Why Republicans Won’t End Election Complaints
It’s no longer about electing Trump. It’s laying the groundwork for voter suppression.
![City of Milwaukee election staff, including executive director Claire Woodall-Vogg (seated). Photo by Jeramey Jannene.](https://urbanmilwaukee.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/IMG_5381-1024x768.jpg)
City of Milwaukee election staff, including executive director Claire Woodall-Vogg (seated). Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
For six weeks, President Donald Trump has been hammering the message that his obvious election defeat — by seven million votes and a significant electoral college majority — was a fraud. No court has accepted this claim and no evidence of this has been presented, yet Trump has suggested his fight against the election may prove to be his “single greatest achievement.”
How can such an embarrassing, often comic campaign be a success? Because it lays the groundwork “for GOP politicians and judges to further one of their party’s and the conservative movement’s most important ongoing projects: restricting voting rights. Trump lost this election, but he can still help Republicans win in the future,” as attorney and journalist Jay Willis has written.
In Wisconsin you could see that process play out under the contradictory leadership of Rep. Ron Tusler (R-Harrison), co-chair of the Legislature’s Committee on Campaigns and Elections. Tusler initially came off as a sober-minded statesman, who said it was extremely unlikely an investigation by his committee would find reasons to overturn Democrat Joe Biden‘s lead of more than 20,000 votes in Wisconsin.
“What matters most is public confidence,” he said “This is all about transparency, it’s all about just trying to help people understand what happened in this election.”
Tusler said he wanted to hear from many folks, from the head of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, Meagan Wolfe, along with poll workers, poll observers and voters about the election. It had the sound of an expert, fact-finding hearing.
What instead transpired on Friday was a circus of bizarre claims and conspiracy theories. The lead speaker was a radio entertainer, right-wing radio host talk show host Dan O’Donnell, whose job is to rile up listeners with no requirement that he substantiate his claims.
Much of the ensuing eight hours of testimony “came from anonymous stories or disgruntled citizens who didn’t like where employees doing the recount were standing or the fact that they were forced to be socially distanced. Speaker after speaker made it clear that they believe, without evidence, that mail-in ballots were riddled with fraud,” as Melanie Conklin reported for the Wisconsin Examiner.
The speakers accused the poll workers of committing felonies. “Other villains… singled out were nonpartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission staff, elections county and municipal clerks, Milwaukee voters, Mark Zuckerberg, the media, Democrats, the National Conference of State Legislature and the U.S. Postal Service,” Conklin reported.
Truth was not the goal. “When Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Eau Claire) asked for people who were testifying to take an oath that they would tell the truth, he was shot down immediately by Senate co-chair Kathy Bernier (R-Chippewa Falls).”
As for Wolfe and staff of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, as for the workers at 1,850 municipalities in Wisconsin who worked so hard to process the election, they weren’t invited to testify.
Back when Scott Walker was governor this entire spectacle would have been unnecessary. Republican legislators could pass voting laws with restrictions meant to depress the Democratic turnout, and Democrats couldn’t stop it. Back then Republicans tried to limit the discussion about elections and pass any legislation as quietly as possible. But now that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers can veto legislation, they need to convince the majority of voters in this state that widespread fraud is going on, which therefore requires draconian voting rules.
And that’s not an easy case to make. Polls show the majority of Americans believe Biden was honestly elected. The reality is that absentee, mail-in voting was a massive success, making it easier to vote for both Republican and Democratic voters, and driving the highest election turnout in more than a century.
In fact, it’s far from clear that elections by mail favor Democrats, but Graham and other Republicans are scared to death of it. In Wisconsin, Republicans are so convinced they can’t win a fair vote that they are willing to suppress their own voters, so long as it’s likely to suppress a greater number of Democratic voters.
And so you’re going to hear over and over the unproven accusation that the 2020 election was riddled with fraud and that steps must be taken, sweeping legislation must to be passed in order to prevent this. That’s what Tusler’s hearing was all about. Republicans are fearful not just of Democrats, but of democracy.
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
Read more about 2020 General Election here
More about the Trump's Election Lawsuits
- Op Ed: Hold Wisconsin’s Fraudulent Electors Accountable - Jeffrey Mandell - Jan 6th, 2022
- Data Wonk: How Fox Spread Lies About State’s Election - Bruce Thompson - Mar 31st, 2021
- ‘Kraken’ Lawsuits Not Based on Facts - Graham Kilmer - Mar 23rd, 2021
- Supreme Court Brushes Off Trump Election Challenge - Graham Kilmer - Mar 8th, 2021
- U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Wisconsin ‘Kraken’ Suit - Graham Kilmer - Mar 1st, 2021
- Data Wonk: High Court Minority Embarrasses Itself - Bruce Thompson - Feb 24th, 2021
- Supreme Court Denies Trump’s Wisconsin Election Lawsuit - Graham Kilmer - Feb 22nd, 2021
- Data Wonk: With Donald Trump It’s Never Over - Bruce Thompson - Feb 17th, 2021
- Federal Judge Tears Apart Election Lawsuit - Graham Kilmer - Jan 4th, 2021
- Op Ed: Hagedorn Wisconsin’s Person of The Year - John Torinus - Dec 30th, 2020
Read more about Trump's Election Lawsuits here
Political Contributions Tracker
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- December 13, 2019 - JoCasta Zamarripa received $250 from Lisa Subeck
- June 5, 2019 - JoCasta Zamarripa received $100 from Lisa Subeck
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That is unless the media does its job of establishing the process in simple accurate terms. How registration works All ballots must equal the number of people who voted, The Dem’s / media could go a step further that would give accountants an added job after each election They would randomly review so many wards in each jurisdiction and apply a simple equation Verified Ballots printed – Ballots sent out (absentee and military)+ ballots returned -ballots used in early voting + ballots voted – ballots used on election day + ballots voted = Ballots left over Then to take one race maybe the closest one and count all the ballots by hand to confirm that the counting process was correct for every machine in at least the one race. Now that should take not that long to review the work of the clerks and provide an added level of certainty. ALWAYS paper ballots that get counted by hand for verification of the machine programing.
Peace
PS I think the math is right and if not make the proper calculations
This voter suppression needs to be become part of the Democratic narrative with comparisons to Bull Connor in Alabama with his police dogs, whips, and clubs that were used to beat up the persons participating in voting rights marches the 60s.
“In Wisconsin, Republicans are so convinced they can’t win a fair vote that they are willing to suppress their own voters, so long as it’s likely to suppress a greater number of Democratic voters.”
Truer words were never spoken.
Protecting free and fair elections has now more than ever become a necessary part of being a citizen.