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MADISON, Wis. — On Tuesday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear a significant case initiated by a conservative activist focused on obtaining guardianship records to investigate the presence of ineligible voters.
This lawsuit raises important questions about the balance between safeguarding individual privacy rights and ensuring that only eligible individuals participate in elections. It reflects ongoing efforts by those who have disputed the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election results to undermine public confidence in the electoral process within this key battleground state.
Ron Heuer, a former travel agent, leads the Wisconsin Voters Alliance (WVA), which claims discrepancies between the number of ineligible voters and the figures on Wisconsin’s voter registration rolls. The group is petitioning the state Supreme Court to mandate that counties disclose records pertaining to judicial determinations of a person’s voting competency, allowing for comparison against the registration database.
In 2022, Heuer and the WVA initiated legal actions across 13 counties, seeking access to these guardianship records.
In a notable development in 2023, a state appellate court countered a previous circuit court decision that had dismissed the case, ruling instead that the records in question are public. The court directed Walworth County to release the records, albeit with certain personal details like birthdates and case numbers redacted. Following this decision, the county has taken the matter to the state Supreme Court, which will hear arguments on the issue.
Given the court’s current liberal majority, a decision is not expected before the upcoming November election.
In legal briefs, attorneys for Walworth County argue against the release of these sensitive records, emphasizing that state law restricts access to such “highly confidential information subject to privacy protections.” They assert that access is limited only to individuals with a “personal and identifiable need,” which they claim the WVA has not adequately demonstrated.
The WVA’s legal representatives countered, asserting that the voting eligibility notices they seek qualify as public records because they concern communication regarding an individual’s right to vote or register.
Heuer and the WVA have been associated with disseminating claims about the 2020 election’s integrity in an effort to reverse President Joe Biden’s victory in Wisconsin. Heuer had previously worked as an investigator for the controversial 2020 election investigation conducted by former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, which concluded with no findings of fraud that could have influenced the election outcome.
Additionally, the WVA pursued two legal challenges to overturn Biden’s electoral victory in the state, both of which were unsuccessful.
Biden won Wisconsins by a margin of nearly 21,000 votes during the 2020 election, a result that has been confirmed through both independent and partisan audits, various reviews, as well as a series of lawsuits and the recounts that Trump initiated.
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abcnews.go.com