Wisconsin conservative activist charged with election fraud after improperly requesting other voters’ absentee ballots
Poll workers sort out early and absentee ballots in Kenosha
By Fredreka Schouten, CNN
A Wisconsin man who has admitted he improperly requested other voters’ absentee ballots in an effort to prove election fraud has been charged with election fraud, the state’s Department of Justice announced Thursday.
Harry Wait — of Union Grove, Wisconsin and the president of a group called Honest, Open and Transparent Government — was charged with two counts of election fraud and two counts of unauthorized use of an individual’s personal identifying information, according to state officials.
“The Wisconsin Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that the integrity of our elections is protected from alleged intentional violations of the law,” Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a statement announcing the charges.
Wait, 68, has said he went online in July and successfully ordered absentee ballots in the names of Wisconsin state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Racine Mayor Cory Mason and other voters to demonstrate the “ease of harvesting election ballots.” He widely publicized the activity.
In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Wait said he was still digesting the criminal complaint but said the charges were expected. He stood by his actions.
“The only way to fix our broken election system is to expose it,” Wait said.
He called the online MyVote system overseen by the Wisconsin Elections Commission a “rogue site.”
In a statement, the commission said it “stands by the integrity of the MyVote application” and added that “all forms of voting in Wisconsin, including by-mail absentee, are secure and reliable.”
Some Wisconsin conservative activists — along with some GOP candidates on the ballot in the state this year — have promoted the false idea that former President Donald Trump was robbed of victory in this perennial battleground state in 2020.
President Joe Biden won the Badger State by a little more than 20,600 votes.
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