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Are 23,000 Wisconsin voters registered with the same phone number proof of election fraud?

By Alexis Tereszcuk
NO

Some Wisconsin voter records have the same phone number due to a glitch that occurred when the state implemented a new voter registration system more than 15 years ago, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The old system had a default field that required a phone number. If a phone number was not given by a voter, the default number was used for multiple records.

An online video claims the multiple records with one phone number is evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

The state election commission says the situation involved mostly inactive voter records in the city of Racine.

"The phone number in question is a city of Racine number that appeared in the Racine legacy system, a number that was entered as a default when a voter did not provide a phone number during registration," the commission said.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.
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