Election Denier Challenges Wisconsin Participation in National Voter Database
A Republican Wisconsin legislator is challenging the state’s participation in a multistate database of registered voters, arguing the agreement violates Wisconsin’s constitution.
The lawsuit filed by Wisconsin State Rep. Janel Brandtjen, who pushed to decertify President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential race, against the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) challenges the state’s involvement with the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). Wisconsin law mandates that the state “enter into a membership agreement with ERIC for the purpose of maintaining the official registration list.”
The lawsuit alleges WEC has never entered into an official agreement with ERIC, and that the state’s only existing partnership with ERIC is a 2016 agreement between ERIC and the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB). That agreement, the complaint argues, does not apply to WEC, yet the agency is regularly sharing data with ERIC, including inactive and active voter records.
Brandtjen’s lawsuit includes the GAB-ERIC agreement, which includes a note that says: “Effective June 30, 2016 the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board becomes the Wisconsin Elections Commission.”
The lawmaker argues the agreement violates how state law outlines Wisconsin’s involvement with ERIC, and also violates the state constitution. Brandtjen points to a constitutional amendment approved this year by Wisconsin voters that essentially banned private election funds, after the Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR) in 2020 distributed grants to Wisconsin and other states using roughly $300 million in donations from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Article 3 of Wisconsin’s constitution now says no state agency or state employee or officer may apply for or accept non-government funding or equipment, according to the complaint. It also says no individual other than an election official “may perform any task in the conduct of any primary, election, or referendum.”
Brandtjen alleges that ERIC shares voter registration information with CEIR, the same group behind the Zuckerberg donations, despite neither entity being an “election official designated by law” — meaning neither has the authority to handle Wisconsin voter data. WEC, in violation of state law, has not entered a binding agreement with ERIC that safeguards the “confidentiality of information or data” in registration lists, the complaint says.
The lawmaker is asking a state court to find WEC in violation of statutes that govern its use of ERIC and prohibit WEC from continuing to use the national database. She also wants WEC to retrieve any voter data from ERIC and CEIR.