“I do believe she misled our committee. I believe she misled a lot of people,” Brantjen told The Center Square on Wednesday. “Are you mismanaging the data because you choose to or because you’re not doing your job?”
The latest call for Wisconsin’s election administrator to resign comes with a charge of misleading lawmakers.
Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, on Wednesday said Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe muddied the facts about Wisconsin’s voter roll integrity when she testified to the legislature back in June about felons and dead people who are still on the voter rolls.
“Audits designed to detect in-state double voting, as well as voting by persons who have been adjudicated incompetent or who are currently serving a felony sentence, are statutorily required and have been conducted successfully for many years,” Meagan Wolfe said at the time.
Brandtjen said the recent audit from the Legislative Audit Bureau showed that to be untrue.
Meagan Wolfe and the WEC did not have current lists of felons, or dead voters, or people who’ve been declared mentally incompetent.
Meagan Wolfe “Misled”
“I do believe she misled our committee. I believe she misled a lot of people,” Brantjen told The Center Square on Wednesday. “Are you mismanaging the data because you choose to or because you’re not doing your job?”
Brandtjen said the LAB report found:
- Only online voters have their information verified through the DOT.
WEC did not obtain electronic signatures for those who registered online. - DOT does not provide WEC with any personally identifiable information for voter matches.
- 16,000 registered voters may have had multiple voter registration records in Wisconsin.
743 registered voters may have died in other states and received Wisconsin ballots. - WEC’s agreements with DOT, DOC, & DHS are outdated; the DOC contract is over six years old.
- ERIC can provide five types of data; WEC only uses one.
- Wolfe has said criticism of her handling of the 2020 vote is purely political, and said the LAB report found last year’s election was safe and secure.
“If you read that report, this is not political,” Brandtjen said. “This has nothing to do with the vote last year. These contracts from the WEC are utterly irresponsible.”
Brandtjen is running an investigation into last year’s election through her Assembly Committee on Elections. She said the LAB report, these unanswered questions, and the evidence from Racine County’s sheriff are all building to a conclusion.
“We’re getting to the point where the legislature needs to reclaim its power,” Brandtjen told The Center Square. “Having a conversation about the Secretary of State [taking over election management] and other issues needs to be on the table going forward.”
