Wisconsin clerks refer 46 cases of suspected fraud, irregularities in 2024 presidential election

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin election clerks referred 46 instances of suspected fraud and voting irregularities to prosecutors related to the November 2024 presidential election, a report released this week showed, representing a tiny fraction of the more than 3.4 million ballots cast.

In total, 127 cases of potential fraud or irregularities covering several elections were referred to prosecutors between Sept. 13, 2024, and Nov. 5, 2025, the Wisconsin Elections Commission report made public on Wednesday showed.

The report did not identify anyone by name, case depositions or who they were attempting to vote for. Voters do not register by political party in Wisconsin, so it’s impossible to determine whether the voters were Republicans or Democrats.

The nation’s multilayered election processes provide many safeguards that keep voter fraud generally detectable and rare, according to current and former election administrators for the Democratic and Republican parties.

America’s elections are also decentralized into thousands of independent voting jurisdictions — Wisconsin, alone, has more than 1,800 local clerks — making it almost impossible to pull off a large-scale vote-rigging operation that could tip a race. But fraud does happen occasionally.

Wisconsin law requires clerks to inform the Wisconsin Election Commission whenever they refer a case of suspected fraud or some other voting irregularity to a district attorney. The commission, in turn, is required to compile the data into an annual report to the Legislature. The commission is poised to approve the latestreport at its meeting on Tuesday.

Its previous report, covering July 1, 2023, to Sept. 12, 2024, showed there were 30 referrals.

In the latest report, 46 of the 127 cases were related to the general election that included the presidential contest narrowly won by President Donald Trump.

One case out of Marathon County, reported on Sept. 24, 2024, is described as “disruption of drop box.” Three days later, another case described as “continuing disruption of drop box/election” in Marathon County was reported.

That appears to be in reference to the case of ballot drop box critic and Wausau Mayor Doug Diny, who carted away a drop box outside City Hall. The city’s election clerk said she referred the case to the elections commission.

Wausau’s ethics board last month determined that Diny violated the city’s ethics policy by carting off the drop box, which was later returned. A criminal investigation is ongoing. It is being led by Eric Toney, a Republican district attorney who is running for state attorney general and has previously said he believes ballot drop boxes are illegal under state law.

Milwaukee County, the state’s largest county, reported 11 cases of potential double voting in the presidential primary. Dane County, the second-largest county, reported one instance of someone trying to return another person’s absentee ballot in the November election.

There was one instance of “noncitizen registration and voting” in the 2020 and 2022 general elections reported in Dane County. That was the only case tied to alleged violations by a noncitizen.

The majority of referrals, 61, were related to the highly contested primary and general election earlier this year for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

That race broke national spending records for a judicial contest, garnered attention from Trump, spending from billionaires including Elon Musk and George Soros, and saw nearly 2.4 million ballots cast. The liberal candidate backed by Democrats won.

The other 20 cases were spread out over several other elections dating back to 2020.

More than 3.4 million ballots were cast in Wisconsin last year in the presidential election. That makes the 80 cases referred for potential fraud a tiny fraction of the overall number of votes cast, about 0.002%.

The report contains only cases of potential fraud that the Wisconsin Elections Commission is aware of.

It’s possible that election clerks referred other cases of suspected fraud, irregularities or violations without the commission’s knowledge, it said in a memo sent with the report. It is also possible that other complaints were filed by groups or individuals directly with district attorneys, bypassing clerks and the elections commission.