Caffeinated Politics

An interesting and much needed bill regarding elections in Wisconsin is winding its way through the process, one that hopefully will not get loaded up with amendments which would prohibit it from being enacted into law. This bill would let poll workers process absentee ballots on the Monday before an election, a common-sense change that has long been sought by election officials and advocated by good-government types across the state. The reason we are still debating this issue, though other states have implemented the procedure, is due to a few conservative lawmakers who wish to continue false narratives about elections and the process of counting ballots.

The bill is designed to give election observers, some of whom are skeptical of the voting process, more opportunity to observe both ballot casting and counting.

GOP leaders hope to finally unite their party on a plan that would shorten the wait for election results, reduce the opportunity for election misinformation, and avoid a veto by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

Sounds good, because it is a logical measure. But here is the deal. Even if election procedures are updated, as they must be to allow absentee ballots to be processed the Monday before Election Day, the real hurdle is still to be won against the corrosive narrative spun by conservative operatives and right-wing media. The ones hell-bent to gin up the myth that American elections are riddled with fraud.

I don’t write about this matter from a partisan perspective. We know the facts. We lived through the weeks and months after the 2020 election. The years of acrimony followed. Rather, I write about the need for the passage of Krug’s bill from what our democracy requires.

The vast majority of ballots cast in the United States and Wisconsin are properly handled, securely stored, and accurately counted. Election officials, the folks who live in your community and attend your church or bowling league, many of them working at the polling sites election after election after election, have proven to understand the necessity of upholding the integrity of our system. But we know that all their diligent work and strong character cannot withstand the machinery of conservative misinformation and outright lies.

I am glad that it is members of the Republican Party who are working hard and pressing forward with this bill so to help stem and perhaps even prevent more attacks on our electoral process. What has been most frustrating is the damage done to our political institutions for no more reason than to energize a partisan base of GOP faithful. But then what followed that behavior resulted in voter suppression laws.

Updating procedures once ballots are counted is to be applauded. But the GOP must confront the ones who distort and lie about elections and their outcomes. They must not be elected to our local school or village boards where they can further attempt to manipulate and poison with propaganda. Simply put, on every level the Republican Party needs to start demanding elected officials tell the truth. Even when it is not the news they wish to hear.

Assemblyman Scott Krug, former chair of the Assembly Elections Committee and now assistant majority leader in the Assembly, said he “will use every little ounce of political capital effort I created on elections to get Monday processing done, because that’s 90% of our problem in the state: perception.”

We all should wish him success in this effort.