Rebecca Kleefisch: We Have to be Able to Trust our Elections in Wisconsin

Wisconsin State Journal | June 13, 2024

 

America stands as a beacon of freedom for a world looking to us as the example of how selfdetermination and government of, by and for the people should function. But our standing is weakened when our public’s faith in the fairness of our elections is shaken.

The responsibility now falls to us, as one nation, to act as the checks and balances on our government and exert our will at the polling place to send a message to our leaders — not the other way around.

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Today, too, many Wisconsinites harbor doubt about the integrity of our elections, and the worst outcome for America is that those doubts cause voters to stop participating in elections. Whether skepticism emanates from sincere concerns regarding specific processes or online rumors is irrelevant. If voters are uncertain that the declared winner of an election is truly legitimate after Election Day, then the foundation of our democracy and our political system are threatened. We have taken simple steps we can build on in Wisconsin to fight potential fraud or malfeasance:

  • Ensuring voting machines are independently tested before the start of an election.
  • Protecting paper ballots by locking them in secure facilities to prevent tampering.
  • Guarding against hacking by ensuring voting machines are never connected to the internet.
  • Let’s work together to strengthen these and continue to enact reforms to make Wisconsin elections the safest in the nation.

But we can’t be naive and believe that every election is perfect. When 3 million people vote statewide, mistakes will be made. It would be foolish to pretend otherwise. Following the 2020 elections, many Republicans raised legitimate concerns about the impact that the pandemic had on methods of vote counting, and even who pays for election administration.

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But we as a state and as a nation cannot afford to lose complete faith in our elections. I can say that Wisconsin’s elections are as secure as any state’s. We have seen real results, and our elections are overseen by hundreds of devoted poll watchers and workers with integrity and a critical eye to prevent cheating.

That is why I think RightCount, an organization committed to protecting the rule of law in our vote-counting process, is right to encourage people to believe in the electoral process in our great republic again. Our local election workers and poll watchers are honest public servants and neighbors trying to ensure elections are conducted fairly and properly.

They live on our blocks. They’re people like us who believe in the promise of the American experiment, and they can always use help. We can continue to rebuild faith in our system by having concerned citizens such as you volunteer as poll workers and watchers. By playing an active role in our elections, we can protect our democracy here and know that other concerned Americans are doing the same in their communities.

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In his farewell speech, President Ronald Reagan referred to John Winthrop’s “Shining City upon a Hill.” It was an aspirational vision of what America can be — what we must become. The 2020 presidential election may have challenged Americans’ trust in our elections, but this nation was built to withstand all challenges. To be that shining city upon a hill, we must work to restore faith in our elections. It is my hope that civic leaders across the Badger State will join with me to rebuild that trust in the coming months.

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To read Lt. Governor Kleefisch’s op-ed in it’s entirety, click here. To learn more about RightCount’s operations in Wisconsin, visit www.RightCount.org/wisconsin.

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