Who runs Racine County’s voting machines? What the records show

Originally published by Racine County Eye.

A Racine-area group says a Minnesota company “runs” Racine County’s voting machines. Public records through 2025, plus interviews and written answers from five local election officials, show that the company, Command Central of St. Cloud, Minnesota, sells, services and supports the equipment. None of the records Racine County Eye reviewed gives it authority to operate polling places, count ballots or administer elections.

Some questions are still open, including who can access the tabulator passwords and what the county’s current contract says.

At a glance

• Does the company run elections? No record reviewed says it does.
• Does it service the equipment? Yes, according to contracts, invoices and officials.
• Do the machines use modems? Yes, external ones connected after the polls close.
• Who can access the passwords? Not established. Officials say the county sets them. Whether the vendor can access them is unanswered.

What H.O.T. Government said

H.O.T. Government, a Racine-area group, said in September on Facebook, on Rumble and in its HOT Jack column that Command Central “runs” the county’s voting machines, that there is no clear answer on who holds the default passwords, and that all 73 of the county’s Dominion machines have wireless modems.

Jim Spodick of H.O.T. Government answered Racine County Eye’s questions before publication and supplied records used in this story, including the county’s 2017 Command Central contract package. Several narrower facts behind the posts hold up: the company is real, the tabulators use external modems after the polls close, and local governments pay recurring maintenance and firmware fees.

Who H.O.T. Government is

H.O.T. Government (Honest, Open, Transparent) is a Racine County group that calls itself a government watchdog. It started as an election-security group, and its founder, Harry Wait, has argued that Wisconsin’s absentee voting system is too easy to abuse. This year it has also taken aim at the Racine County Sheriff’s Office. The group says it does not endorse candidates. Jay Stone is its president; Wait is listed as president emeritus on the group’s board page.

Wait is why most people know the group. On July 26, 2022, he used the state’s MyVote website to request absentee ballots in the names of Racine Mayor Cory Mason and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos without their permission and had them sent to his home. Mason’s ballot arrived, and Wait never opened it; a clerk flagged the Vos request, and that ballot was never sent. Wait said he did it to expose weaknesses in the system. A jury convicted him in March of two misdemeanor counts of election fraud and one felony count of misappropriating identification information, and acquitted him of a second felony count. In June, a judge sentenced him to three years of probation.

“I’d do it again and again and again,” he told Racine County Eye.

The group’s voting machine posts raise a different question from Wait’s ballot requests: not who can ask for a ballot, but who controls the equipment that counts it.

What the officials say

“That’s our vendor,” Racine County Clerk Wendy M. Christensen said in a September interview. “That’s the company that services the equipment.”

County employees handle election setup and ballot layout in-house, she said, and Command Central provides service and technical support when problems come up. She also addressed the group’s claim: “The false information that H.O.T. Government put out that Command Central holds all the passwords and runs the elections is not accurate.”

In an Oct. 12 phone interview, Christensen described how results move on election night. Poll workers print tapes at each polling place and transmit the results to her office, she said. Her staff captures them in the county’s reporting software and, before posting anything, asks clerks by phone for figures from their paper tapes, such as total ballots cast, to compare. She said the county also tests every ballot style before it gives election media to the municipalities, which then run a pre-test and a public test.

City of Racine Clerk Tara McMenamin said the wording H.O.T. Government attributed to her is wrong.

“Command Central does not ‘run’ the tabulators,” she said in a written response. “Their role includes performing scheduled maintenance, assisting Racine County with programming the memory cards, and providing other technical services associated with the equipment.” She also noted that Command Central, the vendor, is not “Central Count,” the City’s Election Day process for handling absentee ballots. Racine County Eye previously documented that process.

Officials gave varying accounts of who holds which agreement:

• Christensen said the county holds maintenance agreements for its own two machines and a modem data service, which it bills back based on modem count, and that each municipality has its own hardware maintenance agreement. She repeated the point about the municipalities and the county’s two machines in an Oct. 12 phone interview.
• McMenamin said the county holds the vendor-service contract and charges municipalities their portions, and that the City also pays Command Central directly for some subscriptions.
• Mount Pleasant Village Clerk Jill Firkus agreed that the county holds the vendor contract. Sturtevant Village Clerk Cheryl Zamecnik said she believes it does.
• Caledonia Village Clerk Jennifer Bass said Caledonia has its own agreement with Command Central for annual maintenance and Election Day technical support. She said the county also contracts with the company, programs the memory cards, and bills municipalities for their share.

The county has not produced its current contract. Christensen said in an Oct. 12 phone interview that it is usually just an annual hardware maintenance agreement and has no amendments. Racine County Eye has not seen it.

