MADISON, Wis. — Conservative activist Harry Wait said he ordered ballots in the names of prominent local politicians four years ago to expose the risks of voter fraud.
Prosecutors determined he was right that voter fraud was an issue — but they believed he was the culprit.
On Tuesday night, a jury convicted Wait of one felony count of identity theft and two misdemeanor counts of election fraud, according to online court records. The jury acquitted him on a second identity theft charge. He faces a maximum penalty of seven years in prison but is unlikely to receive a punishment that severe.
The verdict came as President Donald Trump and his allies put a focus on the dangers of voter fraud and pressed Senate Republicans to abandon the filibuster and pass legislation requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID to cast ballots.
Voter fraud is rare, and Wait’s case shows that those who try to uncover it can pay serious consequences if they push legal limits.
Wait, a 71-year-old retired business consultant, is the president emeritus of a group in southeastern Wisconsin known as HOT Government, which Wait says pushes for honest, open and transparent leadership. Wait has spent years railing against the state-run website that allows Wisconsin voters to find their polling places and order mail ballots.
He used that system in 2022 to request ballots in the names of State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the most powerful Republican in the state, and Cory Mason, the mayor of Racine, Wisconsin, and a Democratic former state lawmaker.
Wait asked for the ballots to be sent to his home and then announced he had done so, saying he was highlighting a flaw in the state’s voting processes that bad actors could exploit to cast ballots for other people. The state Justice Department launched an investigation and charged Wait.
One of the municipal clerks who received a request from Wait sent him a ballot; the other did not. Election officials have said that actions like Wait’s are extremely rare and that they would have quickly caught on to them even if he hadn’t disclosed what he did. The state tracks where ballots are sent and investigates when voters question whether someone tried to vote in their name, election officials said.
Wait has said the ease with which he ordered ballots shows the state’s online portal is vulnerable to mischief. In the four years since he was charged, he has said bringing the issue to light was worth the criminal charges.
“I’d do it again in a heartbeat, because to save the republic, soldiers have to draw blood and blood be drawn,” Wait told The Washington Post in 2022.
His supporters have lauded Wait as a hero. At rallies, some have worn “Free Harry” T-shirts and others military-style dog tags with Wait’s name, the date he ordered ballots and the designation of “patriot.” On Monday and Tuesday, his backers posted video updates about his trial and filled the courtroom in Racine.
Wait got involved in reviewing election practices after Trump lost the 2020 election. Reviews have repeatedly found the results were correctly tallied, but Wait has said he believes the election was rigged. Trump, too, has continued to falsely claim that election was stolen, and his administration recently seized ballots in Georgia and election data in Arizona as it investigates.
Wait is not alone in facing legal consequences. Three months after Wait ordered ballots in the names of others, Milwaukee’s deputy elections director created three false identities to request that military ballots in their names be sent to a state lawmaker. The elections official, Kimberly Zapata, said she was trying to identify a flaw in the state’s systems. Zapata, who was quickly fired, was convicted in 2024 of absentee-ballot fraud and misconduct in office, and sentenced to a year of probation.
In Colorado, former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters (R) is serving a nine-year prison sentence for conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and other crimes related to a scheme to copy voting machine hard drives. In Michigan, two attorneys and a former state lawmaker face charges related to efforts to obtain voting machines.
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