Molly Beck
MADISON - A Union Grove man who illegally requested absentee ballots to make a statement about election security was found guilty of election fraud by a jury.
Harry Wait, a leader of a Racine County-based group known as H.O.T. Government that promotes false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, was found guilty of two counts of misdemeanor election fraud and one count of identity theft by a Walworth County jury on Tuesday, March 24 after a two-day trial.
Wait was charged by Attorney General Josh Kaul in 2022 after he posed as Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Racine Mayor Cory Mason to request their absentee ballots in order to show violations of the law are possible.
The jury found him not guilty of a second felony identity theft charge. He faces up to seven years in prison.
Wait is a leader of a Racine County group that focuses its advocacy on the false election claims, including that President Donald Trump won the 2020 election and that Wisconsin's elections are rife with fraud.
"I'm glad I did it. I would do it again in a heartbeat," Wait told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel when he was charged in 2022.
According to the criminal complaint, an investigator with the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation alleged Wait requested eight ballots but all but two individuals gave him permission to do so.
The charges came two months after the state DOJ launched an investigation into the scheme to commit election crimes by Wait and others who believe former Trump did not lose the 2020 election.
Ahead of the charges, Wait freely spoke about the crime and contacted former Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling and others about his actions.
In one email to Schmaling, Racine County District Attorney Patricia Hanson, Vos and others, Wait said, "I stand ready to be charged for exposing these voting vulnerabilities when I ordered Mason's and Vos's absentee ballot online, all without providing a photo I.D. or identifying myself."
Schmaling did not arrest Wait and instead publicized the plot on social media as being helpful in rooting out vulnerabilities in the state election system and blamed the Wisconsin Elections Commission, calling on commissioners to remove a way voters can easily request ballots online.
Wait has become a minor celebrity among those in Wisconsin and beyond who do not believe President Joe Biden legitimately won the presidency in 2020.
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson has praised Wait's actions, calling him a "white hat hacker."
Biden defeated Trump in Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes. Recounts financed by Trump, nonpartisan state audits, and a study by a conservative legal firm have confirmed the result and did not find widespread voter fraud.
Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.
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