“The Amistad Project reveals potential illegal ballot harvesting
targeting nursing home residents in 2020
Madison, Wisconsin/March 11, 2022 — Today, The Amistad Project released for the first time videotaped interviews with Wisconsin nursing home residents and their families that were conducted as part of an investigation into potential illegal ballot harvesting activities that exploited vulnerable senior citizens during the 2020 presidential election.
The video reveals that many family members were distraught to learn that their elderly relatives had voted in the 2020 election despite suffering from severe memory loss and cognitive decline that kept them from voting for many years prior to 2020. “They make you vote,” one resident told Amistad Project attorney Erick Kaardal. “I didn’t want to vote and they told me I had to.”
“These interviews reveal a coordinated effort to engage in harvesting ballots, which is consistent with what we’re learning in other states,” said Phill Kline, the director of The Amistad Project. “Amistad’s initial investigations in Wisconsin uncovered evidence that private funds were connected to the use of so-called ‘voter navigators’ – partisan activists who assisted voters – as well as partisan targeting of voters by government entities for enhanced get-out-the-vote efforts,” Kline continued in commenting on the path the investigation took once the nursing home operation was discovered.
To see the full video of interviews with nursing home residents and their family members, click here.
DETAILS
Excerpts from the video were previously played for state lawmakers by Special Counsel Michael Gableman during his testimony before the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections on March 1. The latest report from the Special Counsel investigation revealed abnormally high turnout rates at dozens of Wisconsin nursing homes in the five cities that received the vast majority of Zuckerberg money, often approaching 100 percent.
This spike in turnout coincided with a controversial decision by the Wisconsin Elections Commission to ignore state law requiring bipartisan Special Voting Deputies to assist long-term care patients with filling out their absentee ballots. Instead, nursing home employees were allowed to assist residents without oversight.
The Amistad Project previously released video footage from an interview with Wisconsin election clerk Linda Sinkula, who indicated that she had concerns that it “wouldn’t be a fair election” due to the influence of private funding, and stated that one of her colleagues “knew how the outcome was going to come in November” after learning that people came in and systematically registered nursing home residents and apparently voted for those who do not normally vote.
From that interview, Amistad continued its investigation into nursing homes in partnership with the Thomas More Society, and these videos are the fruits of that investigation. “There is a direct link to Zuckerberg money, which is under heavy scrutiny in Wisconsin and other states,” Kline concluded.
For more information about The Amistad Project, please visit www.theamistadproject.org. “
View original Press Release here at The Amistad Project.