What the records show

In April 2017, the Racine County Board approved a $175,120 budget transfer, an agreement with the county’s 17 municipalities and a contract with Command Central for a countywide voting system. The agreement gives municipalities the physical tabulators and the county the election software, though one paragraph describes the municipalities as owning “the voting system” more broadly.

The City of Racine has no contract with Command Central and buys from it by purchase order, the City Attorney’s Office said Sept. 25 in response to a records request. The City’s 2025 maintenance agreement lists preventive maintenance, parts and labor, public-test support, “Election Day and Night Support,” backup equipment and post-election service.

None of these records gives Command Central authority to administer elections, operate polling places or count ballots.

Spodick argued that recurring licensing fees mean local governments do not fully own or control the election software. His argument concerns control by the software manufacturer; it does not establish that Command Central controls the software.

Modems

The modems are external devices that are connected after voting ends to send unofficial election-night results, according to Christensen, McMenamin, Firkus, and Bass.

“The tabulators are not connected to the modem during voting hours,” McMenamin said. “The modem is connected only after the polls have closed to transmit results.” Official results remain subject to local canvassing and Wisconsin’s post-election procedures, which Racine County Eye has explained.

Christensen said the county keeps the modems between elections and bills municipalities by modem count. Zamecnik wrote that Sturtevant sends results to the county by modem “on Public Test Day and Election Day.”

H.O.T. Government first said all 73 machines had modems, then corrected the figure to 71, which matches signed 2018 equipment agreements. The City added two modem kits in 2025, and the records do not show today’s countywide count.

Passwords

“Racine County selects and programs the passwords used for the tabulators,” McMenamin said. Firkus said her municipality receives its passwords from the Racine County Clerk’s Office. Christensen said municipalities have them and give them to staff and poll workers. In the Oct. 12 interview she said the people who need the passwords to prepare machines before election day have them, and that she could not detail who has access to what because of security concerns. Bass said she cannot re-program them and did not know who can change them.

Whether Command Central can independently access or change them is the open question. Firkus said, “I believe the vendor and County handle these.” McMenamin said, “I am not sure if the vendor knows the passwords or not,” and called that a matter between the county and the vendor. The claim that the vendor holds the passwords is not established, and vendor access has not been ruled out.

State approval

In 2023, the Wisconsin Elections Commission approved newer software, Democracy Suite 5.17 and 5.17S, by a 6-0 vote. The staff memo presents conditions of approval and purchase, including that only equipment named in the federal certificate be used together. Commission representative Emilee Miklas said the approval also covered modem transmission of unofficial results, with requirements including activating modems only after polls close, keeping chain-of-custody records and changing passwords after each election. These are conditions, not proof of what Racine County did.

A City maintenance record lists two software versions. Two numbers on one record do not show that incompatible parts were used together, and Racine County Eye has not seen a dated list of what is installed.

The IP address photo

A photographed IP log the group circulated is not used as evidence here. Spodick said the group does not have the original tape and would not identify its source. Christensen said Oct. 12 that she did not know where or when the tape was photographed, believes the photo is meant to imply results are routed somewhere improper, and does not think that is accurate. Racine County Eye has not verified either account.

What we still don’t know

• Racine County’s current contract with Command Central. Christensen says it has no amendments, but the document has not been produced.
• Whether Command Central or Liberty Vote can access or change any passwords.
• How many modems are in use countywide today.
• Which software versions Racine County uses, and whether they match the approved configurations.
• How the county and Command Central divide the memory-card work. McMenamin says the company assists the county, and Bass says the county handles it.

Who we asked

Racine County Eye sent questions, quote checks or records requests to H.O.T. Government, Racine County, the City of Racine, the Wisconsin Elections Commission, Command Central, Liberty Vote and WiscNet. H.O.T. Government, the City, the commission and Christensen responded. Christensen asked Racine County Eye to call her on Sept. 29, and Racine County Eye interviewed her by phone Oct. 12. Liberty Vote, which acquired Dominion in October 2025, declined to comment Sept. 28. Racine County Eye emailed Command Central and WiscNet on Sept. 25, asking Command Central about its Racine County services and election-night transmission and asking WiscNet about the historical assignment of an IP address. Command Central had not replied as of Oct. 12. WiscNet opened a support ticket the same day it got the email but had not answered as of Oct. 12.

This story will be updated if the county produces its current contract or other records change the findings. A company’s decision not to comment does not establish the underlying allegations.

For readers, the key distinction is between maintaining election technology and controlling an election. The records document the first. They do not show the second, and they leave some questions open.

Related coverage

• What happened when a Racine man tried to break the absentee ballot system
• Election night numbers aren’t final; here’s the process that makes them official
• Voters are hearing a lot about Cary Madrigal. Here’s what the records show.
• Racine County Voter Guide: How to vote, deadlines and 2026 elections – more of our election tracking