After GOP No-Shows, Baldwin Accepts Johnson’s Invite To See How Milwaukee Votes

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (center) speaks with Mayor Cavalier Johnson (right) and Paulina Gutiérrez (left). Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson finally found someone who accepted his invitation to tour Milwaukee’s election operations.

After being ignored by U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican candidate for governor, and rebuffed by Vice President JD Vance, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Friday toured the Milwaukee Election Commission’s central count facility, 1901 S. Kinnickinnic Ave..

The Democratic senator praised the city’s preparations for the upcoming August and November elections while warning that President Donald Trump’s administration is seeking to undermine confidence in elections and could interfere with voting.

“I hope that after your visit today, that the vice president, that other folks perhaps who are running for high office in Wisconsin may take up the opportunity to do the exact same thing,” Johnson told Baldwin. “We can dispel some of the rumors and myths and, quite frankly, untruths — lies — that they’ve been spewing about elections in Milwaukee and other communities all across this country.”

Johnson invited Vance to tour the city’s election operations during the vice president’s July 8 visit to Milwaukee. Vance declined, saying he did not have time that day, but invited Johnson to meet with him in Washington, D.C., instead.

Johnson said Friday that he still intends to take Vance up on the offer when he visits Washington during the week of Sept. 21.

“Maybe Senator Baldwin and I can do it together,” he said.

Johnson extended a similar invitation in May to Tiffany, who has repeatedly raised concerns about Milwaukee’s elections. Tiffany never responded to the mayor.

Baldwin said Friday’s tour showed her the “high level of rigor and organization” involved in Milwaukee elections, including the storage and labeling of voting equipment, the distribution of supplies to polling locations and contingency plans for delivering additional ballots while maintaining a documented chain of custody.

Election workers, she said, are “patriots” who care about ensuring democracy functions properly.

Baldwin said Wisconsin’s election processes are heavily scrutinized, with Democratic, Republican and nonpartisan observers, equipment testing, audits and recounts offering opportunities to verify the results.

“There are lots of ways to build your confidence,” she said. “But I certainly would say going down conspiracy rabbit holes online is not the way to find out what really happens.”

The senator accused Trump of remaining “obsessed” with his 2020 election loss and using false fraud claims to cast doubt on future elections.

Baldwin said a nonpartisan audit confirmed there was no widespread fraud in Wisconsin’s 2020 election, which former President Joe Biden won. She said Trump has continued to repeat claims that the election was stolen while using the issue to raise doubts about upcoming elections.

She also warned about Trump’s calls to deploy federal agents near polling locations, efforts to obtain state voter records and attempts to place new restrictions on mailed ballots.

Baldwin said she supports the Protect Our Polls Act, which would restrict the deployment of federal agents at polling locations, and the SHIELD Our Elections Act, which would allow state attorneys general to challenge federal seizures of ballots.

Johnson said the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents or other federal officers near polling places would be intended to frighten voters rather than improve public safety.

“People should have the opportunity to go and cast their ballot without fear,” he said. “It’s about scaring people. It’s about tearing communities apart and intimidating people from participating in civil society.”

The tour also highlighted Milwaukee officials’ continuing concerns about U.S. Postal Service handling of absentee ballots during the April election.

Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutiérrez said the city received only 20 mailed ballots on the April election day, despite regularly contacting postal officials throughout the day. The following morning, the commission received a tray containing 331 ballots, most of which had been postmarked before Election Day.

“That has never happened before,” Gutiérrez said.

The director said individual postal employees have been supportive, but the city has struggled to obtain answers from the broader postal system.

Baldwin said problems were reported by approximately two-thirds of Wisconsin’s local election officials and called the April performance a significant departure from the close cooperation that had existed between clerks and the Postal Service in earlier elections.

“It remains a puzzle to me what happened in April,” Baldwin said. “We need answers to that.”

She said the problems could be connected to unusually high turnout, but she has not received evidence establishing that as the cause. Baldwin said the timing is particularly troubling given Trump’s attacks on by-mail voting and other federal attempts to intervene in state election administration.

For the August election, Gutiérrez said Milwaukee had issued approximately 25,000 absentee ballots and received about 12,000 as of Friday. She encouraged voters to return their ballots as soon as possible, preferably through a secure drop box or at one of the city’s six early-voting locations as Election Day, Aug. 11, approaches.

The city’s drop boxes are monitored around the clock, she said, and voters with disabilities may have another person return their ballot for them.

Gutiérrez said election workers are also fielding an increasing number of calls from voters affected by fear and misinformation.

“We want to be the beacon of truth,” she said. “When things get complex, we will walk you through your individual circumstance to help you ensure that all eligible voters have their vote counted.”

She said election administration in Milwaukee is a bipartisan process involving workers and observers from across the political spectrum.

“You watch Central Count, Republican, Democrats sitting at the table making sure that only eligible votes count,” Gutiérrez said. “It’s a beautiful thing to watch.”

Johnson challenged politicians who accept election results when they win but claim fraud when they lose.

Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 and 2024, Johnson noted, but lost the state in 2020.

“This is a swing state. We swung,” Johnson said. “If you celebrate an election victory in the times that you win, you should do the same thing and also recognize that the system worked the way it was supposed to when you didn’t win.”

Johnson said Vance would have seen the same organized operation had he accepted the mayor’s invitation.

The mayor also renewed his criticism of Wisconsin lawmakers for failing to allow election officials to begin processing absentee ballots before Election Day. Milwaukee’s large number of absentee ballots can produce a late-night addition to unofficial election totals, something Trump and other Republicans have used to promote suspicions about the city’s results.

Johnson said the city has sought a legislative change for years and believed a bipartisan agreement was close during the most recent legislative session.

“Unfortunately, it just didn’t [happen],” he said. “So for people who have those claims of malfeasance or anything like that, they should know that there is a fix… They shouldn’t look here. They should look west to the Capitol, because that’s where the holdup is.”

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