Opponents of laws requiring voters to show photo identification before voting consistently claim that voter fraud is little more than a myth advanced by their political opponents. While vote fraud is extremely difficult to identify and prosecute, various organizations including the MacIver Institute have put together lists of cases that likely are just the tip of the iceberg.
Illegal and immoral activities run the gamut from impersonation at the polls, duplicate voting, to schemes to buy votes and attempt to steal elections. In fact, the MacIver Institute reported in 2011 that Wisconsin Jobs Now!, a group claiming to be a nonpartisan advocate of increasing the minimum wage, was offering free barbecue and prizes to those it bussed to the polls. Wisconsin law forbids “election bribery” including giving or offering anything of value in exchange for going to the polls.
We also reported a case of potential vote fraud at a New Berlin, Wis. nursing home in which documents we obtained revealed an elderly man was “assisted” in casting a ballot – his grandson was concerned about the integrity of the process.
The following is an updated list of the cases that were charged by the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Election Fraud Task Force relating to the 2008 General Presidential Election. The MacIver Institute first published this list prior to the 2010 election.
Source: Wisconsin Department of Justice.
Frank Walton
Charge: Falsely Procuring Voter Registration (Felony Class I)
Next date: December 6, 2010, for sentencing
Walton was a special registration deputy (“SRD”) who solicited voter registrations while working for the Community Voter Project (“CVP”).
Michael Henderson
Charges: Voting by a Disqualified Person (Felon) (Felony Class I)
Providing False Information to an Election Official (Felony Class I)
Next date: November 19, 2010, for motion decision on defense constitutional challenge
This is a felon voter case. Milwaukee Public Defender is challenging the felon voter prohibition.
Maria Miles
Charge: Falsely Procuring Voter Registration – as party to a crime (Felony Class I)
Next date: October 15, 2010, for sentencing
Former ACORN Special Registration Deputy.
Kevin Clancy
Charge: Falsely Procuring Voter Registration – as party to a crime (Felony Class I)
Next date: October 15, 2010, for projected guilty plea
Clancy was an ACORN SRD with Miles.
Herbert Gunka
Suzanne Gunka
Charge: Double Voting (Felony Class I)
Next date: November 15, 2010, for final pretrial
January 24, 2011, for jury trial
Husband and wife voted by absentee ballot and at the polls.
David Lewis
Charge: Voting by a Disqualified Person (Felon) (Felony Class I)
Providing False Information to an Election Official (Felony Class I)
Next date: November 9, 2010, for sentencing
This is a felon voter case.
Ramon Martinez
Charge: Voting by a Disqualified Person (Felon) (Felony Class I)
Next date: November 9, 2010, for sentencing
This is a felon voter case.
Milwaukee County Cases:
Endalyn Adams
Charge: Falsely Procuring Voter Registration – as party to a crime (Felony Class I)
Sentence: 15 months IC, 15 months ES – imposed and stayed
3 years probation
Community service
Adams worked for CVP as a SRD.
Adam Mucklin
Charges: Providing False Information to Election Official (Felony Class I)
Intentional Violation of Election Duty (Felony Class I)
Sentence: Both charges were amended to attempted offenses, making each misdemeanors (attempt to commit a Class I felony)
Count 1: 4 months incarceration
Count 2: 7 months incarceration imposed and stayed with 1 year probation
Mucklin was a convicted felon on active supervision while working for CVP. He registered himself to vote (while on active felony supervision) and also registered others as an SRD.
Latoya Lewis
Charge: Falsely Procuring Voter Registration (Felony Class I)
Sentence: 12 months incarceration – imposed and stayed
3 years probation
3 months incarceration as condition of probation
Lewis and her mother were employed by ACORN as SRDs.
Lavelle Morris – CLOSED
Charges: Voting by Disqualified Person (Felon) (Felony Class I)
Providing False Information to Election Official (Felony Class I)
Sentence: Count 1: 90 days incarceration
Count 2: Dismissed and read-in
This is a felon voter case.
