Former Hartland-Lakeside School Board member John Harter charged with election fraud

A former Hartland-Lakeside School Board member who resigned earlier this month has been charged with election fraud for allegedly using his father's address on campaign documents in the spring 2022 election, despite having a home of his own outside the district.

John Harter was charged April 14 in Waukesha County Circuit Court with three misdemeanor counts of election fraud. If convicted, Harter faces a fine of up to $1,000 or prison time of up to six months. The charges come a week after Harter resigned from the Hartland-Lakeside School Board.

In an email April 5 to the board, Harter did not give a reason for his resignation. Harter did not return a call or email from the Journal Sentinel Monday.

Harter was elected to the board in April 2022 for a three-year term. He made news in October after using the term "colored students" at a school board meeting, drawing outrage from residents.

Harter's father, Tom Harter, is a current member of the same school board, elected in 2011. He drew criticism for nominating his other son, Joseph, to a position on the Village of Hartland Library Board. The nomination was denied. Tom Harter later resigned from his role as the school board's president in February, but he is still a member of the board.

According to the criminal complaint against John Harter, the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department received a citizen complaint that Harter did not reside in the school district. Harter had told others "that he filed the candidacy documents using his father's address because he visits his father's house when he is not working and that is the house he grew up in," the complaint said.

The complaint listed Harter's father's address as in Pewaukee. Harter's father, Tom Harter, said that his address is in the Town of Delafield but has a Pewaukee mailing address, according to the complaint. The Village of Hartland, Town of Delafield, including Tom Harter's address, as well as the Town of Merton, are within the Hartland-Lakeside School District's boundaries.

After reviewing John Harter's declaration of candidacy and campaign finance registration statement that both listed his father's address, a Waukesha County Sheriff's Department detective checked Wisconsin Department of Transportation records and found that John Harter listed a home address in Brookfield, which is outside the Hartland-Lakeside School District's boundaries. School board members are required to live in the district.

The detective visited the Town of Delafield address in August to see if John Harter's car or motorcycle were there but did not see either vehicle present. The detective checked the Brookfield address on two occasions in August and found Harter's car parked there, according to the complaint.

On December 12, 2022, John Harter told the detective he lived at the Town of Delafield address and said the address was verified and checked by Hartland-Lakeside School Board Secretary Michele Davis. Davis told the detective that she accepts candidates' paperwork but does not verify the address or information, only checking for completeness, the complaint said. Davis said John Harter told her the address on the form was his home address, according to the complaint.

When the detective told John Harter that state statutes define residency as where one lives and sleeps, Harter disagreed, saying "that the key things for residency are mailing address, voting address and car registration," according to the complaint. He said he rents an apartment in Brookfield and uses that residence as a halfway point to his work and the Town of Delafield address, the complaint said.

When the detective asked Harter how often he stayed at the Brookfield address, Harter said "about five to ten times in 30 days" and that he stayed "the 20 to 25 other days" at his father's address. Harter said that he uses his Brookfield address as a mailing address but his main address is at the Town of Delafield address where his father lives. When the detective told Harter that the DOT records showed the Brookfield address, Harter said the DOT records were wrong. He said the Town of Delafield address should be the primary address while the Brookfield address is the mailing address, the complaint said.

When the detective asked Tom Harter how often his son stayed at his home, Tom Harter said his son was at his house "about 40 to 50 percent more" than at the Brookfield address. Tom Harter told the detective his son never changed the Town of Delafield address and that his son used the Town of Delafield address "for all of his voting purposes, vehicle registration, driver's license and hunting license," the complaint said.

When the detective said his investigation revealed that John Harter did not sleep at his father's house and asked Tom Harter if he was wrong about that, Tom Harter said "no, the majority of the time he's not there." After further questioning, Tom Harter said his son spent the majority of nights at the Brookfield address. The detective also asked Tom Harter the last time his son spent the night and he said he didn't know, saying "maybe months ago," the complaint said.

Tom Harter has not replied to an email from the Journal Sentinel requesting an interview.

The complaint also said John Harter used his Brookfield address in a child custody case and never provided the court with the Town of Delafield address. Also, the detective's investigation found that Harter voted six times since August 2020 using the Town of Delafield address.

John Harter is scheduled to make his initial court appearance April 27, according to online court records.

The Hartland-Lakeside School Board is also seeking to appoint a replacement for the vacant board position. According to a board posting about the vacancy, the board is accepting applications until 4 p.m. on April 19. The board will hold a special meeting on April 24 in which it will discuss the applications and appoint the new board member.

Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or alec.johnson@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Former Hartland-Lakeside School Board member charged: election fraud