Rigged elections, a rarity in Wisconsin

Prosecutions number in the single digits

While there have been claims that the upcoming presidential election will turn out to be rigged, many have questioned those claims.

For good reason, says voting rights advocate and Milwaukee attorney Richard Saks, who says fraud is almost nonexistent in Wisconsin – especially the kind of fraud that could be prevented by showing an ID at the poll.

“We’ve never had a case of that kind of fraud either,” Sak said. “THere’s never been a prosecution, much less a conviction, of that kind of voter fraud.”

There is a tiny amount of election fraud cases reported in the state, however.

“There have been a number of cases where people who are felons and are prohibited from voting, where they’ve gone ahead and voted,” Sak said. “That’s considered voter fraud for which there have been prosecutions and convictions.”

Saks added that those who are prosecuted for voter fraud number, maybe, in the single digits statewide during any given election.  

And, in the cases where felons have been caught, they often did not realize they can no longer vote. In other cases, someone may register to vote from two different addresses. But even those cases are few and far between. 

“It’s isolated. It’s sporadic. It’s maybe four or five instances per election,” Sak said. “There have been a number of investigation into voter fraud in Wisconsin and every time authorities have come up with very limited instances of (it).”

There was the case of a Shorewood, Wis., man who used absentee ballots to vote multiple times for Gov. Scott Walker during the recall elections of 2012.