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Wisconsin 2020 Investigation: 'Almost Certain' More Improper Votes Cast Than Biden's Margin of Victory, Unclear if Outcome Altered

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Election investigations currently taking place in Wisconsin have yielded some shocking results.

A conservative law firm based out of Milwaukee, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, conducted the investigation.

According to their findings, precisely 54,259 ballots were “cast by individuals who have never shown a voter ID in any election.”

The 54,259 number is especially shocking given that Joe Biden won the state of Wisconsin by a mere 20,000 votes, according to Politico.

However, the report was careful to note, “It is unclear whether, had these ballots been disqualified, the results of the election would have changed.”

The institute arrived at these findings after performing a statistical analysis of the vote totals of nearly 20,000 ballots and 29,000 absentee ballot envelopes.

Surveys, polling and tens of thousands of documents attained from various public records requests were also reviewed in the case.

In summary, the report stated that it was “almost certain that in Wisconsin’s 2020 election the number of votes that did not comply with existing legal requirements exceeded Joe Biden’s margin of victory.”

This does not necessarily mean that the votes themselves were illegal, however. The report noted that “more than 265,000 Wisconsin voters” adopted an “indefinitely confined” status, which makes them exempt from the state requirement to provide voter identification. In 2016, the number of indefinitely confined voters was 66,611, a number that grew to a whopping 265,979 come 2020, the report noted.

Could American elections be more secure?

Because of this, the report’s authors concluded that “it is almost certain” that a large share of these voters “improperly claimed” the “indefinitely confined” status which, in the report’s view, continues a subversion of the law.

Rather than claiming the votes were illegal, however, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty instead alleged that Wisconsin officials may have adopted new procedures improperly.

“Ad hoc adoption of absentee ballot drop boxes without established rules, parameters, or security presents an election vulnerability and a challenge to state law,” the report stated.

A ruling from the Wisconsin Supreme Court seemed to back up this argument. The report noted that the court ruled in November that the “indefinitely confined” status did not apply to individuals who refused to leave their home because of the pandemic.

Rather, it applied only to those indefinitely confined due to “age, physical illness, or infirmity, or [those who were] disabled for an indefinite period.”

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So, unless 200,000 additional Wisconsin voters happened to become elderly, physically ill, infirm or disabled between 2016 and 2020, these findings suggest many of those votes were improperly cast.

“While we cannot infer any malignant intent on the part of these voters, this means that many votes were cast without the requirement of photo identification,” the report noted in response to the influx of “indefinitely confined” voters.

In addition to these issues, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty alleged that “voter rolls were not properly maintained.”

“State and federal law requires Wisconsin to maintain accurate voter rolls. But the Wisconsin Elections Commission and local clerks refused to take the required steps in 2020 to remove outdated and inaccurate voter registrations — resulting in tens of thousands of active voter registrations tied to old addresses,” the report noted. In addition, 5,329 voters voted from their old addresses, 13,757 voted from a new address while in active mover status, 23,361 voters cast ballots despite failing a DMV check and 31,664 voters were in the National Change of Address Database.

There was no evidence that widespread, election-altering, coordinated efforts of voter fraud stole the 2020 election away from then-President Donald Trump.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty stated as much in its review, claiming there is not “much, if any evidence” showing intentional wrongdoing on the part of any party.

“This does not necessarily mean that Biden did not win a majority of eligible votes. We looked for evidence that failure to follow proper procedures was exploited to commit fraud … there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud,” the review’s conclusion read. “In all likelihood, more eligible voters cast ballots for Joe Biden than Donald Trump.”

“We found little direct evidence of fraud, and for the most part, an analysis of the results and voting patterns does not give rise to an inference of fraud,” the report’s authors added.

That said, in the wake of COVID, many election procedures were altered and many mistakes were made, including in the state of Wisconsin.

