Tom Barrett, JB Van Hollen, Scott Klug, and Michael Tate, all former elected officials from both political parties, have been writing about Wisconsin’s elections. They claim, “Our elections are safe and secure,” undefined terms that are meaningless and often used by politicians and members of the media to convince us “there is nothing to see here.” But the fact is Wisconsin’s elections are not verifiable, meaning every vote cast cannot be tied to the name of a currently eligible voter.
In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on September 6, the writers used the August 11 primary incident in Milwaukee, in which audit logs were downloaded onto memory sticks rather than election results, to send the message that mistakes happen; the error was discovered; the system works.
Their contention that “catching errors means Wisconsin’s election system is actually working” is factually inaccurate and misleading. Their conflation of unintended human error with criminal fraud serves to confuse rather than clarify important election issues that must be addressed.
Human error will occur in the best of systems and, in the case of elections, after action reviews, audits, and recounts may indeed catch errors and allow for their correction. These methods are useless in the fight against sophisticated criminal fraud.
Wisconsin’s election system has serious design defects that must be corrected to create safeguards against criminal fraud and ensure verifiable election results.
More than four million ineligible voter names on the Registered Voter List are a rich reservoir for sophisticated hackers to create fraudulent ballots and manipulate outcomes. Included are people who at one time were Wisconsin voters who have died, moved away, been convicted of a felony, declared incompetent, or had any change in status that rendered them ineligible. They serve no useful purpose, are a violation of cybersecurity experts’ best practice recommendations, and violate the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 requirement that “accurate and current voter registration rolls are maintained.” They must be purged.
250,000 driver’s licenses have been issued by the State to non-citizens here legally. They are identical to citizen licenses and must be clearly marked “Not for Voting.” A valid license is all that is required to register to vote or cast a vote.
The process of issuing voter ID’s to students on university campuses must be revised to require proof of citizenship to prevent the thousands of non-citizen students on Wisconsin campuses (8,000 in Madison alone) from accessing them.
The significant fraud exposed in government programs in recent months confirmed what we
already knew. People with criminal intent will cheat and steal whenever the opportunity exists.
System design must prevent this to the extent humanly possible.
Cybercrime is the fastest growing crime in the world. The FBI logs nearly 3,000 complaints
every day. The state of Wisconsin posts breaches of “secure” data bases on its website, which
in recent months included the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the Green Bay
Packers Organization.
Advanced, Persistent Threats (APTs) are targeted cyberattacks in which sophisticated hackers
gain access to a network, remain undetected for extended periods of time (years in some
cases), steal sensitive data, and disrupt critical systems. They are the methods by which
Wisconsin’s Registered Voter List can be hacked, fraudulent ballots created from ineligible voter
names, and elections stolen.
Every state Legislator and member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission is fully aware of
Wisconsin’s significant election system defects. They have chosen to ignore them. Wisconsin
voters must confront them at every opportunity with “Why?” until the pressure becomes so
intense that they respond, or we replace them with people who will. There is no credible
defense of, or dispute about, the contamination of the voter rolls with millions of ineligible voters,
driver’s licenses that have been issued to non-citizens that can easily be used to vote, or the
process of issuing student voter ID’s that does not require proof of citizenship, leaving only two
plausible explanations for their refusal to act – corruption or cowardice.
Tom Barrett, JB Van Hollen, Scott Klug, and Michael Tate have positioned themselves as
knowledgeable sources whose advice on Wisconsin elections should be heeded. If they are
oblivious to the serious election system flaws, they have no basis whatsoever for declaring our
elections are appropriately protected. If they are aware of them, they’re lying to us.
