During the 2024 presidential election, Wisconsin voters took the extraordinary step of ratifying an amendment to their state constitution to prohibit foreign nationals from voting in their elections. Passed by nearly three-quarters (71 percent) of voters, this constitutional amendment specified that “only” eligible U.S. citizens may cast ballots in the Badger State’s electoral contests.
While the measure’s passage undoubtedly marked a major win for the integrity of Wisconsin’s elections, the question remained: How will the state ensure its enforcement?
It’s that unknown which the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) hopes to provide clarity to through its newest report, “The Will of the People: A Roadmap to Enforce Wisconsin’s Citizenship Voting Amendment.” Obtained by The Federalist, the extensive report released Monday offers Badger State officials a blueprint on how to effectively audit Wisconsin’s voter rolls and ensure only U.S. citizens are voting in elections.
“The integrity of our elections is non-negotiable. We need transparent, secure processes to ensure that every individual who is eligible to vote is permitted to do so and that no individual who is ineligible to vote is allowed to do so,” authors Will Flanders and Nathalie Burmeister write.
While laying out the reasons to justify conducting an audit of the state’s voter rolls (ensuring integrity of Wisconsin elections and enhancing public confidence in the process), Flanders and Burmeister also provide a five-point plan on what a successful audit should entail.
The first among these suggestions is for Wisconsin election officials to compare the state’s voter registration list to the Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles’ databases of noncitizens who have been issued driver’s licenses or state ID cards “to see how many, if any, are registered or have voted.” Citing a PBS Wisconsin report indicating nearly 300,000 noncitizens have been issued such documentation by the state, the authors write, “The DMV’s databases should show both non-citizens who obtained ID’s under Wisconsin Administrative Code and those who obtained ID’s through the DMV program related to the Federal Deferred Action Program.”
After conducting this first step, Flanders and Burmeister recommend Wisconsin officials take the names of prospective noncitizens identified and check them against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to verify their immigration status and eligibility to vote. They compare this strategy to the one used by Iowa to identify and remove noncitizens from its voter rolls.
The WILL report goes on to encourage state officials to independently verify “the confirmed names to eliminate any errors apparent after the computer matching,” and subsequently “[n]otify the individuals identified as non-citizens and provide an opportunity to correct any error.” It is after these steps, the analysis advises, that the Wisconsin Elections Commission “should be required to remove all individuals confirmed as non-citizens and therefore ineligible to vote from the voter registration list.”
Flanders and Burmeister note that the constitutional authority to conduct such an audit rests with the executive branch (i.e. Democrat Gov. Tony Evers). Should the governor decline “to act this year,” the authors recommend the Republican-controlled state legislature “in its oversight role, should carry out Steps 1 through 3 and report its findings to the people of Wisconsin.”
They further advised the legislature to consider “codifying this audit process” into state law.
“The adoption of the 2024 Constitutional Amendment presents both a clear mandate and an opportunity to strengthen public trust by verifying that only eligible citizens are registered to vote,” the authors write. “Conducting a thorough audit of the statewide voter registration list, using existing tools and safeguards, will promote transparency, address legitimate concerns, and help prevent unlawful votes from diluting the voice of lawful voters.”
WILL Noncitizen Voting Blueprint by The Federalist