It’s Going to Take a Movement
There is no denying that Donald Trump is a master at starting a movement. We have seldom, if ever, witnessed anyone with his skill at hitting a nerve with the American people and getting them rolling on issues they care about. He frequently gets the conversation started with a big, brash statement about what needs to happen and, during his second term, this often takes the form of an Executive Order. It was no surprise when a couple of weeks ago Trump announced he would be signing an Executive Order to eliminate mail-in ballots in elections.
The White House Press Secretary seemed to suggest a modified plan the next day when she indicated that Trump will be working with Congress to eliminate mail-in voting. Article 1, Section 4, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution (often referred to as the “elections clause”) says “The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed by each State and by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators.”
It remains to be seen what, if any, executive authority the President has to mandate this change but the mere mention of his intention triggered the predictable Trump derangement hysteria among members of the media and Trump’s political adversaries.
Election integrity is a high priority for Trump and his focus on mail-in ballots comes on the heels of the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation of Wisconsin’s Voter Registration List maintenance procedures that began last June.
Molly Beck, a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who makes no effort to mask her disdain for Trump with her shamelessly biased reporting, responded to his announcement immediately with an article titled “State has long used mail-in ballots – Trump fights method used by 1.6 M WI Voters”. In the article she traces the origin of mail-in voting to 1862 when a bill was passed to allow soldiers who were away fighting the Civil War to vote. In the years since, it has evolved to a convenience measure culminating in 1999 when state lawmakers passed a law allowing absentee voting for any reason. Now reportedly used by 1.6 million Wisconsin voters, it prevents maintaining the “chain of custody” which is a critical safeguard in all legal matters.
Chain of custody, while typically considered in the context of matters that will be argued before a court of law, applies equally to election integrity. Chain of custody is the chronological paper trail and accountability process that tracks an item (in this case a ballot), documenting every person who has handled it from its collection through its entire lifecycle. This unbroken record of possession and movement is crucial for maintaining the integrity and authenticity of the item, ensuring it hasn't been tampered with. In a court setting, chain of custody must be maintained in order for any item to be admitted as “evidence”. In elections, bags of mail-in ballots dumped at polling places violate this principle and provide ample opportunity for fraud.
Beck tried to get Brian Schimming, Chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, to comment on whether he supports Trump’s position on mail-in ballots but he dodged the question. She closed with a quote from one of the Republican-appointed members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), Don Millis, who said, “We do audits after the fact, we do testing of machines beforehand, tabulators in Wisconsin are not connected to the internet – so it seems to me that it’s very secure.”
Millis’s strict adherence to the election talking points embraced by members of both sides of the aisle ignores the very real potential sources of fraud that concern Wisconsin voters. The “audits after the fact” are merely recounts that would never detect fraudulent ballots crafted from the more than 4 million names of ineligible voters the WEC insists on maintaining on the Registered Voter List. The testing of machines, which must be open to voters in every district, has exposed that many local election officials have a limited understanding of how the machines are supposed work. And the transfer of election results from local polling places to the county to the state does, in fact, occur over the internet.
Molly Beck is not concerned with the truth. Her objective is to promote a particular narrative. She and other political activists of her ilk who masquerade as journalists have become irrelevant to the political discourse because we know who they are. It is the “conservative” pretenders who are far more despicable and deserving of our contempt.
Dan O’Donnell, a self-proclaimed conservative talk show host broadcasting on WISN out of Milwaukee, is a poster child for the pretenders. I will not mince words when pulling back the curtain he hides behind because I know who he is. I was the target of his lies while running as an Independent candidate for Governor in 2022. He is a shameless self-promoter with a microphone who has done nothing to bring serious attention to the flaws in our election system that make Wisconsin’s elections unverifiable. With Trump’s sights clearly set on election integrity, O’Donnell is now eager to scramble up onto the bandwagon. Watch which way the political winds are blowing…that’s where you’ll find Dan O’Donnell.
On a recent show, O’Donnell hosted Lucas Vebber from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) after WILL sent a letter to the DOJ following up on its inquiry to the WEC about Voter Registration List maintenance procedures. WILL suggested additional questions the DOJ should ask WEC as they continue to investigate. O’Donnell was gushing with praise for WILL’s letter. He described it as “incredibly detailed” and “just what the DOJ needs”. During his conversation with Vebber, O’Donnell acknowledged that ineligible voters on the Registered Voter List are “a big issue” and also referenced the 250,000 driver’s licenses issued to non-citizens as potential sources of fraudulent voting. In a classic case of O’Donnell self-promotion, he claimed that he and Congressman Brian Steil raised this issue with WEC (as if for the first time) during the 2024 election cycle. The truth is O’Donnell has avoided bringing any serious attention to election integrity for many months while others have been doing all the heavy lifting. He has ignored multiple attempts to enlist him in the fight.
WILL’s letter to the DOJ is available on their website and, in my view, is 5 pages of legal gibberish, urging the DOJ to ask WEC to produce a lot of meaningless data they undoubtedly won’t have. If WILL was serious about jumping into the fray, they should have made 3 simple points to the DOJ: Wisconsin is in violation of Federal Registered Voter List requirements, maintaining more than 4 million ineligible voter names on the list; the Administrator of the WEC lied in her responses to DOJ questions; and WILL stands ready to assist the DOJ in any way to further their work in Wisconsin on election integrity.
As a general rule, keeping the Federal Government out of the States’ business is best for the Republic. Our Founders had spirited debates in search of the right balance between states’ rights and safeguarding against individual states being able to undermine critical elements of the United States. Wisconsin voters should be able to rely on their elected officials, ethical journalists and organizations that profess to be champions of freedom to serve as watchdogs for secure and verifiable elections. They have shown us we cannot. It is going to take a movement of the people too big and too loud to ignore. Donald Trump is just getting started and election integrity is on his agenda. Freedom loving Wisconsin voters welcome him. He is the unparalleled master at starting a movement.