Sen. Ramthun Wants To Hijack Election
Offering no evidence of fraud, legislator would cancel the ballots of every voter in the state.
Voters wait in line to vote early at the Zeidler Municipal Building. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Why in his grandstanding press release calling for cancellation of the Wisconsin presidential election outcome did State Sen. Timothy Ramthun, a Republican from Campbellsport, not offer a single incident of actual voter fraud in his district?
Nothing. Nada. Not a shred of hard evidence.
Timothy Ramthun. Photo from the 2021-2022 Wisconsin Blue Book.
He cites “concerns” of a majority of Wisconsin citizens. What poll is he talking about? I haven’t seen one that backs him up.
What does the fuzzy word “concerns” mean anyway? I am “concerned” about all kinds of things that don’t rise to the level of drastic legislation as a solution.
The 2020 Trump-Biden election has undergone more scrutiny than any other Wisconsin presidential vote. The list of investigations in the courts, recounts and beyond have found no hard evidence of any fraudulent effect on the outcome.
There were some minor mistakes and some cases of bad judgment, like letting Mark Zuckerberg’s people into polling stations in Green Bay that should never have happened, but no material change in the ballot counts surfaced.
Ramthun postures himself a patriotic defender of “our sacred right to vote.” It is a sacred right. But what would be the impact of his proposed legislation? It would, in effect, cancel my sacred vote on Nov. 3, 2020 – and yours, too.
What would he do with my vote and yours that determined Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes? Would he turn the state’s decision over to the Wisconsin Legislature? To him and his GOP majority instead of Wisconsin citizens?
For the record, I don’t want him taking over my vote or anyone else’s.
How about “my office?” I would love to see the “evidence” that previous investigations didn’t find convincing. I will turn over any new material that looks real to the Daily News to make it public, which Ramthun didn’t do.
Note that Ramthun has received almost no support from other legislators. Indeed, Rep. Jim Steineke, Senate majority leader, immediately slapped down Ramthun’s windbaggery as a violation of legislative rules.
Right in character, former President Donald Trump egged on Ramthun. His affection was probably what Ramthun was looking for all along.
The former president will never admit that he is one of history’s biggest losers, but some Republicans still genuflect in front of him.
It’s time for Americans to move forward from the safe and secure 2020 election to the 2022 elections. Can we please put a big wooden stake in the Big Lie?
John Torinus is the chairman of Serigraph Inc. and a former Milwaukee Sentinel business editor who blogs regularly at johntorinus.com.
More about the 2020 General Election
- Senator Agard Statement on Senator Knodl’s Continued Relitigation of the 2020 Presidential Election - State Sen. Melissa Agard, Senate Democratic Leader - Aug 29th, 2023
- Report Calls For Criminally Charging State’s Fake Electors - Henry Redman - Dec 19th, 2022
- Vos Withdraws Subpoenas, Ends Gableman Probe - Henry Redman - Aug 30th, 2022
- Judge Blasts Gableman Probe, Deleted Records - Henry Redman - Aug 17th, 2022
- Vos Fires Gableman, Ends Election Probe - Shawn Johnson - Aug 14th, 2022
- Judge Orders Gableman To Pay $163,000 In Legal Fees - Rich Kremer - Aug 2nd, 2022
- Prosecute 2020 Fake Electors, Advocates Demand - Erik Gunn - Aug 1st, 2022
- Trump Calls For Nullification of Wisconsin’s 2020 Election - Henry Redman - Jul 12th, 2022
- Legal Fight Over Gableman Probe Keeps Growing - Shawn Johnson - Jun 30th, 2022
- Back In the News: Fake Elector Scheme Dogs Ron Johnson - Bruce Murphy - Jun 28th, 2022
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Republicans proving daily they hate the Republic.
A lot of us are “concerned” that Republicans no longer believe in democracy, i.e. people get to vote for their elected officials.
Well stated John Torinus.
It’s impossible to comprehend that a person with such outrageous thinking is in an elected seat in a representational government.
For additional insight: https://tinyurl.com/y27khuyd
Seriously, all these backers of the former orange guy ENDLESSLY claim to have “mounds” or is it “troves” of evidence.
Yet – to date – not one single piece of evidence has ever turned up.
Isn’t there some damn way to sue these guys to put up or shut up?
Lord it is the same story over and over. and the only result any of them want is to establish a dictatorship with them in charge.
Lord help us all.
“Can we please put a big wooden stake in the Big Lie?” What if the answer to John Torinus’ important question is “No”?
What if, to many, if not most, Republicans, “fair elections” are less important than something else, that something being preventing the “replacement” of white people by “the others,” a threat to white supremacy?
What if, in their eyes, the only elections that are “legitimate” are the ones won by far-right Republican candidates? And that their opponents, the hated “liberals” are “enemies,” against whom any tactic is acceptable?
What if there is no way to convince them that the lies that they want to believe are, in fact, lies, despite what Fox News and their social media sources tell them?
And, what if a large percentage of Republicans believe that violence is acceptable, that white supremacy is a worthy goal, and that having an “armed wing” of militias and extremist groups in the Republican Party is a good idea?
If these are, in fact, the right questions, there is a fundamental discussion about the future of the country, not to mention the State of Wisconsin. And It would be valuable to know what John Torinus thinks about them. It might also be interesting to have Timothy Ramthum’s views on these questions as well.
How about televised Congressional hearings on this topic? Let Giuliani, the “My Pillow” guy, and anybody else Trump thinks is credible make fools of themselves on nationwide live TV.
Schedule a separate day for each state Trump claims was stolen (AZ Monday, MI Tuesday, etc) and bring knowledgeable officials from that state to refute Trump’s baseless claims. If Giuliani makes a claim, let the state officials immediately refute that claim.
Joe McCarthy’s credibility only declined when people saw him on live TV.