“That is far from the end of the matter,” the report stated, noting that “failure to follow proper procedures makes fraud more difficult to detect” and that state laws require certain procedures for absentee voting, procedures the report claims were not followed.

“It seems clear that voters abandoned the rules for voting indefinitely confined, drop boxes were used, at least one ballot harvesting event was conducted without statutory authorization, absentee balloting in nursing homes was conducted contrary to law, ballots were cured without authorization and voter rolls were not accurately maintained as required by state and federal law,” the review’s conclusion stated.

The report repeatedly noted there’s no evidence to suggest that, if all votes deemed to be improperly cast were tossed out, Trump would have been declared the winner. Nevertheless, there were problems to be concerned about.

“While the fact that something ‘could have’ happened is not evidence that it did, failure to follow the required procedures raises the possibility of fraud and undercuts confidence in the results,” the report stated.

By implementing universal mail-in voting systems, many states across the country opened up their voting systems to the possibility of fraud.

Across the country, we have already seen numerous examples of election irregularities that prove not that the election should be overturned, but rather that we, as a country, have a lot of work to do to make sure our election processes are as secure as possible.

Leftists still try to paint Americans with reasonable concerns as “conspiracy theorists,” but don’t let that fool you. Our elections are not as secure as they could be — and 2020 proved that.

The Western Journal reached out to the Wisconsin Elections Commission in regards to the report and, in turn, received lengthy responses to the points made by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.

Regarding the claim that “it is almost certain” that “the number of votes that did not comply with existing legal requirements exceeded Joe Biden’s margin of victory,” the Wisconsin Elections Commission stated, “Certification of the November 2020 presidential election was based upon lawfully cast votes that were affirmed by municipal, county and state canvass certifications and multiple court decisions after reviewing these matters.”

Regarding the claim that the commission used outdated and inaccurate voter registrations, the commission noted that “The Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled in February 2020 that WEC could not remove voters from the registration list.”

The commission also claimed that the use of absentee drop boxes was “lawful” and “predates” the 2020 election and that the guidance on “indefinitely confined” voters was lawful and affirmed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Furthermore with regard to the “indefinitely confined” voters, the commission claims it did not allow electors to use the designation to “simply avoid the photo ID requirement without regard to whether they are indefinitely confined because of age, physical illness, infirmity or disability.”

It therefore remains unclear as to how 200,000 new voters qualified under that designation in 2020.

CORRECTION, Dec. 14, 2021: This article was originally posted with an inaccurate headline and was missing significant context from the report from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (although a link to the full report was included). The original headline stated that numerous “illegal votes” had been found during a review of the 2020 election results in Wisconsin, when in fact the report stated that, while it was “almost certain that in Wisconsin’s 2020 election the number of votes that did not comply with existing legal requirements exceeded Joe Biden’s margin of victory,” there was no way to prove or disprove at this point whether those votes had in fact been cast illegally. The article has been revised to include that statement, as well as significant other information from the WILL report. The headline, of course, has been corrected to reflect the report’s conclusion accurately.

In addition, The Western Journal reached out to the Wisconsin Elections Commission and portions of its emailed response have been added to the article for context.

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Michael wrote for several entertainment news outlets before joining The Western Journal in 2020. He now serves as Managing Editor, which involves managing the editorial team and operations; helping guide the editorial direction of The Western Journal; and writing, editing, curating and assigning stories as needed.
Michael Austin graduated from Iowa State University in 2019. During his time in college, he volunteered for both PragerU and Live Action. After graduation, Michael went on to work as a freelance journalist for various entertainment news sites before joining The Western Journal as an intern in early 2020.

Shortly thereafter, Michael was hired on as a staff writer/reporter. He now serves as Managing Editor, which involves managing the editorial team and operations; helping guide the editorial direction of The Western Journal; and writing, editing, curating and assigning stories as needed.
Birthplace
Ames, Iowa
Nationality
American
Education
Iowa State University
Topics of Expertise
Cultural Politics, Entertainment News, Christian-Conservatism




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