Featured Policy

The Number on the Back: Why the Wisconsin Legislature Must Reform Its Absentee Ballot Processing Law

Imagine casting your absentee ballot in Wisconsin, believing that your vote is private, only to learn that numerous individuals can determine exactly how you voted. That is not hypothetical. It is the direct consequence of a Wisconsin statute that goes largely unnoticed and needs to be fixed.

By:

Pat Garrett Pat Garrett
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WILL Goes to Washington, D.C. to Advocate for Voter ID & Election Security

WILL will be in Washington, D.C. this week to advocate for Voter ID as well as efforts to protect elections through improved voter roll maintenance, oversight, and other election integrity measures.

Pat Garrett
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WILL Identifies Growing Number of Voter Roll Errors in Wisconsin

In a new letter to the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ), WILL identifies additional, serious concerns regarding the Wisconsin Election Commission’s (WEC) maintenance of Wisconsin’s statewide voter registration list.

Pat Garrett
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WILL Proposes Audit to Enforce Wisconsin’s Citizenship Voting Amendment Election Integrity
September 2025

WILL Proposes Audit to Enforce Wisconsin’s Citizenship Voting Amendment

WILL unveiled a new report, “The WILL of The People: A Roadmap to Enforce Wisconsin’s Citizenship Voting Amendment,” which outlines a clear process to audit Wisconsin’s voter rolls using existing state and federal data.

By:

Pat Garrett Pat Garrett
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WILL Supports a Bill to Protect Voting Rights and Ensure Election Integrity Election Integrity
May 2025

WILL Supports a Bill to Protect Voting Rights and Ensure Election Integrity

WILL supports a bill aimed at ensuring that Wisconsin electors who file election-related complaints with the Wisconsin Elections Commission (“WEC”) have a statutory right, upon receiving an adverse determination from WEC, to seek judicial review of that determination in the Wisconsin court system.

By:

Pat Garrett Pat Garrett
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After 10 Years of Voter ID, WILL’s Research Shows Wisconsin Voter Turnout on the Rise Election Integrity
March 2025

After 10 Years of Voter ID, WILL’s Research Shows Wisconsin Voter Turnout on the Rise

WILL released a new report finding that since the enactment of Wisconsin’s voter ID requirements 10 years ago, overall voter turnout in the state has increased. Our analysis also found no evidence of disenfranchisement among minority groups or in Dane and Milwaukee counties, countering claims of negative effects on voter participation.

By:

Pat Garrett Pat Garrett
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WILL Exposes Significant Loophole in Wisconsin’s Voter ID Law Ahead of 2024 Election Election Integrity
September 2024

WILL Exposes Significant Loophole in Wisconsin’s Voter ID Law Ahead of 2024 Election

WILL has released a new report detailing the extent which more than one hundred forty thousand Wisconsin voters can vote in the 2024 Presidential Election without an ID. Voters can self-identify as “Indefinitely Confined,” allowing them to continually receive an absentee ballot without ever showing an ID.

By:

Pat Garrett Pat Garrett
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WILL Condemns New SCOWIS Ruling Allowing Drop Boxes for 2024 Election Election Integrity
July 2024

WILL Condemns New SCOWIS Ruling Allowing Drop Boxes for 2024 Election

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty has issued a statement strongly condemning a new ruling from the Wisconsin Supreme Court, allowing the use of drop boxes for the 2024 Election. WILL successfully sued two years ago under a different Court majority.

By:

WILL Comms WILL Comms
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Priorities USA v. WEC Election Integrity
September 2023

Priorities USA v. WEC

WILL seeks to prevent Super PAC from overturning Wisconsin election laws governing drop boxes and absentee ballot security.

By:

Ameillia Wedward Ameillia Wedward
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Policy Activity

2020 Election Review Findings

It is almost certain that in Wisconsin's 2020 election the number of votes that did not comply with existing legal requirements exceeded Joe Biden's margin of victory.

