‘A hammer in search of a nail’: Wisconsin AG candidate prosecutes eligible voters for address snafus

By Matt Mencarini

Wisconsin Watch

Jamie Wells doesn’t need to vote ever once more.

The one and solely time she did was again in November 2020. That single poll prompted a lot stress and turmoil and mounting debt that she is going to in all probability by no means once more do it..

Wells, 53, is one in all 5 folks charged with election fraud for having a UPS Retailer listed as their voting handle by Fond du Lac County District Legal professional Eric Toney — a Republican candidate vying for Wisconsin legal professional basic who has made voter fraud and election safety key points in his marketing campaign.

Wells and her husband, who was additionally charged, could possibly be thought of collateral injury of the widespread false perception that large voter fraud marred the 2020 election. This lie has sparked quite a few lawsuits in Wisconsin and a raft of GOP-authored payments searching for to impose voting restrictions — all of them vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

Underneath Wisconsin regulation, solely residential addresses — the place somebody really lives — can be utilized for voter registration.

Wells stated she and her husband didn’t know utilizing a UPS Retailer handle to vote was an issue. She stated she felt motivated to vote for the very first time to re-elect then-President Donald Trump.

The couple now faces as much as three and a half years in jail and most fines of $10,000 every. Wells and her husband additionally can be barred from voting till they serve their full sentences, together with any probation or supervision.

A Wisconsin Watch evaluation of the state’s voter rolls discovered that Wells and the others charged in Fond du Lac County are removed from the one individuals who may unknowingly have listed incorrect voting addresses.

There are 30 UPS Shops within the state, and 117 folks have these addresses on their voter registrations. Moreover, a Wisconsin Watch search of 47 U.S. Publish Workplace addresses in Dane and Milwaukee counties, the place folks can get a P.O. Field, discovered 44 voters registered at these addresses.

Wells stated she and her husband have used that UPS Retailer in Fond du Lac as their handle for many years with out a drawback. They registered to vote utilizing that handle as a result of they didn’t have one other one to checklist.

“However this (prosecutor) right here appears to assume I’m a felony,” she stated. “And that’s the half that upsets me most of something.”

Wisconsin Watch discovered at the very least one district legal professional in Wisconsin who acquired an identical referral of individuals utilizing UPS Retailer addresses to vote. La Crosse County District Legal professional Tim Gruenke stated he was alerted to fifteen individuals who had voted utilizing these addresses in 2020 by the La Crosse metropolis clerk. Gruenke, a Democrat, declined to prosecute.

“I’m undecided what sort of fraud can be occurring,” he stated.

Ion Meyn, an assistant regulation professor on the College of Wisconsin, known as the circumstances towards Wells and others in Fond du Lac County “an actual abuse of (prosecutorial) discretion.”

Toney didn’t reply to a number of requests for an interview or reply emailed questions. However in an announcement to Wisconsin Watch, he stated legal professional ethics guidelines forestall him from commenting on a pending case. 

“Elections are cornerstone (sic) of our democracy which should be defended at each flip, not simply whenever you agree with the regulation or the politics,” he wrote. “I would like folks (to) train their proper to vote and guarantee they achieve this lawfully. Wisconsin regulation requires somebody to register to vote the place they stay, not the place they obtain mail. That’s made clear on voter registration varieties.”

Toney touts tough-on-fraud stance 

Voter fraud is extraordinarily uncommon as a result of, amongst different components, it’s troublesome to do with the entire safeguards and checks within the course of. A number of evaluations and audits discovered no widespread fraud in Wisconsin’s 2020 election — or in another state.

Native elections clerks in Wisconsin referred 12 circumstances to prosecutors associated to the 2020 basic election, out of three.3 million ballots solid. Wells and the others charged in Fond du Lac County weren’t amongst them. 

Toney has stated the tip got here from Peter Bernegger, a Wisconsin man who has since been fined $2,400 by the Wisconsin Elections Fee for making “frivolous complaints” — together with the one towards Wells.

Regardless of that, claims of voter fraud stay ubiquitous, each in Wisconsin and throughout the nation.

Election and felony regulation consultants questioned the motives behind, and the validity of, the circumstances towards Wells and others. They are saying prosecutions like these — in addition to disinformation about voter fraud and its prevalence — can discourage folks from voting and result in new legal guidelines that add pointless limitations to voting.

“On a prosecution the place the extent of wrongdoing doesn’t essentially quantity to a sort of felony enterprise — and but felony sanctions are what’s on the desk —  that sends a message that our political system could not care about truthful entry and balancing the curiosity in entry and the curiosity in safety,” Marquette College election regulation knowledgeable Atiba Ellis stated.

“If a voter can’t belief that an harmless error received’t lead to a felony conviction, which may make voters assume twice about whether or not it’s value it to vote in any respect.”

