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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – A Waukesha County judge ruled that municipal clerks, when registering people to vote, must verify that they are U.S. citizens.
Currently new voters have to verify their identity, and then they attest that they are U.S. citizens without showing proof. Lying about citizenship status while registering to vote is a crime.
This is an important election integrity issue, especially in a state with a history of very close elections. In 2022 Donald Trump lost Wisconsin by about 20,000 votes. Tony Evers sits in the governors office after defeating Scott Walker by about 35,000 votes.
In states like Wisconsin which have same day voter registration, making sure someone is legally eligible to vote can be difficult. Yet getting it right is an important election integrity issue.
Here are a few more things you should know. Fond du Lac County DA Eric Toney, who is now running for Attorney General of Wisconsin, has a history of aggressively prosecuting illegal voting cases. The current AG, Josh Kaul, is appealing the citizenship verification ruling. The contrast between the two candidates could not be more stark. Toney is for election integrity; Kaul wants to leave things as they are.
A final note on this story. Henry Redman, who wrote the story for the Wisconsin Examiner, reports that the original case in Waukesha County was brought by “a pair of right-wing election conspiracy theorists.”
The built-in bias against election integrity is breathtaking.
Only U.S. citizens can cast ballots. So what’s wrong with asking people to prove it when they register?
Chris Conley
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