This admission is in response to PILF’s complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission that Jeffreys was not following a law designed to safeguard Election Day voter registration
(Green Bay, WI) – May 15, 2024: The Public Interest Legal Foundation filed a reply to Green Bay City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys’s response to the Foundation’s complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) over her not following laws put into place to detect abuse of the Election Day registration process.
In Jeffreys response to WEC, she admits that she was not following the law “due to a lack of awareness.”
The Foundation is asking WEC to order Jeffreys to follow the law and WEC guidance on Election Day registration.
“Clerk Jeffreys has admitted not only that she was not following Wisconsin election law, but that she did not know the law,” said PILF President J. Christian Adams. “There is no excuse for election officials not knowing the laws and rules. Clerk Jeffreys is derelict in her duty to enforce Wisconsin’s election laws.”
Wisconsin law requires an “audit” of voters who registered on Election Day. The audit helps identify which voter registrations should be inactivated and referred to prosecutors.
The “audit” process requires WEC to mail postcards to the addresses provided by voters who register at the polls on Election Day before voting. When these postcards are returned to local election clerks as “undeliverable,” clerks must investigate each card to determine why mail delivery failed. If they cannot identify a problem within the Postal Service or a typographical error in the address needing a correction, under Wisconsin law, they must inactivate the registrant and refer it to the District Attorney to investigate whether an election crime occurred.
In 2023, WEC issued updated guidance reaffirming this address verification process is mandatory.
According to data published by WEC and reported by Jeffreys herself, Jeffreys does not investigate bad addresses, inactivate registrants whose postcards bounce back as “undeliverable,” and does not refer these cases to the District Attorney.
The Foundation is representing three Green Bay registered voters. Noel Johnson is the Foundation’s attorney in this matter.
Access case documents for Glen Hogan v. Celestine Jeffreys here. A factsheet on the case is available here.
Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections. PILF has brought lawsuits and won victories in Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and across the United States.
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