L.B. Dean – CLOSED
Charges: Voting by Disqualified Person (Felon) (Felony Class I)
Providing False Information to Election Official (Felony Class I)
Sentence: Count 1: 60 days incarceration
Count 2: Dismissed and read-in
This is a felon voter case.
Stephen Wroblewski – CLOSED
Charge: Providing False Information to Obtain Absentee Ballot (Misdemeanor)
Sentence: $500 fine
Wroblewski obtained an absentee ballot in his late-wife’s name in order to “fulfill her dying wish” to vote for Obama.
Edward Johnson – CLOSED
Charges: Voting by Disqualified Person (Felon) (Felony Class I)
Providing False Information to Election Official (Felony Class I)
Sentence: Count 1: 90 days jail with huber release
Count 2: Dismiss and read-in
This is a felon voter case.
Orlando Maclin
Charges: Voting by Disqualified Person (Felon) (Felony Class I)
Providing False Information to Election Official (Felony Class I)
Next date: November 19, 2010, for motion decision on defense constitutional challenge
This is a felon voter case. Tagging along with the Michael Henderson case.
Veronica Toney
Charges: Voting by Disqualified Person (Felon) (Felony Class I)
Providing False Information to Election Official (Felony Class I)
Next date: October 25, 2010, for scheduling
This is a felon voter case.
Leon Pendleton
Charges: Voting by Disqualified Person (Felon) (Felony Class I)
Providing False Information to Election Official (Felony Class I)
Next date: October 14, 2010, for scheduling
This is a felon voter case.
The Heritage Foundation also maintains an extensive database on vote fraud around the country in which they identify more than 400 cases. We’ve added the cases they’ve identified in Wisconsin with the exception of those listed above.
Robert Monroe
CONVICTED: 2016
Duplicate Voting
Robert Monroe, identified by prosecutors as the worst multiple-voter in state history, pleaded no contest to charges that he voted more than once in 2011 and 2012. Monroe’s record was extensive: he voted twice in the April 2011 Wisconsin Supreme Court election, twice in the 2011 recall election of state Senator Alberta Darling, and five times in Gov. Scott Walker’s recall election. He also cast an illegal ballot in the August 2012 primary, and voted twice in the 2012 general election. On four of the counts, Monroe received a suspended three year prison sentence, and will serve up to a year in jail. He also received five years’ probation, and was ordered to complete 300 hours of community service and pay a $5,000 fine.
Leonard K. Brown
CONVICTED: 2014
False Registrations and Duplicate Voting
Leonard K. Brown pleaded guilty in 2013 to five felony counts of illegally voting in West Milwaukee when he did not reside there. A jury then found him guilty in January of 2014 of deliberately voting twice in the 2012 presidential election. Brown voted in person on the day of the election and by absentee ballot in a di erent jurisdiction four days prior. Brown was sentenced to nine months in jail and a $1,750 DNA testing charge.
Chad Gigowski
CONVICTED: 2013
Duplicate Voting
Chad Gigowski pleaded guilty to double voting in the 2012 election. Gigowski used an old driver’s license to vote in Greenfield on election day, before showing up later in Milwaukee with a Department of Workforce Development letter as proof of his Milwaukee residence. He was sentenced to 6 months in jail, with work release privileges, and 2.5 years of probation.
Caitlin B. Haycock
CONVICTED: 2013
Recall Petition Fraud
Caitlin B. Haycock pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor election fraud charge for signing both of her parents’ names to a 2011 petition seeking a recall election for Governor Scott Walker. Compounding the issue, Haycock told the petition circulator, Jenny Wanasek, what she was doing. Wanasek deliberately (and literaly) looked the other way so Haycock could commit the fraud. Wanasek later pleaded guilty
to charges stemming from the incident. As for Haycock, she was sentenced to 40 hours of community service and was fined $500 as conditions of probation.
