Jeff Ings
Physicist, Dr. Douglas Frank, who has spent the past six years pursuing matters of election integrity in 48 states, presented Wisconsin Election Integrity information to Fox Valley officials and residents at Grand Chute’s Freedom Project Academy on Monday, January 12.
Frank, who has been modeling elections since 1980, shared evidence to support that individual Wisconsin counties and municipalities are not in control of their own local elections, even though local and county clerks may be diligently attempting to maintain their voter rolls.
Through his research, Frank discovered that an abnormally high level of ‘Voter Roll Churn’ is occurring in all states, especially Wisconsin, and in all counties and municipalities in Wisconsin. Voter Roll Churn involves a continual process of adding and removing large numbers of names from municipal voter rolls. Churn is defined as ‘the total number of registrants added and removed from a voter roll over time, divided by the beginning number of registrants.’
Over the 4 years of 2021 – 2025, the population of Outagamie County adults (age 18 and older) changed 2.9%. However, during that same period, the amount of voter roll churn was 51%. Based on the amount of population change over the period, Frank stated that an expected level of voter roll change should be 3-5% per year. Outagamie County is experiencing an average churn rate of more than 10% per year.
Frank produced a graph nick-named the “Volcano Graph” by some media outlets. It not only shows the high levels of churn that are constantly occurring, but also reveals that the same amount of churn is occurring simultaneously and in concert in each of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. According to Frank, this proves that there is a high-degree of central control by the state election systems.
When asked who is responsible for the amount of voter roll churn observed in Wisconsin, Frank indicated that the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) has retained the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a non-government organization (NGO), to facilitate central control and maintenance of the voter rolls for counties and municipalities throughout Wisconsin. Frank believes centralized control of voter rolls, and the voter roll churn they produce to be problematic because operating in this manner provides great opportunity for voter fraud and other related problems.
“We need to get back to having local control of our voter rolls and elections,” Frank said. “By and large, local clerks are capable of doing a great job of administering their own voter rolls and elections. They are typically not aware that their voter rolls, election result tabulations, and election reporting are being centrally-controlled by WEC and other affiliate organizations. Local clerks are also not aware of the vast amount of Voter Roll Churn that is occurring because they don’t keep and maintain their own local voter roll copy.”
Frank also advocates the practice of hand-counting ballots. He added, “A machine might be used to verify a hand-count, if desired, but it is now widely-recognized that voting machines are connected to networks that are not secure.” He also added that hand-counting ballots saves significant amounts of time and taxpayer money.
Frank showed a nationwide ‘2024 General Election’ graph illustrating that Wisconsin has some of the dirtiest voter rolls in the nation. It shows that approximately 106% of Wisconsin’s voting eligible population was registered in 2024.
In contrast to Wisconsin, Wyoming has the cleanest voting roll in the nation because Wyoming automatically removes voters who miss state elections. Those who have been removed must re-register with documentation in order to participate in the future.
Wisconsin currently has about 4.6 million citizens aged 18 and over. Of that number, about 3.8 million are registered to vote. Yet, Wisconsin’s voter roll total includes more than 8.2 million names because WEC keeps many inactive and deceased voters on the state’s voter roll. According to Frank, the practice of keeping inactive voters on the voting roll invites election integrity issues.
Dr Frank has been organizing a statewide effort in Wisconsin to equip local communities with their election data and strategies for reclaiming local control of their elections. If you wish to join the Wisconsin effort, contact Jeff Ings (email: jings@milwpc.com) to join an election reform team serving in your community.
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