WEST BEND, Wis. — Wisconsin elections officials are on the offensive against disinformation as another contentious presidential race takes shape in the battleground state.
Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe joined Washington County officials in West Bend on Tuesday to address concerns from election skeptics. Many of the questions raised by attendees centered on disproven claims about the 2020 election, and officials only expect election conspiracy theories to worsen as November draws near.
Allegations of widespread voter fraud have chipped away at trust in election systems, despite the results of the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin being upheld by multiple reviews and recounts, a nonpartisan audit, and research by a prominent conservative law firm. Even an investigation by a conservative former state Supreme Court justice didn’t find evidence of widespread voter fraud before he was fired by the GOP lawmaker who hired him.
Keep Our Republic, which hosted Tuesday’s event, is on a mission to educate voters and combat election lies. Its Wisconsin chapter is headed by former Republican state Sen. Kathy Bernier, who chaired the Senate elections committee and is a former county clerk.
“We are in 2024. All of the things that you brought up were challenged through courts, through systems,” she told attendees on Tuesday.
Bernier pushed for skeptics to become more involved in the election process and to educate themselves on the security measures in place to prevent the kinds of fraud they are concerned about.
Washington County Supervisor Christopher Bossert, who attended the event, said he initially had significant concerns about the results of the 2020 election, which prompted him to become a poll worker through the county Republican Party.
“I think it’s reasonable to look at that election and have questions and want to get more involved and learn more and try to resolve some of those,” he said.
Across the country, conspiracy theories are taking a heavy toll on the workers who run elections. Roughly 30% of local election officials say they have been harassed or threatened because of their work, according to a survey last year by the Brennan Center for Justice. The hostility has led to high turnover rates among local clerks.
In Wisconsin, conservatives have pushed for Wolfe to resign from her position as the state’s top elections official. Republican lawmakers led a failed attempt to oust her last year.
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