The winning priority for Wisconsin’s next governor
(Originally published at http://www.onwisconsinoutdoors.com/Content/files/ArchivedIssues/2025-Nov-Dec_OnWIOutdoors.pdf)
The candidate for Wisconsin Governor who makes restoring verifiability to our elections his first priority will quickly become the front runner to win the 2026 election. By using On Wisconsin Outdoors’ reporting over the last two years on why our elections are unverifiable and putting forward a plan to correct the problem, he will separate himself from the other candidates and win the overwhelming support of Wisconsin’s voters.
The candidate’s clearly stated goal will be to restore verifiable elections to our state, not free and fair elections, and this is why. “Free and fair” is a meaningless phrase for elections, used by the media and ineffective politicians, that does not guarantee or even imply verifiability. But “verifiable” elections are designed so that every vote counted is tied to a verifiable, eligible voter. Because of this, only verifiable elections can validate the will of Wisconsin’s voters. Simply put, all verifiable elections will be free and fair, but not all free and fair elections will be verifiable.
The candidate’s plan will include the following steps:
1. The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) will be dismantled. The WEC is unaccountable to voters, facilitates unverifiable elections, and provides cover for the state legislators who have refused to correct Wisconsin’s serious election problems. Responsibility for our elections will be returned to those legislators, where Wisconsin’s voters can hold them accountable.
2. Wisconsin will discontinue membership in the Electronic Voting Information Center (ERIC). ERIC is a multistate agreement, promoted as helping member states improve the accuracy of their voter rolls. But Wisconsin’s membership in ERIC has contributed to the state voter registration list expanding to nearly twice the size of Wisconsin’s voting aged population. The accuracy of Wisconsin’s voter registration list will be ensured by maintaining it solely in-state as described in step 3.
3. The lists of eligible voters used for Wisconsin’s elections will be maintained locally, within each municipality, by the clerks. Those lists will be available for inspection by citizens free of charge and used by the state legislators to build and maintain the official list of registered voters as required by law. The cumulative total of eligible voters maintained by local municipalities will equal the number of eligible voters on the legislators’ list. This will make it impossible for unverifiable illegal ballots to be cast, because every vote will be tied to a locally verifiable, eligible voter.
Currently, the WEC maintains a voter registration list with more than 8.2 million names in a state with only 4.6 million voting aged citizens. That list includes more than 4 million ineligible names. To receive a copy of the list costs $12,500.00. The size and cost of the list make it easy for unverifiable fraudulent ballots to be cast and impossible to inspect.
4. The voter IDs used when registering to vote will be tied to a verifiable, eligible Wisconsin voter. There are currently more than 250,000 people living legally in Wisconsin who are ineligible to vote, but who have been issued Driver’s Licenses that are identical to those of Wisconsin residents who are eligible to vote. Because a Driver’s License is all you need to register in Wisconsin, the ineligible people with the licenses can easily vote. To correct this, all Wisconsin Driver’s Licenses issued to people who are here legally but ineligible to vote will be clearly marked “Not for Voting”.
5. Paper ballots will be used, filled out manually, and counted locally using simple counters that cannot be connected to the internet. Those ballots will be kept for recounts, and to cross check with the local lists of eligible voters. After the polls close each clerk will report the results from their municipality directly to the legislators, eliminating central count. This will make any discrepancies in the vote count after elections easily found and verified locally.
6. Absentee Voting will be limited to those who are unable to make it to the polls on Election Day, and all voting by mail will end. According to a report that was released in September of 2005 by the Commission on Federal Election Reform, Co-Chaired by Democrat Jimmy Carter and Republican James Baker, voting by mail increases the risk of fraud and absentee or “convenience voting” detracts from the collective expression of citizenship that takes place on Election Day.
7. The 28-day residency rule, which allows out-of-state students to vote in Wisconsin’s elections, will end. Out-of-state students have no vested interest in Wisconsin and a responsibility to vote in their home states. In addition, the University of Wisconsin system will be required to verify the citizenship of students before issuing a voting ID. Currently there is no requirement, even though there are more than 8000 non-citizen students, from 100 countries, at UW Madison alone.
No issue is more important than restoring verifiability to Wisconsin’s elections, because every issue we vote on depends on it. The candidate for Wisconsin Governor who recognizes this and runs on a plan like the one outlined above as his first priority, will excite the masses and win in a landslide.