A UW-Eau Claire student was charged with election fraud-registration after allegedly voting twice in the past spring’s democratic primary election, according to court documents.
Sophomore Michael Howard, 20, was originally charged with a class I felony of voter fraud after a complaint was filed April 27 by Eau Claire and Appleton city clerks.
The charge was later changed to election fraud-registration after it was sent to the district attorney’s office, Sgt. Tom Janda of the Appleton Police Department said. The class I felony charge carries a maximum penalty of 42 months in jail and a $10,000 fine.
| “You can’t be a resident of two places and vote for each.” –Tom Janda Appleton Police Department |
According to the complaint filed by Cindy Hesse of the Appleton City Clerk’s office, Howard obtained an absentee ballot for Appleton March 23. He then sent in his absentee ballot prior to the spring democratic election and proceeded to vote in person in Eau Claire April 6, the police report said.
Hesse filed the official complaint after she received Howard’s registration information from Eau Claire April 27 and realized he had submitted two votes, she said.
Howard verified on both ballots he was a resident of each city, which is illegal, Janda said.
“You can’t be a resident of two places and vote for each,” he said.
Hesse said Howard’s charge is uncommon.
“This is the first complaint of voter fraud in my thirteen years of working here,” she said.
Voter fraud is a rare charge in the state of Wisconsin because our voting system is accurate, clear and reliable, Associate Professor Rodd Freitag said.
Senior political science major Mike Olson agreed.
“The American political system is based on one vote per person,” he said. “Anytime this concept is broken, we jeopardize our own democracy.”
Howard was a student in Freitag’s political science 110 class last semester. He said Howard was a bright student who did well in class.
“Students must be aware that an absentee ballot counts for your vote,” Freitag said. “You get one chance at a ballot.”
Howard was not able to comment to the press, so the motives are not known.
Freitag said he believes the incident was unintentional.
” If anyone was up to any monkey business,” he said, “it would have been done in the November election.”
