by Baylor Spears, Wisconsin Examiner
August 7, 2024
Wisconsin leaders of the Democracy Defense Project considered ways to improve voter confidence in elections — and the potential for a repeat of the denial that cast a shadow over the 2020 election — during a WisPolitics panel discussion Tuesday.
Organizers of the bipartisan group, which launched in June, say they want to rebuild trust in the electoral system and defend the democratic process. The organization is targeting battleground states including Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania, to foster greater confidence in election outcomes, improve voter participation and “move beyond polarizing rhetoric and lies.”
Two Republicans, former Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and former U.S. Rep. Scott Klug, and two Democrats, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and former Wisconsin Democratic State Party Chair Mike Tate, lead the organization in Wisconsin.
Van Hollen, Klug and Barnes offered varied takes on the prospect for a repeat of the questions and misinformation that surrounded the 2020 election, when then-President Donald Trump made unfounded claims of voter fraud after losing Wisconsin and unsuccessfully tried to decertify Joe Biden’s victory. (Tate didn’t participate in the panel on Tuesday.)
Van Hollen, who served as the state AG from 2007 until 2015, said social media and Trump have amplified accusations of voter fraud, “pounding this drum, beating it to death” for the last four years.
But Van Hollen said he didn’t think those claims would cause problems in the election this November — because he expects Trump, once again the Republican nominee for president, to win.
“No,” Van Hollen said in response to a question about whether there will be a repeat of the last election’s controversy. “I really believe Trump’s gonna win, and I believe that based on that, he’s not gonna be screaming about voter fraud, and he’s the voice of voter fraud out there.”
Klug said he doesn’t expect it to be that simple. The election results will likely be “perilously close,” Klug said, describing himself as uncertain about his vote and suggesting that a solid chunk of independent voters feel similarly.
Barnes said that the country doesn’t “have to be doomed to repeat this cycle.” He said elected officials play a role, especially at the county level where elections are administered.
“That’s the tough part because, as has been the case since 2016, Republican elected officials who dared go against Donald Trump did so at the expense of their own political career,” Barnes said. “For a lot of people they’re going to have to answer that question: What’s more important, democracy or my political career?”
Despite their conflicting expectations of how people will react to the November election results, the former elected officials were united in their thoughts about wanting to better inform voters about “election integrity” — a term that the participants never defined.
Barnes, who narrowly lost his campaign to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson in 2022, said that he joined the Democracy Defense Project because democracy and the right to vote are important issues to him. Questioning election results “delegitimizes the entire system, and it makes it that much harder for democracy to function, and it also discourages voting,” Barnes said, adding that he wants to be part of any effort to address election integrity.
Klug pointed out that concerns about elections have existed throughout history. He recalled the “consternation” over the Florida recount in the 2000 presidential election contest between George Bush and Al Gore. Klug said that changes enacted in some states in response to that election have led to problems themselves, including video streaming of ballot counting.
“One of the recommendations … now largely adopted all over the map, were to put cameras in counting centers, but here’s the problem, there’s no play by playing,” Klug said. “So, you’re watching this and [someone] takes one box and puts it over there… and now, people are using this… as evidence of a vast conspiracy.”
Van Hollen said he wants to assure voters that their votes will count.
“There’s one category where I don’t believe much if any voter fraud exists at all and that’s losing legally cast ballots. If you vote, your vote is going to count. I can almost guarantee you,” Van Hollen said. The uncertainty about whether one’s vote will count can discourage people from voting, he added.
“I think it’s really important for us to get the message to the general public that no matter what you may believe, no matter what concerns you may have, the surest way, to make sure that your candidate gets elected in a rigged or unrigged election or fraudulent, or non-fraudulent election is to vote for that candidate,” Van Hollen said.
In a survey conducted for the Democracy Defense Project of about 600 “likely” Wisconsin voters, 48% of respondents said they were “very confident” that votes will be accurately cast in the 2024 election — more than in the national survey, in which just 42% of voters said they were “very confident.”
“There are one out of four people who are going to cast a vote in this election in 2024 who right now are not confident that we’re going to be accurately passed and counted,” said Dave Sackett, a pollster for the Tarrance Group.
Sackett identified policies that he said could help improve people’s confidence in elections, though he noted that many of them are already in use.
“If you’re not an election worker, if you’re not an elected official, if you’re not county registrar, you don’t know these things exist, so this is all going to be new information” Sackett said.
In the survey, 82% of likely voters said they favored requiring voter identification to make sure only American citizens can vote and can only cast one ballot.
A voter ID requirement is already in place in Wisconsin. But Sackett said “going back to people and saying, ‘Look you’re an idiot. Stop worrying. We’ve already done this” is the wrong approach.
Instead, he suggested reassuring voters by presenting “this all as part of a new fresh package and say[ing], ‘We’re worried about election integrity too, and we’re going to take all these steps together to help improve [it]’ — whether it’s something that’s already being done or not.”
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