Deborah A. Mehling
CONVICTED: 2013
Recall Petition Fraud
Deborah A. Mehling was found guilty of a civil violation in a small claims court for signing a petition sheet as a circulator even though her daughter had collected one of the signatures. Mehling was fined $100.
Brittany M. Rainey
CONVICTED: 2013
Ineligible Voting
Brittany M. Rainey pleaded guilty to voting as a felon in the 2012 general election. She had been convicted on a charge of felony child neglect in 2010 but lied about her conviction in order to cast a vote. She was sentenced to 45 days in the Milwaukee County House of Correction.
Andrew L. Shepherd
CONVICTED: 2013
Ineligible Voting
Andrew Sheperd pleaded guilty to lying to election o cials about his past felony record so he could get hired as a special voter registration worker. He was sentenced to 30 days in the Wisconsin House of Correction.
Brian A. Uecker, Fozia H. Nawaz, and Bill A. Di Giorgio
CONVICTED: 2013
False Registrations
Brian A. Uecker, Fozia H. Nawaz, and Bill A. Di Giorgio were all found guilty of civil violations for voting in wrong locations for the 2012 general election. Each was fined $100.
Jenny Wanasek
CONVICTED: 2013
Recall Petition Fraud
Jenny Wanasek was the petition circulator for the recall of Governor Scott Walker who deliberately looked away so that Caitlin B. Haycock could sign her parents’ names on the petition. Wanasek pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for failing to cross out the parents’ names before turning in the petition. Wanasek was sentenced to 40 hours of community service and was fined $500 as conditions of probation.
Kevin Clancy
CONVICTED: 2010
False Registrations
Kevin Clancy and Maria Miles, both employees for ACORN, pleaded guilty to falsely procuring voter registration information after admitting that they submitted multiple voter registration forms for the same individuals. To meet quotas, Clancy admitted he and others also registered themselves multiple times. Clancy received a 10-month prison sentence, but will serve his time consecutively with another sentence he is already serving for an armed robbery.
Louis and Jane Kwiatkowski
CONVICTED: 2010
Duplicate Voting, Fraudulent Use of Absentee Ballots
The Wisconsin couple was convicted of voting twice, with each casting absentee ballots in elections in the town of Wyocena, where they owned a cabin, before later voting in the city of Blooming Grove. The victor in the Wyocena trustee’s race – who also happened to be the Kwiatkowskis’ preferred candidate – won by a two-vote margin, prompting the judge to declare that the couple’s fraud swung the election. Mr. Kwiatkowski was fined $2,000 and his wife received a $1,500 fine.
Endalyn Adams
CONVICTED: 2009
Ballot Petition Fraud/Registrations Fraud
Endalyn Adams, a registration worker, was convicted of falsely procuring voter registration information. To meet her daily registration quota, she made up information on voter registration forms and submitted them. Adam Mucklin, a special registration deputy with
the Community Voter Project, was convicted of attempting to register himself to vote even though he was a convicted felon and therefore ineligible. He was also convicted for attempting to lie to the Milwaukee Election Commission. Ms. Adams was sentenced to three years’ probation and 75 hours of community service. Mucklin was sentenced to four months in the House of Correction on one count and given a stayed consecutive seven-month sentence and a year of probation on the other count.
Kimberly Prude
CONVICTED: 2007
Fraudulent Use of Absentee Ballots/Ineligible Voting
Kimberly Prude, a campaign vounteer for the Kerry-Edwards campaign, was convicted of illegally casting an absentee ballot in the 2004 election. She was already a convicted felon for forgery charges in 2000. Her probation was revoked and she is now serving her sentence in prison.
Douglas Ferrel
CONVICTED: 2004
Ballot Petition Fraud
In Blue River, Wisconsin, Douglas Ferrel was found guilty of making false representations that he personally had obtained each of the signatures on a recall petition, when he had not. He was found guilty and charged court assessments of $707.