MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear a case brought by a conservative activist who is seeking guardianship records in an effort to find ineligible voters.
The lawsuit tests the line between protecting personal privacy rights and ensuring that ineligible people cannot vote. And it is the latest attempt by those who questioned the outcome of the 2020 presidential election to cast doubt on the integrity of elections in the presidential swing state.
Former travel agent Ron Heuer and a group he leads, the Wisconsin Voters Alliance, claim that the number of ineligible voters does not match the number on Wisconsin’s voter registration rolls. They want the state Supreme Court to rule that counties must release documents filed when a judge rules someone is ineligible to vote, so those names can be compared to the voter registration rolls.
Heuer and the WVA filed lawsuits in 13 provinces in 2022 requesting guardianship documents.
A state appeals court in 2023 overturned a circuit court ruling that dismissed the case and ruled the records are public. It ordered Walworth County to release them with birth dates and case numbers redacted. The county appealed to the state Supreme Court, which will hear oral arguments in the case Tuesday.
The court, which is controlled by liberal justices, is unlikely to issue a ruling before the November elections.
Walworth County attorneys argue in court papers that state law does not permit the release of “highly confidential information subject to privacy protections” to Heuer and the WVA.
The law is “crystal clear” that only those with a “personal and identifiable need” for the data can access it, they wrote.
“The WVA has not demonstrated such a need because its interests are not remotely related to the underlying custody proceedings,” the district attorneys argued.
The WVA’s attorney argued in court papers that the notice of voting rights being requested is a public document because it is “a notice to election officials regarding a person’s right to register to vote or to vote.”
Heuer and the WVA have been pushing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election in an attempt to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in Wisconsin. Heuer was hired as an investigator in the discredited 2020 election research led by former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, no evidence was found of fraud or abuse that would have affected the election outcome.
The WVA also filed two unsuccessful lawsuits seeking to overturn Biden’s victory in Wisconsin.
Biden defeated Trump by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin in 2020, a result that has held up independent and impartial audits And reviewsas well as lawsuits and the recounts Trump has requested.