Throughout a February information convention, Toney stated there was a public training facet to his choice to cost.

“It’s vital to attract consideration to this so folks perceive how do they vote or register, to guarantee that they don’t find yourself with a referral to an area district legal professional that might lead to a felony voter fraud cost,” Toney stated.

In April, Toney additionally requested Evers to take away 5 members of the Wisconsin Elections Fee associated to voting in nursing houses throughout elections in 2020. Toney stated he would criminally cost the commissioners if he had jurisdiction.

And through his introduction on the Republican Occasion of Wisconsin conference in Could, Toney pushed his popularity as “one of the vital aggressive prosecutors of election fraud” within the state.

“We’ve earned the proper to have an legal professional basic that can arise for us, implement the rule of regulation, lock up harmful criminals and defend the integrity of our elections,” he stated. “That’s my observe file as a district legal professional.”

Couple leads cell life

Wells considers Fond du Lac house, though her Louisiana accent would possibly trace in any other case. 

Wells met her husband when he was working in Louisiana, they usually married in 1989. A month later they moved to Madison. His work on farms takes him everywhere in the state. As an alternative of being separated for lengthy intervals of time or lengthy drives, they stay in a 42-foot pull behind camper.

It has three slide outs, a washer and dryer and feels identical to a small residence, she stated. 

They finally discovered themselves spending an increasing number of time in Fond du Lac, so that they dropped their P.O. Field in Madison for a mailbox they’ve had for about 30 years.

Wells’ story is a near-perfect description of how election regulation consultants say incorrect votes from eligible voters can occur.

In an interview with Wisconsin Watch, Wells stated whereas she considers herself a Republican, she and her husband had by no means been politically energetic. She didn’t even know Wisconsin was a swing state — however Wells needed to assist President Trump get re-elected.

“I simply figured Trump may do a greater job,” she stated. “And I simply ain’t a Joe Biden fan. He looks like he is perhaps a pleasant man, however I simply thought Trump was the higher thought.”

So she and her husband registered to vote on-line. When it got here time to enter their handle, they put the identical one they’ve used for many years.

“It by no means informed me nothing (was flawed),” she stated. “They gave us the voter registration. Despatched our ballots. We despatched them again in, and that was it.”

Police, reporter come calling

Then in January, whereas she was visiting household in Louisiana, Wells received a name from a Fond du Lac police detective. 

“I didn’t assume it was actual,” she stated, citing a rise in political calls round that point. “… He might need stated he was a detective. I don’t need to lie if he did or didn’t. … And I spoke to him, and I informed him the precise fact of what occurred.”

That was the primary indication that one thing may not have been proper along with her vote. However weeks glided by and there wasn’t a comply with up name or something within the mail. 

Then she began to get different calls she wasn’t positive about. Then got here the texts and emails and voicemail messages left with relations for her. They had been from a New York Occasions reporter.

She talked about all of it to a buddy, who then appeared Wells up in Wisconsin’s on-line courtroom file system. It confirmed Wells was going through a cost of falsely procuring a voter registration.

“My buddy calls me … and she or he stated, ‘I’ve one thing to ship you. Would you like me to ship it to you or your daughter? It’d upset you.’ I stated, ‘No, go forward and ship it to me.’ 

“And that’s after I discovered I used to be being charged.”

‘A hammer in the hunt for a nail’

Election regulation consultants are fast to distinguish between voter fraud — which is exceptionally uncommon — and voting errors.

In true voter fraud, a voter or group or folks scheme to knowingly violate election regulation to get a vote solid that might in any other case not have been allowed. However incorrectly solid ballots come from eligible voters who mistakenly vote or register within the flawed approach.

Eliza Sweren-Becker, voting rights and elections knowledgeable within the Democracy Program on the Brennan Heart for Justice, stated when there are situations of misconduct, it’s often fraud concentrating on voters — not the opposite approach round.

Ellis, the Marquette knowledgeable, agreed, pointing to a latest election fraud scandal in North Carolina. 

In that case, a political operative intercepted clean absentee ballots and “unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously” submitted them, concealing that they weren’t despatched by voters, state prosecutors alleged. The fraud occurred within the state’s 2016 basic election and a 2018 major for a seat in Congress.

In the course of the 2018 race, the Republican candidate received by simply 905 votes, the Raleigh Information & Observer reported. The State Board of Elections refused to certify the outcomes after questions emerged about an alleged ballot-harvesting scheme and later known as for a brand new election. The profitable candidate didn’t run in that election. The operative died earlier this 12 months whereas awaiting trial.

That’s what an unlawful voting operation seems to be like, Ellis stated — not an harmless mistake by an individual who is definitely eligible to vote.

