaration of being indefinitely confined — thus, for the current and future elections, the requestor will be sent someone else’s ballot at the different address entered.”
Schmaling wants the Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC) to immediately suspend the absentee-ballot request function on its website. He also requests a “full, state-wide investigation into this voter integrity issue” by WEC and the attorney general.
He urges each registered voter in the state to access the site and determine his or her own absentee status. “I am disheartened by the apparent vulnerabilities in My Vote Wisconsin that are ripe for fraud, and everyone — no matter their political leanings — should join in requesting a thorough, state-wide investigation into this significant election integrity issue.”
Liberal Spin
Not surprisingly, leftist media outlets have a different take on the story.
Fox11 News in Green Bay offers this headline — “Sheriff: 2 admitted ordering Wisconsin ballots for others.” The article opens by stating that two people admitted breaking state election law by requesting the absentee ballots, and that the sheriff, “a Republican who has accused state officials of violating election laws,” has not charged either and “gave no indication that they were under investigation.”
Raw Story published this spin: “Pro-Trump Wisconsin sheriff calls for eliminating online ballot requests after MAGA group used it for fraud.” Quoting the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the report said that “instead of promising to investigate the apparent violations of election law, Schmaling publicized the plot on social media and blamed the Wisconsin Election Commission and sought to remove a way voters can easily request ballots just a few months ahead of the November election.” It goes on to detail accusations of Schmaling’s “conspiracy theories” and alleged violations of election law.
Up North News pulled off the gloves: “‘Big Lie’ Advocate Admits to Fraudulently Seeking Others’ Absentee Ballots — as a Way to Claim Fraud Exists.” This story states that the “Racine County Sheriff gives the crime a wink while advancing his own ‘Big Lie’ claims.”
HOT Government
Wisconsin state representative Janel Brandtjen (R-Menomonee Falls) outed the private investigators in a press release issued Thursday, praising the efforts of “patriot group Honest, Open & Transparent Government (H.O.T. Government).” Brandtjen claims there is even more to the story.
Yesterday, two groups pointed out the ridiculous voting failures in Wisconsin that Speaker Robin Vos continues to ignore. First, the Thomas More Society exposed that WEC did not remove electors whose voting rights have been revoked by the courts due to memory or mental health deterioration, from the voter list. The Thomas More Society revealed that upwards of 25,000 adjudicated voters remain eligible to receive ballots, knowing that these folks can be easily persuaded into voting for specific candidates. WEC is literally condoning elder abuse.
Secondly, the patriot group Honest, Open & Transparent Government (H.O.T. Government) successfully requested absentee ballots for Speaker Robin Vos and Racine Mayor Cory Mason to point out how easy it is to illegally obtain a ballot. With nothing but a name and birthdate, the ballots could be sent anywhere. H.O.T. Government immediately turned themselves into the Racine County Sheriff’s Department. WEC has created an unsecure, online system of ballot distribution that must now be shut down.
Speaker Robin Vos has had so many opportunities to work with Justice Gableman and myself to force WEC to function properly, but time after time, Vos has neglected his oversight duties. His silence on the long string of abuses committed by WEC has empowered them to ignore data requests and even file lawsuits to stop the legislature from looking into the election. WEC continues to violate Wisconsin law, while Vos claims he is helpless to an agency he created. This disaster of an agency lands squarely on the feet of Robin Vos, whose inaction now puts our elections in jeopardy. God save Wisconsin.
Blind Eyes
On Thursday, the state election board rebuffed Schmaling. “There is no indication of any vulnerability with the MyVote application. The idea that absentee ballot requests made online, via MyVote, are more susceptible to fraud is false,” WEC wrote in a statement. Disturbingly, the board claims that its online service is just as secure as the process for requesting absentee ballots in person or via email.
WEC administrator Meagan Wolfe called it “inaccurate and irresponsible” to claim vulnerability in a system just because people are able to exploit it. “Intentionally using someone else’s identity to subvert the system does not demonstrate a flaw with MyVote, but rather a flaw with that person’s conduct,” she wrote.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, who in May announced that his Department of Justice would not enforce abortion bans in the state after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, has not responded to Schmaling.
Official Explanation
Here’s the official walk-through for absentee ballot applications, courtesy of the Dane County Clerk: