My name is Mike Janke, and I am your Outagamie County 25th District Supervisor. I will be writing for AppletonWI on a monthly basis, giving an update on county issues. This month I would like to discuss election integrity.
Besides being a County Supervisor, I am also the Election Integrity Officer for the Outagamie County Republican Party. In this capacity I am responsible for recruiting Poll Workers and Observers for the various towns and cities in Outagamie County.
The 2020 Presidential election was very close. In Wisconsin, Joe Biden’s margin of victory was 20,647 votes or .6%. However, this wasn’t the closest margin we have seen. The 2004 Presidential election margin (Bush vs. Kerry) was 11,384 votes or .4% (Kerry over Bush), and the 2000 Presidential election margin (Bush vs. Gore) was 5,708 votes or .2% (Gore over Bush)
Source: Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (uselectionatlas.org)
Wisconsin has become a critical “swing state” given our razor-thin victory margins (when the Obama elections are factored out). With our politics becoming more polarized, the pathways to victory have become very narrow for both Presidential candidates. 2024 will be no exception.
What Happened in 2020
The 2020 Presidential election was one of the most contentious and controversial elections in modern times. The election was held against the backdrop of a global pandemic, protests/rioting in our largest cities (Wisconsin experienced a riot in Kenosha), and post-World War II high unemployment due to lockdowns and business closures. Because of public health concerns, major changes were made to the way votes were cast across the nation. In Wisconsin, of the 3.3 million votes cast, almost 2 million were absentee/ mail in, ballots. This was the largest amount in Wisconsin history.¹
Prior to the election, many state laws regarding the collection and dissemination of ballots were either bypassed or ignored and non-legislative bodies created rules that were in direct conflict with existing law. In Wisconsin, drop boxes were deployed when they in fact should not have been, ballot harvesting occurred that challenged the rule of chain of custody of ballots, ballots were in many cases automatically mailed to people on the voting rolls, voting rolls themselves were not purged of non-voters (dead voters/those that moved out of state, etc.), and Special Voting Deputies were not allowed to observe voting in nursing homes and assisted care facilities. These were just a few of the abnormalities that were the backdrop to the actual election on November 3, 2020.
Given the chaos that occurred before the election, it isn’t a surprise that the results were controversial to say the least. The election was decided by approximately 71,000 votes over four states. We will not go into the exact issues here but suffice it to say that even now, four years later, many people still question the results and how they were ultimately derived.
2024 Efforts to Tighten Elections
This brings us to today. First off, we must acknowledge that the events preceding the 2020 election will not be duplicated in 2024 or maybe ever again. Many states have moved to tighten up their electoral processes. Wisconsin was one of those states. The previous state Supreme Court reaffirmed that drop boxes were illegal. In April 2024 two state ballot initiatives were passed that bar municipalities from accepting 3rd party money for election activities (Zucker Bucks) and ban non-municipal employees from working on election counting and/or administering. Also, the Republican legislature introduced many new laws that addressed issues seen in 2020. The problem with the last initiative is that the Democratic Governor, Tony Evers, has consistently vetoed these initiatives:
Bills vetoed by Evers:
- Make it a felony to falsely represent yourself as indefinitely confined or falsely affirm someone else’s indefinitely confined status.
- Limit communities to a single site outside the clerk’s office for absentee ballot drop-offs.
- Bar the Wisconsin Elections Commission from automatically sending absentee ballot applications or absentee ballots to voters.
- Require clerks to post hourly updates with absentee voting statistics on the evening of Election Day.
- Require administrators at nursing homes and assisted living facilities to notify families when certified voting assistants will visit their facility to help residents with voting.
- Make it a felony for nursing home or assisted living facility staff to “influence” a resident’s voting behavior.
- Require observation areas for recounts to be no more than 3 feet from the area where ballots and other materials are being examined.
- Bar election officials from adding missing information to absentee ballot envelopes, even if they are able to get the information from official state documents.
- Require communities that provide live broadcasts of election proceedings to keep the recordings on file for at least 22 months.
Source: Gov. Tony Evers Vetoes 6 GOP-Backed Election Bills – WPR
Become an Election Observer
Perhaps the most important antidote to electoral cheating is to have the entire process monitored for irregularities. This is a right that we in Wisconsin have. Election Observers are the first line of defense in preventing fraud. In my role as the Election Integrity Officer for the County Republican Party, it is my responsibility to recruit and train people in coordination with the Republican Party of Wisconsin (RPW) for election observers. I am also the main conduit to recruit election workers for the Party.
I am asking you to consider volunteering your time to ensure election integrity by being an Election Observer. Training and support are provided by the RPW as well as the county Party. I cannot stress enough how important this is to help restore public confidence in not only the electoral process but to trust that the results are Free, Fair and Honest.
To volunteer you can contact either myself or the local RPW representative, Toni Melcher. Our contact information is:
Michael Janke, m_janke2@aol.com, cell 920-470-0908
Toni Melchoir, phone 920-309-2408
¹ Wisconsin Election Commission Election Data Report November 3, 2020
