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>> Just as Wisconsin is
heading to the polls next

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Tuesday, calls from
Washington to nationalize

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elections. The executive
order President Trump

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signed this week would
create a national list of

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U.S. citizens eligible to
vote and restrict mail in

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ballots. This order is not
in effect for our April 7th

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election, and Democrats
have filed a lawsuit over

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it. But does it perpetuate
mistrust in the voting

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process? We turn to the
chair of the Wisconsin

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Elections Commission. And
Jacobs, thanks very much

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for being here.
>> Happy to be here.

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>> So what is your reaction
to President Trump's

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executive order?
>> I think it was at best

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unfortunate and at worst
unconstitutional. The

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administration of elections
is delegated by the U.S.

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Constitution to the states,
and Congress can make laws

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regulating elections. And
an executive order is

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neither of those things.
>> And so it's your belief

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that this would not be in
effect for the November

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elections or, in effect,
ever.

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>> My suspicion is never in
effect, ever. It's sort of

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a back door way to create
time limits and new

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administrative hurdles for
voters to go through. Under

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the auspices of addressing
essentially what our

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conspiracy theories about
absentee balloting.

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>> So if it were to go into
effect, what would the

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ramifications be? In
Wisconsin?

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>> So in Wisconsin, by way
of example, you can request

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an absentee ballot five
days before an election and

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you are eligible to vote.
If you've been a resident

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of Wisconsin for 28 days.
So a new resident of

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Wisconsin could come and
ask for a ballot and have

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the right to vote under the
executive order. However,

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that name and that address
had to have been submitted

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to the US government prior
to 60 days before the

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election. So you create
conflicts between the

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statutory rights under
state law with this mailing

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deadline, and now the
government's going to

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control whether they will
even mail your ballot. And

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how do you undo that? What
is the remedy if the

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government says, oh, you
weren't on the list, so I'm

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not going to mail your
ballot? Ha ha. And the

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reason they're not mailing
it is maybe because there's

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a typo in a list somewhere,
or you moved or what have

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you. So it's really just
sort of creating an

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unnecessary and unworkable
mess.

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>> In, in your mind. Is it
more possible with mail in

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ballots to experience voter
fraud?

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>> No, the short answer is
no. There's a number of

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checks and balances
involved in addressing mail

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in ballots. First of all,
you got to be registered.

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Being registered in
Wisconsin requires a

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driver's license or the
last four digits of your

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Social Security number. If
you don't have a license or

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ID, it has to go to your
registered voter address.

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If you're sending it
somewhere else, we send a

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postcard to your registered
voter address saying, hey,

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did you order this ballot
to go somewhere else? It

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requires a witness with an
address to sign your

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absentee ballot envelope
that affirms that they know

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you and they saw you
complete this ballot. And

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then when it comes in to
the elections, municipal

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clerks across the state,
they check it off, check it

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in, and that ballot then is
tallied. There's just a lot

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of checks and balances
along the way.

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>> This executive order
also seems to be trying to

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get at the issue of only
U.S. citizens voting,

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because that is considered
in in some corners, you

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know, rampant with with
fraud. What is your

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knowledge of whether that
is happening here in

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Wisconsin? Non-Citizens
voting?

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>> We actually have some
numbers on that. There are

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four documented cases of
non-citizen voting since

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2016. During that time, 25
million ballots have been

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issued in the state of
Wisconsin. And if you want

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to do the math, it's like
0.000000 something

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something. Of all ballots
cast, this is quite simply

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not a an issue and not a
problem. Non-Citizens,

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generally speaking, don't
want to get in trouble with

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the US federal government,
and that's why we haven't

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seen really hardly any
numbers of non-citizen

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voting. And even those
cases where non-citizens

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have voted many times, it's
because they receive some

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sort of legal status that
they incorrectly believed

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entitled them to vote.
>> Is this executive order

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separate, though, from the
US? DOJ suing Wisconsin to

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turn over redacted voter
registration data?

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>> Let me clarify. They're
not asking for redacted

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voter data. They're looking
for unredacted voter data.

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They're looking for your
complete name, date of

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birth, driver's license
number and Social Security

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number. That information
under Wisconsin law is

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protected. We don't give
that out. And that's a

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state law that prohibits
that. And I think we've

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also seen recent
disclosures of I believe it

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was a DOGE employee who
loaded the entire some sort

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of entire Social Security
database onto a thumb drive

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and took it elsewhere.
Wisconsinites want their

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private information
protected. They don't want

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it going out to be shared
by the government with

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random anti-voting entities
so they can, quote,

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investigate non-citizen
investigate non-citizen