WINNING: Court Rules Wisconsin Must Verify Citizenship of New Voters
The Waukesha County Court delivered a resounding victory against the liberal Wisconsin Election Commission.
In a stunning victory for election integrity, the Waukesha County Circuit Court has halted the Wisconsin Elections Commission's (WEC) lax voter registration practices. On Oct. 3, in Cerny v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, Judge Michael Maxwell ordered WEC to verify U.S. citizenship for every new voter registration and to scrub the state's voter rolls for potential non-citizens. This marks another great step ensuring only legal votes count in Wisconsin's elections.
Spearheaded by grassroots plaintiffs Ardis Cerny and Annette Kuglitsch and represented by Waukesha County attorneys Mike Dean and Kevin Scott, the case exposed WEC's failure to uphold state and federal laws, including the Help America Vote Act, which mandates voter verification.
The order demands immediate action to protect the citizen-only voting, refutes the WEC's longstanding negligence, and delivers a win for every Wisconsin citizen who has demanded fair, transparent, and secure elections.
Key Wins for Wisconsin Voters
WEC claimed Wisconsin statutes do not require it to verify voters' citizenship status. Maxwell refuted this by citing six Wisconsin statutes that state plainly that only U.S. citizens are eligible to vote in the state.
He also sharply rebuked WEC's ridiculous reasoning, writing:
Shockingly, the agency that Wisconsin's citizens rely upon to ensure the integrity of our electoral process claims Wisconsin statutes "do not require the Commission to prevent non-U.S. citizens from appearing on the list or to remove non-U.S. citizens from the list." . . . WEC is wrong.
Wisconsin statutes are replete with requirements that only lawful voters are allowed to cast a vote . . . . WEC has no discretion whether to include non-U.S. citizens in the official voter roll, because the official voter roll may only include those "electors that are properly registered to vote." Wis. Stat. § 5.02(17). WEC is failing in the most basic task of ensuring that only lawful voters make it to the voter roll from where lawful votes are cast.
WEC's excuse-mongering on this issue mirrors its previous refusal to respond to citizens' election-related concerns, as required by Wisconsin law. As Restoration News has reported, WEC—in response to a June Department of Justice inquiry—claimed it couldn't answer citizen-led challenges because the state Supreme Court previously ruled the commission could not investigate itself in 2022. Yet the court had already overturned that earlier ruling.
Maxwell added, "The WEC manufactures a tortured reading of the statutes" to claim state and federal law prevent it from sharing information with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to verify residents' citizenship status.
He ordered three key relief measures.
Citizenship Verification Is Now Mandatory
Both WEC and local election officials are barred from accepting voter registrations, whether paper or electronic, without definitive proof of U.S. citizenship.
New Voter Roll Cleaning Ordered
WEC must work with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and use any other lawful means at its disposal to root out non-citizens from the voter rolls before the next statewide election in 2026.
Court Oversight Scheduled
A scheduled Zoom hearing in 60 days will hold WEC's feet to the fire, ensuring compliance with the court's directive on removing non-citizens from current rolls.
Attorney General Josh Kaul, who is considering running for governor, is appealing the decision, taking the same absurd position as WEC that absent a specific statute explaining how to verify citizenship at registration, doing so should not be mandatory.
A Victory Won by Grassroots Activists
The court's decision comes in the wake of two constitutional amendments that passed by resounding margins: One in 2024 passed by 70 percent of voters affirming only U.S. citizens can vote, and a second in 2025 passed by 63 percent of voters requiring voters to show a valid photo ID before voting.
Thanks to Cerny and Kuglitsch's initiative and Dean and Scott's commitment to citizen-only voting, the WEC's excuses for not enforcing the will of the people no longer hold.
The mandated purge of all enrolled non-citizens who slipped through the cracks is especially important considering Wisconsin's swing state status and the left-wing University of Wisconsin-Madison's infestation of foreign students.
This ruling represents a landmark victory over WEC's partisan excuses to avoid enforcing the law. Despite Kaul's appeal, this decision echoes Wisconsinites' popular mandates of 2024 and 2025 for verified, citizen-only voting. By ordering WEC to verify the U.S. citizenship of new voters, check the citizenship of those already enrolled, and report back in 60 days, Maxwell is enforcing the will of Wisconsin voters. This victory underscores the fact that citizens can win against bureaucratic complacency in the courts. This should serve as inspiration to other grassroots conservatives to remain vigilant against their state agencies that try to split hairs in the law to avoid enforcing conservative legislation.
(READ MORE: WISCONSIN: Uncounted Ballots and Cookie Extravaganza Provide Strong Case for Stricter Election Oversight)
