The U.S. Department of Justice issued a formal warning to Wisconsin’s elections board, accusing it of violating federal law by failing to provide voters with a required complaint process under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
And it called for the withholding of federal election funds from the state.
In a letter released Wednesday by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, officials charged that the Wisconsin Elections Commission “has refused to provide any administrative complaint process or hearing regarding HAVA complaints against the Commission.”
A complaint process would likely make it easier for activists or officials to pressure the state to enforce stricter rules around the information voters must provide when registering to vote. Last month, the DOJ sued North Carolina, alleging that it had failed to collect information from voters that’s required under HAVA.
It’s unclear how large an impact the issue will ultimately have on voting access in Wisconsin. But the letter reflects a broader trend under the Trump administration to reframe federal oversight of elections around “integrity” concerns. It acts as the latest signal that the Trump DOJ will use the power of the federal government not to protect access to the polls, but instead to enforce stricter rules on voting.
The DOJ emphasized that compliance with HAVA is mandatory and that the receipt of federal funds under the act is conditioned on such compliance.
“Your actions justify a bar against the Wisconsin Elections Commission receiving any future funding from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission,” the letter states.
Wisconsin received more than $77 million in HAVA-related support to date, according to the letter.
“We have made it our highest priority to identify jurisdictions that fail to follow our elections laws and vigorously enforce the law by all means available,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.