WATCHDOG: Comatose Seniors Illegally Registered to Vote in WI Nursing Homes

Special Voting Deputies assigned by election officials allegedly abused vulnerable seniors suffering from severe cognitive disabilities, including comas, for political gain.

Wisconsin officials charged with helping seniors cast a ballot in 2024 may have illegally registered coma patients to vote in a West Allis nursing home, according to a complaint by the Center for Vulnerable Voters, a civil rights watchdog.

By law, Wisconsin nursing homes must appoint Special Voting Deputies (SVDs) to help nursing home residents register to vote and cast an absentee ballot. Those deputies are authorized to supervise, issue, and help complete residents' ballots, but only if they request it—residents "may decline to vote when the SVDs visit."

Yet the center discovered SVDs may "have been registering people to vote who are comatose" or otherwise "cognitively unable to request registration [forms] and ballots." This happened just days before early voting began in Oct. 2024 at VNP Healthcare and Community Living in West Allis, a Milwaukee suburb, according to emails submitted to the city clerk/administrator and later shared with Restoration News.

"SVDs may not affirmatively offer voting assistance to nursing home residents who have not asked for help marking their ballots," the center pointed out, referencing the Wisconsin Election Commission. "Fraudulently marking a ballot for someone is a crime and our organization will seek every legal remedy to protect these citizens, including, but not limited to, filing a formal complaint with the District Attorney's Office." The center requested West Allis provide an "action plan to protect the rights of vulnerable citizens" before early voting began.

Disturbingly, Rebecca Grill—who became the Oshkosh city manager in December after 9 years as West Allis' city clerk/administrator—refused to investigate the center's allegation further since it could not provide the deputies' names and has protected the original complainant's identity. Grill denied at least one more request to investigate.

"Without additional information, I am unable to look into this further," Grill wrote.

The center believes otherwise. Grill would likely have a list of the 2-3 Special Voting Deputies assigned to that nursing home, the group told Restoration News.

"To the best of our knowledge," Center for Vulnerable Voters chairman Lori Roman said, "By her own admission, Rebecca Grill did not take action to remedy these activities after she was made aware of the problem."

Based on past discoveries, there was deep cause for concern.

Widespread Elder Abuse

In June 2020, the Wisconsin Election Commission—the body that regulates voting laws statewide—voted 5–1 to block Wisconsin clerks from sending Special Voting Deputies to nursing homes, ordering them to instead mail ballots directly to residents during COVID lockdowns.

At least 91 nursing homes reported 95–100% turnout in the Nov. 2020 election across the Democratic vote-rich Milwaukee, Dane (Madison), Brown (Green Bay), Racine, and Kenosha Counties, according to a later Special Counsel investigation ordered by the state legislature. There are roughly 92,000 Wisconsin seniors live in nursing homes statewide; the Center for Vulnerable Voters believes these shockingly high turnout rates suggest a coordinated effort by nursing home staff that violates state law.

A 2021 investigation by Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling revealed nursing home staffers admitted to illegally "helping" residents fill in their ballots. The investigation was prompted by a Racine County woman who told authorities her elderly mother "didn’t have the mental capacity to vote absentee in the months leading up to her death in October [2020]." Recall that Special Voting Deputies are only allowed to assist residents who request help voting.

In 2022, the Wisconsin Office of the Special Counsel found numerous elderly voters who suffering from "severe dementia" who'd cast a ballot in 2020 from their nursing home. A number of them were legally barred from voting by court order, yet voted by mail anyway. One Dane County resident had been deemed incompetent by doctors since 1972. A Brown County senior unlawfully voted twice by absentee ballot; another in the same facility submitted a ballot with a mismatched signature.

The Office of the Special Counsel report concluded that the only way these elderly voters could've requested, filled out, and returned their ballots in huge numbers was with illegal assistance by—and pressure from—nursing home staff, who may have forged their signatures. And that pressure was enabled by the Wisconsin Election Commission's decision to replace Special Voting Deputies with unaccountable mail-in ballots in mid-2020.

(READ MORE: 100% Voter Turnout in Wisconsin Nursing Homes Isn’t Normal)

Ground Zero for Election Concerns

Under Rebecca Grill, West Allis accepted over $62,000 in "Zuck Bucks"—payments from Meta/Facebook founder and leftist mega-donor Mark Zuckerberg to the officials responsible for counting ballots—in 2020, funds used to boost voter turnout in Democrat-heavy jurisdictions nationwide. Neighboring Milwaukee took $3.4 million in Zuck bucks, the largest grant anywhere in the state.

In 2020, West Allis broke 56–44% for Joe Biden over Donald Trump. It went 54–44% for Kamala Harris in 2024. The city is part of Milwaukee County, which voted 69–29% for Biden in 2020 and 68–30% for Harris in 2024.

Wisconsin voters finally banned private funding for election operations in April 2024 after Democrat Gov. Tony Evers twice vetoed similar bills from the Republican-run legislature.

The Center for Vulnerable Voters plans to keep a close eye on nursing homes in the upcoming April 1 election, when Wisconsinites will vote on a critical state Supreme Court seat and an initiative mandating photo ID in future elections.

"In upcoming elections, election authorities must do a better job of training Special Voting Deputies and volunteers who work at polls," Roman said. "Through our Vote Fraud Hotline and our staff and volunteers on the ground, we will be monitoring."

(READ MORE: This April, Wisconsin Voters Must Mandate Photo ID to Save Elections)

Hayden Ludwig is Founder and Managing Editor of Restoration News, launched in 2023, and Executive Director for Research at Restoration of America. He specializes in election integrity and dark money, authoring the first investigations into the 2020 election "Zuck Bucks" scandal and unearthing the world's largest dark money network run by Arabella Advisors. He publishes regularly at RealClearPolitics, American Greatness, and the American Conservative.

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