WATERTOWN, Wisconsin — A damning report raises concerns about a legal loophole that has allowed thousands of people to vote in Wisconsin without showing a photo ID as required by state law.
A Monday morning release from the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty shows the “indefinitely confined” voter list has grown to more than 144,000, a 116% increase from 2016.
This state accommodation, designed for the disabled, elderly, sick and infirm, made headlines in 2020 when two of Wisconsin’s largest cities — Milwaukee and Madison — told citizens to use a little-known law to vote without photo ID during COVID restrictions.
President Biden won the state by about 21,000 votes in 2020; former President Donald Trump won by about 27,000 votes in 2016. Polls show a tight race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris this year.
Dairy Staters are required to show a government-issued photo ID when voting, but not when registering to vote. “Indefinitely confined” voters check a box when registering to sign up for automatic absentee ballots “for every election” unless they are indefinitely confined or fail to return a ballot.
Wisconsin Supreme Court put a stop to thatBut that has not stopped the indefinitely limited voter list from growing fourfold, from about 67,000 in 2016 to 265,000 in 2020 — representing about 8% of all votes cast four years ago.
Because of a state law requiring the cleanup of voter rolls, the number of indefinitely confined voters has dropped to just over 144,000, but that number is still more than double what it was in 2016.
Five Democratic strongholds have the highest number of voters with indefinitely confined status: Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Kenosha and Janesville, all of which voted hard for Biden in 2020.
Report author Will Flanders was quick to point out that the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty has found no evidence of widespread voter fraud by those using this status in Wisconsin. Still, the conservative legal and policy center thinks it's cause for concern.
“We have a way that doesn’t require people to show photo ID,” Flanders told the Post.
Will's concern is that indefinitely limited voter lists could be used as an opportunity to question election results, as happened in 2020.
Flanders said one solution is to change the law to require a doctor's note, as some states do, or to require a photo ID for the position.
Republican state lawmakers passed such a bill, but Democratic Governor Tony Evers vetoed it in 2022.
In 2020, the Wisconsin Elections Commission confirmed that 78% of indefinitely barred voters had shown a photo ID at some point, but that figure has not been updated.
WILL found that most municipal clerks complied with state-law requirements to identify inactive voters and remove them from that status. But Madison failed to respond to WILL’s open records request — far beyond the 10-to-14-day turnaround required by law.
The conservative group believes about 38,000 registered voters could be barred indefinitely, no longer eligible under state law.
Flanders issued a warning when asked what could be done about cities that don’t comply with the law on cleaning up voter rolls.
“If a municipality does not comply with the legal requirements to remove individuals from the indefinitely barred list, the voters in that community must file a complaint with the WEC,” Flanders said.
“WILL is prepared to discuss particularly serious matters with anyone in non-compliant communities.”