As recently confirmed by the Legislative Audit Bureau, the widespread adoption of absentee ballot drop boxes, encouraged by the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), runs afoul of state law requirements for the collection of absentee ballots. And more than 265,000 Wisconsin voters adopted the ‘indefinitely confined’ status, meaning they received an absentee ballot and were exempt from the statewide photo ID requirements. Further, 54,259 ballots were cast by individuals who have never shown a voter ID in any election. This does not necessarily mean that Biden did not win a majority of the votes of those eligible to vote, but the questions of fraud and unlawful processes are related.
election integrity01

It is still not possible to infer fraud solely from these unlawfully cast votes or failure to maintain voter rolls.

There isn’t much, if any, evidence that these voters did anything intentionally wrong. In many instances, they seem to have relied on the advice of election officials. It is unclear whether, had these ballots been disqualified, the results of the election would have changed. And we do believe that a coordinated effort to exploit the weaknesses created by this failure to follow the law would likely have resulted in some discernible anomaly.
election integrity09

We found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

In all likelihood, more eligible voters cast ballots for Joe Biden than Donald Trump. We found limited instances where ineligible persons voted or attempted to cast ballots. We found no evidence of more than one vote being cast in the name of the same voter. And our analysis of the results and voting patterns does not give rise to an inference of fraud.
election integrity02

We found no evidence of significant problems with voting machines.

Donald Trump won communities that used Dominion voting machines with 57.2%, an increase from 2016. WILL’s review found that jurisdictions that used Dominion voting machines had no effect on the expected vote total.
election integrity03

Local practices were not uniform and, in some cases, may not have followed the law.

This review identified several practices by local election officials that are not uniform and raise concerns about fair and equal treatment. Advice and guidance from the Wisconsin Election Commission on ballot curing and Special Registration Deputies was inconsistent with state law. And inconsistent practices with regard to the number of hours of in-person absentee voting, ballot curing, and absentee ballot rejections should provide the legislature with opportunities to make practices more uniform.
election integrity05

Voter rolls were not properly maintained

State and federal law requires Wisconsin to maintain accurate voter rolls. But the Wisconsin Elections Commission and local clerks refused to take the required steps in 2020 to remove outdated and inaccurate voter registrations—resulting in tens of thousands of active voter registrations tied to old addresses. The widespread abandonment of proper procedures raises questions regarding the fairness of the process and the possibility for voter fraud that might not otherwise be detected.
election integrity04

The 2020 election results were not anomalous.

The high 2020 statewide turnout in Wisconsin (72.3%) was not abnormal. It was the turnout in 2016 that was unusually low. In general, the 2020 election in Wisconsin aligned with long-term statewide and national trends of Democratic gains in the cities and suburbs, coupled with increased Republican margins in rural areas. Joe Biden overperformed Democratic congressional candidates, while Trump underperformed Republican congressional candidates. And 2020 was a return to more conventional levels of write-in and third-party voting.
election integrity07

We found that private funding of election operations had a partisan bias and impact.

Private grants for election administration from the Center for Technical and Civic Life (CTCL), a non-profit largely funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, resulted in an increase in turnout in five Wisconsin cities—all voting heavily for Democrat Joe Biden. A statistical analysis finds significant increases in turnout for Democrats, approximately 8,000 votes statewide, as a result of the distribution of CTCL grants.
election integrity06

A targeted review of a sampling of ballots found few issues.

A close review, including a hand count of roughly 20,000 ballots from 20 wards, uncovered no evidence of fraudulent ballots or widespread voter fraud. The wards selected had results that stood out in some way from previous elections. But our hand review found that the counts closely matched those reported by the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC). In many of the wards examined, WILL found a significant number of voters who voted for Biden and a Republican for Congress, while far fewer voters split the other way.
election integrity08

Recommendations for Reform

WEC Reforms

  • Bipartisan Legal Counsel and Staff
  • Require Guidance and Communications to Clerks to Be Sent to JCRAR
  • Require Joint Responsibility Between WEC and Municipalities for Voter Registration List Maintenance
  • Use HAVA Checks to Update Voter Rolls
  • Changes to WEC Complaint Process
Read Recommendation

Drop Boxes

  • Drop Box Security and 24-Hour Video Surveillance
  • Require Two Employees to Pick Up Drop Box Ballots
  • Institute Standardized Chain of Custody Logs
  • Use Security Bags
Read Recommendation

