WC Wisconsin News

The lack of enthusiasm shown by Wisconsin district attorneys in pursuing dozens of cases of alleged voter fraud in La Crosse County, and in other parts of Wisconsin, is no surprise to La Crosse County GOP Chairman Bill Feehan.

“The La Crosse County district attorney is a Democrat and most other DAs covering major municipalities where fraud is occurring are Democrats,” Feehan told Wisconsin News. “Not much you can do about it if they don’t go after them.”

WisPolitics.com reported that La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke decided not to press charges over possible voter fraud cases, even though the Wisconsin Elections Commission found 22 instances of voters using a UPS Store address when registering to vote. Gruenke stated that of the 22 people registered using the UPS store address, 16 voted and that “most” of them were La Crosse residents who spent winters out of state.

Feehan added that was confident there were many other instances of voter fraud in the county, but acknowledge that the cases would be difficult to prove.

“In 2016 we had 8,600 absentee ballots out of the city of La Crosse, a city of 50,000,” he said. “In 2020 we have 17,000 absentee ballots and they came in at a 94% return rate. You couldn’t get that high of return rate if you were giving away free $20 coupons.”

Feehan cited ballot harvesting, or the collection and mailing of ballots by third parties, behind the high return percentage. Legislation before Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, would restrict ballot harvesting, a practice that Republicans argued was already illegal in efforts to stop Democracy in the Park events sponsored by the Democrats leading up to last November’s general election.

Legislation before Evers also requires absentee voters to present ID every time they vote absentee, and restricts the automatic mailing of absentee ballots. Another measure prohibits local elections officials from filling out missing voter information on the absentee ballot envelope. Evers has said he will veto the bills.

To held stop future cases of alleged voter fraud, Feehan said that the county GOP was actively recruiting poll workers to ensure the Republicans are equally represented at the polls.

Feehan has recently been in the news for other election-related matters. The Associated Press reports that Evers is seeking more than $250,000 in legal fees from Feehan and former president Donald Trump from lawsuits related to the 2020 election. Feehan is also the subject of a complaint filed on behalf of the Service Employees International Union Wisconsin State Council with the Wisconsin Elections Commission on allegations of fraud relating to the election, the La Crosse Tribune reports. Feehan denied the allegations to WKBT in March.