A grassroots pro-democracy group led by a Republican former state senator is trying to build trust in elections by hosting forums in small towns throughout Wisconsin
Kim Pytleski could barely sleep the night before. She replayed the PowerPoint slides in her head, packed her notebook and took a deep breath.
The clerk from a rural Wisconsin county north of Green Bay was preparing for a public meeting to explain the election process to residents. She didn’t know who she would encounter. Would some deny the results of the last presidential election? Would the conversation get combative? Most importantly, would she get through to anyone?
They were questions Pytleski never expected to ask herself when she started the job in Oconto County more than 14 years ago. But since then, election conspiracy theories have taken root in the rural, heavily Republican county in northeastern Wisconsin. It’s among large swaths of the country where distrust of voting and ballot-counting, fanned by former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election, maintains a stubborn grasp.
Hmmmm. Watching 24/7 “news” about how the election was stolen has degraded trust in the election process? Who knew?
They also believe that they shouldn’t have to change tactics to more popular ideas despite being the minority. They think democracy is unfair whenever they don’t win.
If they don’t trust elections I wish they would stop taking the time to vote.
I mean, I saw the same things and I didn’t once think the election was stolen.
Probably because you didn’t want to believe hard enough in that lie.
Nice, did you watch it morning, noon and night?
I tried, but the ending was already ruined for me so I stopped after the first 5 minutes.
You’re talking about the video, I’m talking about media in general
It’s never been about “who knew”. Everyone who was following knew.
But now what? Does hindsight give some deprogramming super power? Or are you here simply to feel snarkily superior to those rural area?
There is a whole bunch of assuming and projecting in this comment. This is a systemic problem, that affects everyone. And I would rather be snarky and sarcastic than bitter and angry.
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Be told repeatedly youre the “silent majority”
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Somehow you never seems to win elections by majority
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Only conclusion is its totally rigged against me!
silent majority
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The party that worked hard to sow distrust in elections is now wondering why its constituents don’t trust elections.
Republicans don’t have any good policy ideas. They just run on hate of the “others” and tax cuts for the wealthy.
They can’t win on that. They don’t want a democracy if they can’t win. So they want to rule us from a minority of people.
They are working hard to put laws and people into place to stop certain people from voting. Hope young people vote these Republican out before voting doesn’t matter anymore.
I am old and vote every election for progressive and democratic people. We have already seen women’s rights rolled back and the rights of the LGBTQ community. But I will be dead in 10 or 20 years. Hope I don’t die in a Christian Nation.
Connie Streckenback, from Howard, a town of about 20,000 just outside Suamico, said she “saw cheating” while serving as a poll observer in the Green Bay area. For example, she said she saw over a dozen women register to vote with the same address. When she later drove by the building, she saw a single-family home.
You know what it’s not your job to do as a poll observer? Driving by the addresses people register under.
Local officials offered possible explanations, such as that the women could have been roommates, but Streckenback, 59, remained convinced they could not have all lived in the same home.
“It was fraud,” she said. “Everyone was very nice, but people were acting like I was making a big deal out of nothing. … I don’t believe the explanations.”
It is entirely possible that twelve people all have residence in the same single family home, depending on how many square feet the home is and how it is partitioned inside. It’s also entirely possible that she was looking at the wrong building.
If you are a poll observer, it is your job to observe. If you see something that raises a concern, you should absolutely report that to someone who can arrange a proper investigation, where (if your concerns are shown to be valid) appropriate consequences can be applied.
Fucking idiots.
It’s also possible she is just lying. I’d say it It is likely that she is lying. I highly doubt twelve women registered to vote with the same address at the same time for this poll worker to observe.
You can register to vote at the polling place on election day in Wisconsin. You must always provide a Proof of Residence document when registering to vote.
If there was actual voter fraud going on here, in a way for an individual poll observer to notice, the perpetrators would each have had to present their own fraudulent Proof of Residence document at the same polling place, on election day. Which means that someone would have to be both savvy enough to arrange for at least eleven people to commit voter fraud, while at the same time being so stupid as to have them all use the same single family home address, and all commit this fraud at the same place on the same day in front of the same poll observer, to the end of casting only eleven or twelve fraudulent votes.
I was clearly being far too generous in my first comment. It is far more likely that this poll observer is mistaken, insane, or lying - to the point of completely excluding the possibility of any actual voter fraud.
She’s exaggerating and lying.
This is the exact same story that’s been told for years about immigrants to justify racism. “These twelve kids list the same address as their house and the teacher drove by the address to find that no house existed. These kids are brown and must be illegal immigrants and are taking away from my children!”
“If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.”
-David Frum
Conservative voters: *Reject participating in democratic elections.*
Conservative activists: Wait, no. Not like that.
And why should republicans have any faith in the election system? The CJ5 Jeep State will use their Druish Space Lasers to change the ballot as you slide it into the machine to show you’ve voted for the AOC/George Soros Forced Transition party. Might as well stay home, your vote won’t matter.
Maybe if Republicans started changing their platform to one that actually appealed to majorities, instead of relying on dark money, voter suppression, gerrymandering and other dirty tricks, maybe they might have more confidence in elections?
Hey, just a thought.
