Audit Coming For Wisconsin State Election System

Now that one of the most-tumultuous election years ever is over, Wisconsin lawmakers want an audit of the systems that are in place to make sure that everything is operating smoothly.  At their February 11 meeting, members of the Audit Committee voted to instruct the state's nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau to conduct a review of operations.

According to news sources, the "audit will look at how the Wisconsin Elections Commission and local clerks comply with election laws.  It will also study the use of electronic voting machines and how complaints about the general election have been handled".

The lawmakers ordering the review point to the "deluge of contacts from constituents who had questions about how the 2020 election was conducted".  Critics of the vote suggest that an audit will "lead to more doubts about future elections"; they fear that the review process will feed conspiracy theories that already exist about the nationwide election that just occurred.

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This new review audit represents the second time that the election process in Wisconsin was looked at - albeit the first comprehensive study.  The Wisconsin Elections commission did perform a partial audit into the voting machines they used last year after the election was over; that audit didn't turn up any problems.  With that study, testimony was entered into the Wisconsin State Legislature reporting that there "Was no evidence of ballot dumps and no fraud related to Dominion voting machines". Dominion was the manufacturer of the electronic voting machines used by many states - including Wisconsin.  The company and their hardware has come under scrutiny since the November General Election.