Nonpartisan audit results should come as no surprise

Last week the nonpartisan Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau released its long-anticipated report on the November 2020 general election.

To the surprise of no one who actually pays attention to how elections are run in the state, the audit report shows no evidence of the type of systemic fraud being alleged by the most ardent election conspiracy theorists. In the words of Senator Robert Cowles (R-Allouez), co-chairman of the state’s audit committee, the election in Wisconsin was “safe and secure.”

While the report lists a number of areas where election laws and procedures could use additional clarification, either from the legislature or election commission, many of these issues are far from new to the state’s 1,835 municipal clerks and 72 county clerks who actually run the elections. State legislators were well aware of some of the issues before the November 2020 election. Under the direction of party leadership, they chose not to address the issues instead leaving it up to the bipartisan Wisconsin Election Commission to provide guidance to clerks and election workers. The legislature was well aware there would be an increased number of absentee ballots cast in November 2020 based on the spring and primary elections held under pandemic conditions in spring of 2020.

Other concerns highlighted in the report, such as the use of election absentee ballot drop boxes in some municipalities and some areas receiving outside grant funds for election purposes, more reflect the sorry state of civics education in the state than any conscious undermining of election integrity. Wisconsin elections, like those in much of the country, are intentionally decentralized. In the absence of state law saying otherwise, it is left up to individual municipalities to determine if things like drop boxes should be allowed, or if municipalities should apply for private grants.

Given that the Republican party has controlled the state legislature for 24 of the past 26 years and has written and rewritten election laws over that time, it is disingenuous for the party in power to suggest that the system is rigged regardless of the outcome of a close presidential race.

Elections are at the heart of American democracy. The right to vote, and to have that vote counted, has been won through blood, toil and sacrifice. Cemeteries around the country and the world are filled with the graves of men and women who laid down their lives in defense of this right. Their numbers include all generations from the service men and women who faced foreign aggressors to the freedom marchers and voting rights activists who stood up to oppression closer to home and faced bloody retribution for their efforts.

Americans must not allow fundamental voting rights to be eroded in the name of political expediency. To do so would desecrate the graves of those who fought in defense of that right.

Looking forward, as Wisconsin’s state motto challenges all residents to do, the legislature, Wisconsin Election Commission and local election officials should review the audit and work through existing rule-making channels to address the issues raised to ensure that elections in the state remain safe and secure for generations to come.