Ellis stated the selection to prosecute circumstances involving incorrect votes suggests an effort not to make sure the integrity of elections however to advertise a false narrative that there’s widespread criminality within the voting course of.

“Fraud is about an intent to deceive,” Ellis stated. “And the hazard in our present election integrity rhetoric is harmless errors get swept up and purported as misleading acts.”

This rhetoric can be utilized to justify extra restrictive voting legal guidelines, Sweren-Becker stated. These legal guidelines are likely to have an even bigger influence on racial minorities, the poor and others susceptible to exploitation, Ellis stated. 

The lie of widespread fraud has penalties: Two-thirds of Wisconsin Republicans informed a June Marquette College Regulation Faculty ballot that they’ve little or no confidence within the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s election. 

Nevertheless, Sweren-Becker stated organized efforts to search out voter fraud have principally come up empty as a result of it’s not widespread and infrequently impacts elections.

The brand new legal guidelines and prosecutions are all “a hammer in the hunt for a nail,” she stated. 

Wells doesn’t need to vote once more

The months since Wells was charged have been robust on her, her household and even her marriage. 

“I’m not a depressed individual, you realize, I’m often a happy-go-lucky individual,” she stated. “(Now) simply sort of my feelings run like a curler coaster. I discover myself crying, and I’m not a crier. Don’t cry so much.”

She worries about what folks consider her now that she has been charged as a felon. And the publicity across the case has taken away her privateness.

Regardless of her expertise, Wells does consider there was dishonest in Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election. In keeping with the felony grievance, she informed the detective he ought to be investigating the election, as a result of “they took it away from Trump.”

In March, the Wisconsin Elections Fee dismissed Bernegger’s grievance towards Wells however despatched a letter urging her to double test her voter registration. As of June 26, the registration remained energetic and unchanged. 

A pair months in the past, as she tried to arrange a enterprise bank card for her husband, she entered the handle on the UPS Retailer. 

Not like the state’s voter registration system, the bank card firm flagged the handle and stated she couldn’t use it.

DA refuses to prosecute ‘errors’ 

Toney wasn’t the one county prosecutor who needed to resolve whether or not to cost voters with a UPS Retailer handle on their registration.

Gruenke, the La Crosse County district legal professional, stated he reviewed 22 circumstances referred to his workplace after the November 2020 election for individuals who used UPS Retailer addresses to register,  together with 15 who voted. 

Gruenke will get a handful of referrals for suspected election fraud after main elections. He stated he’s charged perhaps 5 folks previously decade, however most referrals contain a easy mistake.

Typically somebody requests an absentee poll however then votes in individual. Aged voters who’ve reminiscence points could vote on the flawed polling location. Typically there’s a mixup as a consequence of a typical identify, like a father and son who’re Sr. and Jr.

However Gruenke has charged some circumstances, together with a person who falsely listed a vacant lot as his voting handle and an individual who was on probation and ineligible to vote.

He stated violating the regulation requires intent, and that’s why he didn’t cost any voters who appeared to have made sincere errors when itemizing their addresses. In these circumstances, his workplace investigated and located that some folks had been touring or dwelling out of state part-time. Gruenke talked about one one that was shifting and didn’t know the place they’d be dwelling on the time on the election.

The voters had registered on-line utilizing the handle on their driver’s license. They included their cellphone numbers — and lots of seemed to be married {couples}.

“There’s no approach a jury would say they deliberately did one thing to idiot anyone,” Gruenke  stated. “…You will be cautious all you need and nonetheless make a mistake.”

‘A very tortured view’ of the regulation

Meyn, the UW regulation professor, stated for a jury to convict Wells and the others, Toney would want to show past an inexpensive doubt that they weren’t eligible to vote — and that they registered realizing they weren’t certified to vote.

Nothing within the felony grievance alleges they had been ineligible or knowingly misrepresented the place they lived.

Meyn known as it “saddening” and “abhorrent” that Toney is subjecting Wells and the others to felony prosecutions and public humiliation.

“Right here you will have a prosecutor who’s taking a extremely tortured view, in my thoughts, of what this provision (within the statute) means,” he stated. “I simply discover that so irresponsible.

“It’s clearly for political causes and it’s actually disappointing.”

Wells and her legal professional plan to struggle the cost. They’re optimistic they’ll win. However even when they do, the episode has already exacted a excessive value.

The couple expects to rack up greater than $17,000 in authorized payments. Wells stated kinfolk have pitched in to pay for his or her protection. 

“We’re not millionaires, so we’ve needed to borrow cash,” she stated. “… And yeah, (we) nonetheless should pay all of it again.”
The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with WPR, PBS Wisconsin, different information media and the College of Wisconsin-Madison Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, printed, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch don’t essentially replicate the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its associates.