Michels campaign: Calls for election integrity to be restored

Outsider calls for WEC commissioners to be terminated and grant governor authority to remove election officials who violate the law

WEST ALLIS, Wisc. – Today, Wisconsin businessman, veteran, and outsider Tim Michels is unveiling his first Michels’ Blueprint, focusing on Election Integrity, vowing to clean up the mess on his first day as Governor of Wisconsin.

“On day one, I will call the Wisconsin Legislature into a Special Session to fix the election mess and protect the integrity of every single ballot,” said Michels. “Lawmakers can raise their hand, take the oath of office, and get to work on this important issue.”In particular, Michels is calling for the dramatic reformation of the Wisconsin Election Commission. At the direction of WEC, more than two hundred thousand people claimed indefinite confinement in the 2020 election, circumventing photo identification requirements to receive and cast their absentee ballots.

“In my business, we want to take a look at a problem and see what’s going on,” said Michels. “My plan is a fresh start, and allows us to bring in or bring back people who are ready to get to work to fix our elections, not make the problem worse.”

As governor, Michels pledges to hold election violators accountable by creating a provision allowing the governor to remove and replace any election official held in contempt of court for failing to immediately cure a polling place violation, including any wrongful denial of observer rights. In recent years, the state administrators of Wisconsin elections have failed to comply with our election laws. Local election officials were given advice to deliberately violate the law. The elections were not run uniformly or fairly, and people’s trust in the system has been severely diminished.

Every Wisconsin voter, no matter whom they support, should have equal access to their ballot and once their vote is cast, every ballot should be handled and tabulated the same way. The Michels’ Blueprint for Election Integrity addresses the well-documented major issues that have beset the administration of elections in Wisconsin in recent years. The Blueprint includes:

• Dramatically Reform WEC
  • Require all current WEC commissioners and senior staff be terminated, and new appointments be made within 30 days.
  • Require all WEC staff to then reapply to work for the newly constituted Board.
  • Repeal of all previous WEC election guidance and freezing the issuance of new guidance pending full reorganization.
  • Require the WEC Executive Director to face confirmation from the State Senate.
  • Prohibit re-hiring of any WEC staff that participated in the issuance of any formal guidance that failed to comply with existing law, as has been determined by the Legislative Audit Bureau.
• Create a provision allowing the governor to remove and replace any election official held in contempt of court for failing to immediately cure a polling place violation, including any wrongful denial of observer rights.
• Ban on special interests – including private individuals and private organizations – from funneling money for election administration through local election officials (Zuckerbucks).
• Ban on unmanned ballot drop boxes.
• Clean up the poll lists twice a year, purging of dead and inactive voters.
• Require every county to designate an available election duty judge to be available for hearings on a maximum notice of thirty minutes to hear and resolve emergency Election Day complaints related to polling place violations, including any wrongful denial of observer rights.
• Address the flood of indefinitely confined voters from 2020 by making them reapply and show photo ID to verify their claim.
• Uniformly enforce implementation of absentee ballot laws and legal standards.
• Ban on pop-up polling places.
• Prohibit the closing of regular polling places less than 60 days before an election.
• Strengthen nursing home voting protections for our seniors, while ensuring swift prosecution for violations.
• Pass first consideration of the Voter Uniformity Amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution, empowering voters to enforce their civil and constitutional rights and fight back if ever again subjected to such unfairness.

“Our plan is simple, we need to make it easier to vote, and harder to cheat,” Michels continued. “Politicians in Madison have made a mess of our elections, and I won’t let that continue. This is a Wisconsin voter protection plan, plain and simple. I’m pledging that as governor, addressing the election mess will be among the first things I do on my very first day in office.”

It is indisputable that Wisconsin’s election administration in recent years has been a mess. Tim Michels will fix this. Some additional background:

• On the day before the 2020 Spring Election, Governor Evers tried to call it off: Evers postpones election until June 9, prompts court challenge.
• Only a last minute decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court allowed the election to take place as planned: Supreme Court denies Evers’ plan to postpone election.
• Even then, two big cities – Green Bay and Milwaukee – dramatically reduced the number of polling locations. In Green Bay, voters were allowed to vote in two locations. In Milwaukee, only five locations: Long lines forming at Milwaukee polling locations.
• The non-partisan Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau determined in a lengthy and detailed examination that multiple laws were not followed by the Wisconsin Elections Commission. They also determined that other election administrators and voters also violated the law: Explosive revelations in Wisconsin’s 2020 Election Audit Report.
• In her opinion on the 2020 election case, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Roggensack, stated, “[m]any irregularities were grounded in Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) advice on voting process. The boards of canvassers overruled all of the Petitioners’ irregularity objections.” Wisconsin Supreme Court Case No.:2020AP2038 – Roggensack Dissenting Opinion
• Big Tech oligarch Mark Zuckerberg, of Facebook infamy, helped fund the administration of local elections, with 85 percent of his grants going to five Democratic party strongholds in Wisconsin. Breaking down the ‘Zuckerberg 5′ in Wisconsin election report; CTCL derides allegations.
• The Biden campaign ran advertisements for a city-run pop-up voter registration event in Madison. Is Biden sponsoring Madison City voter event?.