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Man Who Bragged About Committing Election Fraud Is Charged With Election Fraud

Harry E. Wait boasted of his plot on Facebook and even local TV.

A Wisconsin man who publicly bragged about ordering the absentee ballots of a local mayor and a state assembly leader has been charged with two felonies and two misdemeanors, authorities say. Harry E. Wait, 68, was hit with two counts of election fraud and two counts of unauthorized use of an individual’s identifying information, the Wisconsin Department of Justice said Thursday. Wait allegedly requested two people’s ballots without their consent while running a booth at the Racine County Fair last month. “The complaint states that, in multiple online videos and other correspondence, Mr. Wait admitted requesting the ballots using the other individuals’ personal identifying information,” the Wisconsin Attorney General’s Office said. While the two individuals were not identified in the complaint, Wait said in an interview with WISN-TV three days after the alleged crimes that he’d ordered ballots in the names of Racine Mayor Cory Mason and Wisconsin State Rep. Robin Vos, the speaker of the state assembly. On Facebook, Wait allegedly wrote a post saying he had done so to expose “significant vulnerabilities” in the state’s election system. “I stand ready to be charged for exposing these voting vulnerabilities,” Wait allegedly wrote.