In a letter to state officials posted on video-sharing platform Rumble, Harry Waite — the president of a group called Fair, Open and Transparent Government — said he went online this week and successfully ordered absentee ballots on behalf of the Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker. Robin Voss, Racine Mayor Corey Mason and other voters to demonstrate “the ease of collecting election ballots online.”
Waite, whose group has focused on allegations of fraud surrounding the 2020 election, said he was willing “to be held accountable for exposing these voting vulnerabilities.”
He has revealed his actions in numerous media interviews in recent days.
“If that’s what it takes to stop fraud in our elections so we can have real, safe and secure elections, yes, I’ll go behind bars,” Waite told CNN affiliate WISN 12 News in Milwaukee.
Filing false information to obtain an absentee ballot and making false statements to election officials are crimes under Wisconsin law. Democrats on the Wisconsin Election Commission urged the group to file criminal charges during an emergency meeting Thursday night.
Ann Jacobs, a Democratic member of the committee, said she was “outraged” that Waite “thinks it’s cute when what he’s doing is committing crimes and bragging about it in an attempt to undermine our voting system’.
Don Millis, the committee’s Republican chairman, said he had “no problem” making it a crime, but he would like more details first.
In a statement earlier Thursday, the commission said there was “no indication of any vulnerability” in MyVote, the state’s online election portal. Its members agreed to notify voters who may have been affected by the hack, and the commission issued guidance to local election clerks to watch for potential fraud in absentee ballot requests. Wisconsin’s primary election is Aug. 9, with high-stakes races for governor and U.S. Senate on the ballot.
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