Private Funding of Election Administration

  • An outright ban on private funding of election administration.
  • Or a requirement that state elections administrators distribute any private funds received by municipalities directly.
Read Recommendation

Ballot Harvesting

  • The legislature must clarify that ballot harvesting is illegal.
  • Senate Bill 203, one of the election reform bills passed by the legislature and vetoed by Governor Evers, clarifies the individuals who can drop off a ballot for another person, including grandchildren, children, and spouses.
Read Recommendation

Absentee Ballot Certificate Curing

  • Determine and set a standard of ballot curing.
  • Standardize Absentee Ballot Envelopes
  • Require Any Marks by Clerk’s Office to Be Marked in Red Ink and Initialed
  • Require All Cured Absentee Envelopes to Be Logged into Absentee Ballot Log
Read Recommendation

Election Transparency

  • Monthly Snapshots of Voter File and Election Day Snapshot.
  • Voter File Should Be Available to the Public at No Cost.
  • All Data Should be Available at the Ward Level.
  • Create Municipal-Level Election Statistics Reports.
  • Cast Vote Record Transparency
Read Recommendation

Indefinitely Confined Status

  • Wisconsin should develop a tightened indefinitely confined standard, while still giving voters options in accessing this process.
  • The legislature should also create a statutory timeline for removing non-voters from the indefinitely confined list.
Read Recommendation

Uniform Absentee Voting Hours

  • The legislature should establish uniform statewide hours for in-person absentee voting that apply to each municipality throughout the state.
Read Recommendation

Ballot Counting

  • Wisconsin should adopt a law that allows clerks to begin processing absentee ballots on the Monday before the election.
  • While the appearance of late-night ballot dumps could be largely solved by allowing a “Monday Count,” another way to fix this issue is to require communities that use central count to report results as they are completed.
Read Recommendation

Media and Commentary

Wisconsin State Journal| Tony Evers blew chance to improve Wisconsin’s elections

Wisconsin State Journal| Tony Evers blew chance to improve Wisconsin’s elections

April 2022

Will Flanders and Kyle Koenen

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The Federalist | How Much Did Mark Zuckerberg’s Money Shift Wisconsin Votes For Biden?

The Federalist | How Much Did Mark Zuckerberg’s Money Shift Wisconsin Votes For Biden?

February 2022

Will Flanders and Rick Esenberg

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Wall Street Journal | The Best Summary of the 2020 Election

Wall Street Journal | The Best Summary of the 2020 Election

January 2022

Wall Street Journal Editorial Board

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WCLO | Will Flanders Discusses Election Review With Tim Bremel

WCLO | Will Flanders Discusses Election Review With Tim Bremel

December 2021

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WSAU | Rick Esenberg Discusses Election Review With Meg Ellefson

WSAU | Rick Esenberg Discusses Election Review With Meg Ellefson

December 2021

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The Federalist | 5 Biggest Takeaways From The Latest Review Of Wisconsin’s Rigged 2020 Election

The Federalist | 5 Biggest Takeaways From The Latest Review Of Wisconsin’s Rigged 2020 Election

December 2021

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Wisconsin Spotlight | Election Review Raises More Questions

Wisconsin Spotlight | Election Review Raises More Questions

December 2021

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Center Square | WILL election review finds unlawful 2020 votes and law, but no evidence of widespread fraud

Center Square | WILL election review finds unlawful 2020 votes and law, but no evidence of widespread fraud

December 2021

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More Policy Categories

category health care

Health Care

WILL advocates for a patient-centered approach to health care that preserves competition, spurs innovation, and ensures broad access to quality and affordable health care.
View Health Care Policies
category education

Education

WILL advocates for an education system that is student-centered and prioritizes the freedom of families to choose the best education for their children.
View Education Policies
category opportunity

Opportunity

WILL advocates for a society where all citizens have access to the important ladders of opportunity.
View Opportunity Policies
category election integrity

Regulatory Reform

WILL advocates for oversight and accountability for the administrative state.
View Regulatory Reform