Wisconsin Watch, with a grant from the Fund for stories on threats to democracy, conducted the most comprehensive accounting of Wisconsin election fraud cases to date. The reporting found that, despite efforts to use the specter of fraud to restrict voting, there is very little actual election fraud. Reporter Matt Mencarini found that fraud prosecutions are disproportionately aimed at people of color, and wrongdoing was often committed by people on probation unaware that they were prohibited from voting. Over the past decade in Wisconsin, voter fraud has been prosecuted about once for every 163,000 ballots cast. Of the 192 prosecutions statewide, Wisconsin Watch was able to determine the nature of allegations in all but 11. There were 40 cases that involved the kind of fraudulent voting that’s banned everywhere, such as double voting or voting in the name of a dead person. In 20 cases, election workers, volunteers or candidates were charged.
Grantee crunches Wisconsin election data and debunks fraud allegations
