Complimentary Story
April 2026Would you sacrifice your freedom to ensure that a flaw in the election system got fixed? What if no one in charge of elections would fix the problem unless you proved you could commit voter fraud?
My good friend, Harry Wait, of Union Grove, Wisconsin, became aware of a flaw in the MyVote.WI.gov website that would allow anyone to request someone else's absentee ballot and have it mailed to a different address. All one had to know was the person’s name and birth date. No username. No password. The ramifications were staggering!
Harry decided he had to test the program to see if this was indeed possible. He asked several friends in Wisconsin if they would allow him to request an absentee ballot in their name. Knowing Harry as a trustworthy man, they all agreed. But Harry needed to be sure that if he succeeded, that the state election authorities would have to fix the security problem. So, he decided to request absentee ballots for two high-profile politicians he knows: Racine Mayor Cory Mason and Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos — only he did not ask their permission.
On July 26, 2022, Harry videoed himself requesting absentee ballots from MyVote.WI.gov. And he waited for them to be denied. Nothing happened. He then sent an email to Mayor Mason’s and Robin Vos’ offices, as well as the Racine County Sheriff and District Attorney among others, notifying them of what he had done and to stop the ballot request process he had initiated hours earlier. He never wanted to receive the ballots, but just test the website security.
The Rochester village clerk flagged the request and did not send Vos’ ballot to the address listed. However, the Racine city clerk’s office overlooked Mayor Mason’s ballot request and processed it. A few days later, Harry, incredulously, received Mayor Mason’s ballot and those for some for his friends. MyVote had failed the test.
Harry subsequently tried to return Mayor Mason’s unopened, undamaged ballot to his office at Racine City Hall, but the clerk refused to accept it. Harry decided to deliver it to the safest place he could think of — the sheriff’s office. When he walked in, smiling and holding out the ballot, a deputy asked to take a selfie with Harry! He wasn’t arrested!
Rather than the Wisconsin Election Commission thanking Harry for his white hat action revealing the vulnerability in the MyVote program, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul decided to prosecute him. The Wisconsin Department of Justice filed four charges against Harry: two felony counts of unauthorized use of an individual’s personal identification information and two misdemeanor counts of election fraud.
During a series of preliminary hearings, Harry suffered a stroke a day after one hearing in 2023 that halted proceedings while he endured rehab therapy. Finally, Walworth County Judge Daniel Johnson picked up the case and the trial date was scheduled to commence on March 23, 2026.
Harry’s numerous supporters from across the state did not all fit in the rather small courtroom designated, and an overflow room was not made available until the second day, so they missed the first day's proceedings. After the morning session, the overflow was relocated across the street in the courthouse on the 7th Floor!
Rather than sequester the 13-person jury during lunch breaks, they were allowed to go out to nearby restaurants and eat lunch in the atrium of the Justice Center where many other people sat and talked.
The DOJ had to search high and low to find something with which to incriminate Harry. The special investigator scoured social media to log any posts that could be used as “evidence” against Harry. They finally decided that Harry needed attention and gained it from obtaining the absentee ballots.
Harry finally took the stand in the afternoon of the second day. His defense attorney, Joe Bugni, of the Hurley Burish law firm in Madison, WI, guided him through his testimony about his “purpose” in requesting ballots that were not his own. “To see if you could really order their ballots, an lo and behold, I got them!” It was to “expose the system; the flaws that were in the system. I thought they’d fix the system, but they didn't.”
Then the DOJ prosecutor cross examined Harry and tried to make him admit that he had ordered the ballots for personal benefit through the “Likes” and “Shares” of posts and videos on social media. That was their whole case! That Harry somehow gained a “value or benefit” from obtaining Mayor Mason’s ballot! This accusation was completely fabricated by the prosecution.
After the prosecutor badgered Harry incessantly, he responded, “Let’s stop wasting everyone’s time! We have a republic to save!”
The jury instructions were crafted narrowly, giving the jury very little leeway.
After 5:00 p.m., the jury was sent out to deliberate. Harry, supporters and Joe Bugni waited outside the courtroom, praying for Not Guilty verdicts. After four hours, the jury returned with their verdicts. One count Not Guilty! We all gasped with hope. But the next three counts were all Guilty. How deflating! Disillusioning! Disheartening! It was a bitter pill to swallow, but we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.
Harry could face up to seven years of incarceration. We pray his sentence gets suspended, since no one was harmed and Harry had no malicious intent.
When you go to vote, remember that patriots like Tina Peters and Harry Wait put everything on the line to secure our elections, which are still fraught with fraud.
