The United Stated Dept of Justice sent a nastygram to the Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC) stating that they received a complaint that the WEC was violating the Help America Vote Act by not having a statewide system for handling complaints against the commission. Furthermore, the USDOJ warned that if the WEC didn’t rectify this alleged problem, they would be withholding federal funds.
However, it turns out there is more than one problem with the USDOJ’s bullying, as Ann Jacobs, the chair of WEC explains:
Ann Jacobs, chairwoman of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said the DOJ letter was sent after the commission received a complaint asking commissioners to decide whether the agency had violated the Help America Vote Act. She said the commission cannot decide complaints against itself, a position backed by a decision from the then-conservative majority in a 2022 state Supreme Court ruling.
“We were being asked to decide whether we thought we had done something improper, which was challenging,” Jacobs said. She said the complaints cited in the letter could be pursued in the courts.
“I’m really not sure what it is they’re threatening to withhold from us, since there is no money being allocated in the budget for grants to the state, either for election security or election equipment or any of those things,” Jacobs said.
