More confined in Trump counties
Fewer bypassed ID law in counties Biden won
More Wisconsin voters were allowed to vote absentee without showing photo identification in counties Donald Trump won than in counties that backed Joe Biden, a new analysis shows.
Some Wisconsin voters have bypassed the state’s photo ID requirement for nearly a decade, but the practice is under fresh scrutiny by Republican lawmakers after a surge in the number of such ballots cast during the coronavirus pandemic — the target of President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the state’s election results.
A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel review shows 123,357 voters in the 58 counties Trump carried claimed to be indefinitely confined on the basis of age, physical illness or disability, which allowed them to bypass the photo identification requirement.
In the 14 counties Biden won en route to a 21,000-vote victory, 92,356 voters listed themselves as indefinitely confined.
The finding comes as Trump and other Republicans argue the dramatic increase in indefinitely confined voters this year, including by two Democratic lawmakers who have appeared at public events, is a sign the system is being abused.
The Journal Sentinel analysis relying on data from the Wisconsin Elections Commission found increases happened across the state, not just in counties won by Biden. The Wisconsin Elections Commission did not have data breaking down such votes by individual ward.
Republican lawmakers have said they may try to tighten the indefinitely confined law, but such legislation would likely face a veto from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
If such legislation were put into law, the state could face a new round of challenges to the voter ID law, Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said.
“If they did do that, they would jeopardize the entire voter ID law,” said McDonell, a Democrat who says the
indefinite confinement law is being used properly.
Mark Jefferson, the Republican Party of Wisconsin executive director, said he doesn’t believe the breakdown of indefinitely confined voters’ location necessarily means more Republicans than Democrats in the counties utilized the option.
“I’m not sure what that statistic gets you because there were Biden voters in every county,” he said. “It’s clear to us that the statewide list of indefinitely confined (voters) showed signs in the Democrats’ favor. There are Republicans taking advantage of this protection and it’s a lawful protection for people who need it, but it’s been abused.”
“Everything has changed in the last year because of the virus. It would be astounding for this to be the one thing that doesn’t.”
Scott McDonell Dane County clerk
Rule in spotlight
State law has allowed voters to claim this status for three decades, and Republican lawmakers excluded such voters from the photo ID law they passed in 2011. But after a nearly four-fold increase during the pandemic in the number of voters who did so, the option is under a spotlight by Republicans.
Two such voters are state Sen. Patty Schachtner of Somerset and Rep. Shelia Stubbs of Madison — first reported by conservative talk show host Dan O’Donnell.
Schachtner said she used the indefinitely confined law in part because she has been exposed to COVID-19 multiple times and has had to quarantine. Schachtner, who is also the St. Croix County medical examiner, lost her Senate race in November.
“My medical history is my business and I don’t ask anybody else why, what their history is, why they chose that, and I would expect the same respect back,” she said of her decision to label herself indefinitely confined.
Schachtner has attended some public events, including last week at the Capitol when she and nine other Democrats cast the state’s Electoral College votes for Biden. She said she wears masks and follows health guidelines when she goes out.
“Part of this equation is I have been exposed and quarantined many, many times,” said Schachtner, whose father died of COVID-19 last month and family members were infected with the virus.
She expressed frustration over criticism she has taken for labeling herself indefinitely confined.
“We all have to do what we have to do that’s the best for us,” she said. “And I just think we’re in uncharted times and the fact that it’s happened to be during an election year is bringing out kind of, in my opinion, the worst of us. We should be thinking about how to get through this pandemic and what’s life going to be about on the other side of the pandemic.
“As someone who has lost their dad to COVID, this type of stuff does not help with the healing.”
Stubbs, who like Schachtner was a presidential elector for Biden, did not return a phone call Monday.
Trump and his backers targeted liberal counties through a bevy of lawsuits claiming voters improperly listed themselves as indefinitely confined in an unsuccessful effort to disqualify ballots.
Jefferson said one change lawmakers could propose is to require voters who claimed the status after the pandemic began to reapply. He said another possible change could be requiring someone to sign an affidavit in support of someone’s need to claim the status.
“I think there remains support from both sides of the aisle to make it as easy as possible for folks who are indefinitely confined to have access at the polls, but I think we need to have reasonable (rules),” Jefferson said.
“I think they should still have the ability to get a ballot mailed to them. I don’t think most people have a problem with that, but I do think the basic verification isn’t too much to ask and what that looks like I think is for the policymakers to decide,” he said.
Jefferson sued McDonell, the Dane County clerk, this spring after McDonell and the Milwaukee County Clerk issued guidance encouraging voters to claim the status to avoid going out in public during the pandemic. The state Supreme Court ruled last week the guidance, which was since retracted, was wrong.
McDonell, who issued the guidance to help voters, said Monday he did not believe people were misusing the indefinitely confined law. In some cases, elderly voters who have voted at the polls in the past — and shown their IDs there — didn’t have computer equipment they needed to upload a copy of their ID when they decided to vote absentee, he said.
“It’s happening in every county so it isn’t a Dane County or a Milwaukee County thing,” McDonnell said. “It’s related to COVID, and I don’t know why it’s surprising. Everything has changed in the last year because of the virus. It would be astounding for this to be the one thing that doesn’t.”
State Rep. Jimmy Anderson, D-Fitchburg, said he believed the indefinitely confined law is working well and making changes to it will “absolutely disenfranchise a variety of people, particularly those with disabilities.”
“When I explain I have a disability, I need accommodation, they will often ask, do you really need the accommodation? Why do you need accommodation?” said Anderson, who is paralyzed from the chest down. “And then it forces someone like myself to talk about some incredibly personal things that I don’t feel that I should have to talk to anybody except between me and my doctor. So the idea that you would push people to have these uncomfortable conversations with, I don’t know, a county clerk feels entirely inappropriate.”
Republicans vow to change law
Fifteen Republican state senators sent Evers a letter last week making clear that the Legislature will be seeking changes to the state’s election laws, seeking his support. Among the issues the senators are seeking is the issue of claiming the indefinitely confined status. “It is clear, election laws must be a priority in the next session. It is incumbent upon the legislative and executive branch to work together to ensure future elections are safeguarded from perversion of our election laws,” the lawmakers wrote in a Dec. 17 letter. “Failure to do this will continue to erode the trust in our electoral process. Voters need to feel confident in the integrity of the process, and we must deliver.”
About 215,000 voters claimed the indefinitely confined status during the Nov. 3 election, up from the 56,986 who called themselves indefinitely confined in the 2016 election.
That accounted for about 7% of votes in the November election.
State law leaves it up to voters to determine when they meet those criteria. The state Supreme Court affirmed that point in its decision this month that came in response to the lawsuit filed this spring by Jefferson and the state Republican Party.
With voters under a stay-at-home order during the April 7 election, some labeled themselves indefinitely confined when they requested absentee ballots through the state’s online portal, myvote.wi.gov.
Once voters have been identified as confined, they automatically are sent absentee ballots for future elections. That continues until they don’t return an absentee ballot or they alert their clerk they are no longer confined.
Before the November election, clerks around the state sent confined voters letters asking them to consider whether they still met the criteria.
The 92,000 voters who listed themselves as indefinitely confined and live in Biden-won counties primarily live in Milwaukee and Dane counties.
In Milwaukee County, 10% of voters identified themselves as indefinitely confined — a tie with much smaller Iron and Douglas counties for the highest percentage in the state.
Among the 10 most populous counties, seven backed Trump. In that group, Jefferson, Racine, St. Croix, Dane and Outagamie counties had the top-five highest percentage increases of indefinitely confined voters over the 2016 election. All but Dane County went for Trump.