Madison – State Representative Janel Brandtjen, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections, responds to the 83 percent decrease in military voters:

“When Milwaukee deputy election clerk Kim Zapata created three military members out of thin air and sent requests for legitimate ballots to my home address, the vulnerability of the military ballot process was exposed.

Now we have learned that the number of active military members voting in the 2022 election dropped by over 83% since the 2020 election! Active military voters do not require registration or ID, but according to Wisconsin Statute 6.22(6), clerks are supposed to confirm active military voters via a list. Many municipalities are not doing this.

The 2022 active military voters dropped to 1,573 after a 2020 high number of 9,876, 4,966 in 2018 and 6,736 in 2016. The substantial drop should have been noticed by WEC, and inquiries should have been made. Once again, WEC failed to do their job,” said Rep Brandtjen.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email