GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN (WTAQ) – Brown County officials are explaining how nine 17-year-olds were able to vote in the 2016 spring presidential primary election.
County Clerk Sandy Juno says some of it was likely oversight on the part of poll workers.
However, she also heard that multiple teens challenged the poll workers, claiming they saw messages on social media or those put out by the Bernie Sanders campaign that stated they were eligible to vote.
While some states allow 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections if they are 18 by the time of the general election, Wisconsin does not. Messages like those the Sanders’ camp put out promoting that rule for eligible states are likely the ones the teens had seen.
Juno says the poll workers likely did not want to disenfranchise any voters in case the teens were correct and allowed them to cast ballots.
She says eight of the teens voted at the polls and said all nine filled out their paperwork correctly, with the exception of checking ‘yes’ to the question ‘Are you at least 18 years of age?’
According to Juno, three of the 17-year-old voters were in the City of De Pere while two were in the Village of Ashwaubenon. There was also one underage voter apiece in the villages of Allouez, Howard, Pulaski, and Wrightstown.
Since voter registration is done at the municipal level, Juno is not aware of what training the poll workers received or any repercussions they could face.
De Pere’s city clerk’s office told us that the information provided to poll workers statewide prior to Election Day told them to use a photo I.D. to verify the person’s identity but mentioned nothing about checking the age listed on that I.D.
Juno says her office learned of the fraud when the voter registration information was entered into a statewide website.
According to Juno, the clerk’s office notified the sheriff’s office, who investigated the matter.
Those findings were turned over to the Brown County District Attorney’s Office, who does not plan to prosecute the teens. After receiving statements from the teens, District Attorney David Lasee says he believes they were under the impression they could vote and were not intentionally trying to commit voter fraud.
Lasee says the teens believed they were referring to the November 2016 election when they checked ‘yes’ to the question that asked if they were at least 18 years of age.
In an effort to prevent the problem from reoccuring, Juno says starting with last August’s primary, signage was placed at all Brown County polling locations that stated which date people needed to be born before to be eligible to vote in that election.
Statewide, between 60-70 17-year-olds are believed to have voted in as many as 29 counties. Lasee says whether or not the teens are prosecuted is up to each county’s D.A.
