WISCONSIN – Yesterday, national democracy expert Norm Eisen joined former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes of Power to the Polls and Law Forward’s Jeff Mandell to highlight the increased tempo of MAGA Republicans’ efforts to undermine confidence in Wisconsin’s electoral process.
Just this week, Wausau Mayor Doug Diny drew national ridicule for wheeling a drop box into his office. This summer, a central Wisconsin Sheriff pressed election clerks in multiple municipalities not to use drop boxes. The constitutionality of ballot drop boxes was recently upheld by the Wisconsin State Supreme Court and Wisconsin Elections Commission has issued clear guidance for their use. These ongoing efforts to attack legal ways to cast ballots appear to be an attempt to influence the outcome of the 2024 elections, and raise the risk of a repeat of 2024 when rampant mis- and dis- information ultimately resulted in harrowing political violence on January 6th.
Since Trump’s election in 2016, the institutions designed to protect the security of America’s elections have been compromised by the MAGA takeover of the Republican Party – in Congress, statehouses, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Speakers explained how these systems are being manipulated to help Trump carry out his dangerous Project 2025 agenda.
“Wisconsin’s elections are secure, efficient, and carefully managed by almost 1,900 local clerks—our neighbors—who oversee the process with integrity,” said Mandell. “Each step is local before moving to county and state levels, meaning it would take widespread coordinated actions to compromise our system. Law Forward stands ready to make sure that every voter who wants to cast their ballot has the opportunity to do so.”
“For those of us who have tracked elections over the decades the behavior that we have seen from MAGA Republicans since 2020 represent a break with the great American tradition of embracing our most fundamental freedom, the one that underlies all of the freedoms we enjoy, the freedom to vote,” said Eisen. “If you remove these MAGA chaos agents from the equation, our elections – in a bipartisan fashion – are trustworthy.”
“MAGA Republicans have lied for years about the 2020 election and are increasingly refusing to say they will accept the results of the upcoming presidential election,” said Barnes. “The will of the people should be the law of the land.”
You can watch the full event here, and learn more about Defend Democracy Project here.
