Opinion: Voting in Wisconsin is accessible and secure

(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

By Terry Hansen

July 19, 2024

As absentee ballot drop boxes return to Wisconsin, false claims about voting fraud continue.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently ruled that absentee ballot drop boxes can again be used in our state. Democrats contend that unmanned drop boxes make voting more accessible, while Republicans believe the decision encourages voter fraud.

Congressman Tom Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) claims the ruling is “effectively legalizing anonymous ballot box stuffing” and “opens the door to potentially fraudulent activities.”

And Brian Schimming, chair of the Wisconsin GOP, refers to the decision as “a setback for both the separation of powers and public trust in our elections.”

Yet according to the Brennan Center for Justice: “Voter fraud related to ballots sent by mail or placed in drop boxes is extremely rare — so rare that multiple analyses have shown that it is more likely that someone will be struck by lightning than commit mail ballot fraud.”

Regarding voting by undocumented immigrants, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has argued: “We all know, intuitively, that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections. But it’s not been something that is easily provable. We don’t have that number.”

The reason for Johnson’s inability to quantify this is quite simple—the problem doesn’t exist. As the Cato Institute explains, “Non-citizens don’t illegally vote in detectable numbers.”

Continuing in this evidence-free zone, Heritage Foundation President Dr. Kevin Roberts recently stated that he would accept the results of the 2024 election “if there isn’t massive fraud like there was in 2020.” His view is consequential because Roberts is also the chair of Project 2025, a detailed plan for former President Donald Trump’s second term, if he were to win this November.

When confronted with the Heritage Foundation’s own study finding just 1,513 cases of voter fraud in the US since 1982, Roberts explained that this is “because it’s very hard to document and the Democrat [sic] Party is very good at fraud.”

This fanciful posturing by Republicans regarding widespread election fraud is reminiscent of former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ strongly held belief that Italian satellites changed votes in the 2020 election.

The absurdity and inbuilt immunity from evidence characterizing many of the GOP’s election claims brings to mind a story told by the late comedian George Carlin: “While I was out, beings from another dimension entered my apartment and replaced everything with identical items.”

It’s clear that there are significant doubts about election integrity among the US population largely because of the false narratives relentlessly pushed by Trump and his followers.

Please remember that Trump accused Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) of fraud in the Iowa caucuses, said he wouldn’t accept the results of the 2016 election unless he won, has never accepted that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, and said months ahead of the 2020 election that the only way he could lose is if the election were rigged.

Let’s heed the words of democracy watchdog organization Freedom House from its report Democracy in Retreat:

“President Trump has assailed essential institutions and traditions including the separation of powers, a free press, an independent judiciary, the impartial delivery of justice, safeguards against corruption, and most disturbingly, the legitimacy of elections.”