Emergency petition filed in Wisconsin over 150,000 'potentially fraudulent ballots'

President Donald J. Trump greets guests on the South Lawn of the White House Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020, prior to boarding Marine One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, to begin his trip to Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Nevada. (Official White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

A national organization has filed an emergency petition with the Wisconsin Supreme Court asserting it has identified 150,000 "potentially fraudulent ballots" in the state's presidential election, which Biden unofficially won by 20,000 votes.

Wisconsin is one of several swing states where credible claims have been raised in the election, which President Trump is contesting.

On Tuesday, the Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society said the number of ballots in question is more than enough to challenge the validity of the state’s reported election results.

"Moreover, these discrepancies were a direct result of Wisconsin election officials' willful violation of state law," said Phill Kline, director of the Amistad Project.

Among the issues is more than 10,000 Republican ballots weren’t counted and more than 10,000 Republican voters had their ballots requested and filled in by another person.

In addition, about 100,000 absentee ballots were cast by people who didn't qualify.

The problematic ballots were identified in a data analysis performed by statistician Matthew Braynard and mathematician Steven Miller.

The investigation pinpointed "a series of illegal actions taken by Wisconsin officials that led to significant numbers of improper votes being counted, as well as tens of thousands of legal votes that were not counted."

"One of the most impactful violations involved election officials brazenly defying state laws designed to ensure the integrity of absentee ballots, specifically provisions requiring voters to present photo identification when requesting an absentee ballot," the organization said. "The only exceptions to this requirement outlined in law apply to voters who are either 'hospitalized' or 'indefinitely confined because of age, physical illness, or infirmity."

But "local election officials unilaterally interpreted the 'indefinitely confined' exemption to apply to persons suffering from COVID-19, and the Wisconsin Election Commission exceeded its statutory authority by issuing 'guidance' instructing election clerks not to reject voters who cite the exemption, even if the officials have knowledge that the individuals in question are no longer indefinitely confined," the organization said.

Further, statistical analysis indicates that nearly 100,000 persons who exploited the exemption to cast absentee ballots were not indefinitely confined on Election Day, meaning they should not have been eligible to vote.

Residency requirements also were not enforced, and officials filled in missing information on absentee ballots so they could be counted.

The offenses developed in "six jurisdictions with reliably left-leaning populations that together received in excess of $6 million from the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), a left-leaning organization funded by $350 million donated by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Receipt of this funding was itself a violation of state law. Jurisdictions that did not receive CTCL monies, on the other hand, generally followed state laws," the organization said.