(NewsGlobal.com)- Was the Wisconsin Elections Commission giving voter registration data to outside interest groups for free?
According to the Gateway Pundit, a 2019 memo from the Wisconsin Elections Commission notes that records and voter registration data are available to individuals and organizations if they pay the fees covering the costs of reproduction and maintaining the list.
The commission charges a $25 base fee plus additional fees for each 1,000 records requested, as well as a maximum fee of $12,500 for voter registration data.
The Gateway Pundit alleges that during the 2020 election, Wisconsin election officials were providing “up-to-the-minute access” to outside groups that allowed them to obtain “all sorts of information” related to Wisconsin’s voting system.
The Gateway Pundit acknowledges they are “unaware” if these outside groups had to pay for the information they received. However, they conclude that election officials provided this information to these outside groups “for free” during the 2020 election while charging Republican groups $12,500.
On Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that Wisconsin Election Commission officials testified before the State Assembly’s elections committee disputing a series of accusations about the state’s voting records and election administration.
In her testimony, the state’s top elections official Meagan Wolfe testified that Wisconsin’s elections are accessible and secure, but added that the commission takes seriously the recommendations from the nonpartisan Audit Bureau on how Wisconsin’s elections could be improved.
Rob Kehoe, the elections commission’s technology director testified that the numerous “unverified, fantastical claims” made about Wisconsin’s elections are preventing lawmakers from tackling actual problems that need to be addressed.
Kehoe cited recent claims made by Peter Bernegger who has been conducting his own review of the state’s elections records. Bernegger had pointed to one address from which hundreds of people were registered to vote. But Kehoe noted that the address in question is one of Madison’s largest apartment buildings with over 800 registered voters. Another address Bernegger cited was in reality a residence hall at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside that has 359 registered voters.
