Wisconsin GOP eye shift in election oversight
MADISON, WIS. » Doug La Follette is adjusting to a new status in Wisconsin politics: relevance.
The 81-year-old secretary of state has been a forgotten man for four decades, stuffed into a basement office and stripped of most of his duties long ago. That is changing, however, as Republicans explore a push to shift election oversight, including certification of results, from a bipartisan election commission to La Follette’s office.
The effort is less a sign of confidence in La Follette than a move by Republicans to shift power to an office they might someday control. While Republicans say the change would make Wisconsin’s chief elections officer directly accountable to voters, it is also raising concerns that it would allow the party to rally behind candidates who embrace Donald
Trump’s lie that the last presidential election was stolen.
That is particularly alarming to those who watched Trump’s efforts to pressure election officials to improperly influence certification of the 2020 vote.
“Regardless of the actual vote count, this one individual could then say who won or lost the election,” said Matthew Rothschild, executive director of government watchdog group Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. “This would threaten the very foundation of our democracy: that the people choose who represents us, with our sacred freedom to vote.”
Multiple reviews, recounts, lawsuits and an investigation by The Associated Press have confirmed there was no widespread fraud in the last White House race. Nationally, federal and state election officials and Trump’s own attorney general have said there was no credible evidence the election was tainted anywhere in the country.
The new attention for La Follette’s seat is a sign of the lingering fallout from the 2020 election, and Wisconsin isn’t alone. Once-sleepy secretary of state offices that already oversee elections are now hot-button races, with Trump himself paying close attention. He has endorsed candidates for secretaries of state in places including Georgia, Arizona and Michigan — each of which was crucial to electing Democrat Joe Biden as president in 2020.
The future of La Follette’s office is also raising the stakes of Wisconsin’s governor’s race, which incumbent Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, is already casting as a referendum on American democracy.