Who has been in charge of Wisconsin’s horrific voter registration database? You might be surprised to learn one of the nation’s top election data specialists ran it for 14 years. Sarah Whitt was the “Functional Lead” over the SVRS (Statewide Voter Registration System) under the Government Accountability Board. She continued this roll after GAB was dissolved in 2015 and become WEC. “Sarah has been working with the SVRS since its inception in 2005″.
WEC admits they have 7.1 million in the database but only 3.68 million are eligible to vote. WEC (and Whitt) kept everything in one database. Even dead voters are not separated out. County clerks showed only 2 clicks can make voters active again. Other investigations show data missing in required fields, thousands of identical 1918 birth dates, illegible text entries, missing last names or addresses, up to 25 Voter ID’s for one registration, and other inexcusable issues. Charging $13,500 for voter data helped hide these atrocities.
Whitt is a highly skilled election data specialist. She’s been involved in very important election projects in WI and nationwide. In fact, she was so important that WEC Administrator Meagan Wolf penned a letter announcing Whitt’s departure. Wolf says “Sarah will continue working with Wisconsin both in her new role with ERIC and on special projects with WEC.” You read that correctly. Whitt is now employed by the ERIC non-profit that helps clean voter rolls. She will also work for WEC. She’s also working with Michigan elections (farther down).
n May of 2019 Sarah Whitt became the 3rd paid employee of ERIC and their “Systems and Data Specialist”. The other 36+ people associated with ERIC are Board members, Directors, and advisors. Working as a remote employee from Madison, Whitt now had access to ERIC’s 350 million records and the “Senzing” software they use to scrub that data. However, a massive 957,000 individuals registered to vote in Wisconsin from 1/1 to 11/3 of 2020. Not one ERIC report was processed during all of 2020 to help clean these registrations.
The Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) investigation contacted States surrounding Wisconsin in 2021 to learn how they use the ERIC service. They found Ohio wouldn’t cooperate and ERIC provides 5 reports. One ERIC report lists residents not yet registered to vote. The remaining 4 help clean voter rolls (dead, moved, etc). But the State must request each report, available monthly.
Wisconsin joined ERIC in May of 2016. In the following 4.5 years that led up to the 2020 election, WI had the opportunity to request 216 reports that would clean their voter rolls (54 mo. x 4 = 216). But Wisconsin only requested 3. The other 3 reports are lists of unregistered voters. It appears Whitt didn’t provide much help cleaning voter rolls while employed at WEC, or ERIC.
The WEC Commission is comprised of six people. They decided the frequency of ERIC reports. But they are not experienced election officials. Four are busy politicians holding the top positions in the WI legislature. The other 2 are Governor appointees. They rely heavily on election staff like Sarah Whitt for advice. We could find no public record of Whitt advising them to increase the use of ERIC reports. These Commissioners get just $115 for each meeting, so you can’t expect much.
Whitt has worked on several left leaning election projects outside of WEC. Most every “game changing” election project is from left leaning factions. So if you’re a tech geek like Whitt that wants to work on modernizing elections, your only choice is really with lefty groups. The RNC/GOP has never shown interest in advanced election projects. The RNC seems content with getting their technological butt whooped here, and often. They have Brandon, “We have Ronna”.
Around 2008 Sarah Whitt joined the “Voting Information Project” (VIP). It was founded by left leaning Pew Charitable Trust in partnership with hard left Democracy Works and Google. It’s grown to become “the most comprehensive single dataset of national, state, and local election information.” They control and disseminates election info to public. From candidate info, to polling places, even sample ballots. Sole ownership of the project was handed to Democracy Works in 2018.
Around 2014 Whitt joined the IEEE Voting Systems Standards Committee (VSSC) project. She became their Chairperson. This initiative from the (NIST) National Institute of Standards created a common format for election results data. This is commendable work to help the nation. Sarah worked with staff from Dominion, ES&S, EAC, AP News, academic elites, and state elections offices. NIST released these new standards in 2016 and in 2019 which shows Whitt as a team member. Cleaning the WI voter rolls should have been easy for Whitt.
About 2017 Whitt joined the Geo-Enabled Elections initiative (GEE). It’s a secondary project of the (NSGIC) National States Geographic Information Counsel. Using dashboards and maps, it tracks ballots from printing through postal stages and tabulation. This is unimaginable insight as election day approaches. Whitt was key to the GIS election rollout in WI many years ago. She is one of the “Circle of Advisors” that helps other States. It’s funded by the left leaning Democracy Fund and CTCL, who provide GEE training, and push this concept nationwide.
A few months after joining ERIC, Whitt traveled with Meagan Wolf to the August 2019 NSGIC Summit in our DC capital. Wolf was the keynote speaker. Whitt presented “The Power of GIS and Location in Elections.” The following year, Whitt was a panelist at the online 2020 NGSIC Summit. She represented Michigan as “Mentor Sarah Whitt from ERIC”. She’s been helping Michigan GIS enable their elections too.
Why did Sarah Whitt leave her 20 year government career to work for a tiny non-profit that processes reports? Did Whitt know WI election shenanigans were coming and headed or the hills? She’s a drummer and huge Aaron Rogers fan. Maybe Packer #12 can visit her next band gig and ask what’s up? It would be interesting to see FOIA or subpoenaed communication around Whitt, State officials, Spitzer-Rubenstein, Meagan Wolf, David Becker (ERIC Board), Claire Woodall-Vogg, and so on. Where is the courage to expose fraud?
NOTE: After years of evidence, the WEC Commission finally made changes with ERIC in January 2022. They now collect over 26 reports each year. Both the “Duplicate Voter” and “Dead Voter” reports are processed every month. The “Moved Voters” report every 90 days. WEC now provides an online calendar showing which ERIC reports are collected throughout the year.
