Sandra Klitzke suffered from cognitive decline for several years, and in February 2020 a court ordered that the elderly Grand Chute, Wisconsin nursing home resident was not cognitively competent to vote, according to a complaint filed with the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
So why do Wisconsin voting records show Klitzke voted in the Nov. 3, 2020 presidential election and again in the Badger State’s April 6, 2021 spring election?
Despite the court finding Klitzke legally incompetent and ineligible to vote, the cognitively challenged woman was still registered and listed as active to vote in WisVote, the statewide voter registration database, according to the complaint. And yet, the WisVote records state that Klitzke, or someone on her behalf, requested and was sent an absentee ballot for the April 2022 election.
Lisa Goodwin, Klitzke’s daughter and legal guardian, could not explain why the records indicated that her mother was still actively voting and requesting ballots.
“Neither I nor any other member of my immediate family completed an absentee ballot for my mother,” Goodwin stated in the complaint.
Election law requires Wisconsin circuit court clerks to send notice to elections officials of individuals found to be ineligible to vote by reason of incompetence. But voting eligibility records related to court findings of incompetency are “barred from disclosure” under public records law.
Yet, the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s “inaccurate” voter registration data “allows ineligible voters to vote,” according to the complaint filed by the Wisconsin Voter Alliance (WVA), an elections watchdog.
WVA’s president, Ron Heuer, has
