Municipal clerks reported to the Wisconsin Elections Commission over the past 10 months possible nomination paper forgery, election threats and voter impersonation, according to a draft report on suspected election fraud, irregularities or violations.

The draft report, which the commission will consider at its Thursday meeting, doesn’t include specifics of the reports the agency received from municipal clerks.

And at least one district attorney who received the referrals said there wasn’t enough information to perform a substantive investigation of the alleged incidents.

The report to the Legislature lists a 2024 general election incident of alleged voter impersonation in Racine County and two possible instances of double voting.

DA Tricia Hanson said the referral she received on the voter impersonation allegation, for example, didn’t include details such as the election workers who were at the polls that day, what form of ID the person used to vote or other details that would be helpful in an investigation.

She said the referral hasn’t led to charges.

“It’s basically nothing,” Hanson said of the materials she received. “It’s that they showed up twice in the record. Here you go.”

The commission plans to sign off on the report before sending it to the Legislature as required under state law. 

The draft report notes that it is limited to referrals clerks made to their district attorneys and then passed along to the commission, and it’s possible there were other issues that local officials sent to prosecutors without notifying WEC. The draft report also notes citizens or organizations may have filed complaints directly with a district attorney, something the agency has no way of tracking.

The report includes:

  • 43 instances in four counties of election day registrations being returned as undeliverable. 
  • Five instances of double voting.
  • One case of potential absentee by-mail ballot tampering.

The DAs in the other counties listed on the report that WisPolitics reached out to this week didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking details on the cases from their counties.

The report begins on page 65 of the packet.