the primary season is already underway for this fall's midterm elections and according
to a cbs news poll 61 percent of voters say they want politicians to address the voting process
former president donald trump insists voter fraud cost him re-election
despite having lost more than 60 lawsuits challenging the process
nearly three-quarters of republicans believe joe biden's victory was illegitimate
and republican-controlled legislatures in battleground states including arizona florida and
georgia have rewritten election laws republicans say it's in order to make voting more secure
democrats say it's to make it harder for their traditional base to cast ballots perhaps no state
is more contentious than wisconsin which joe biden won by less than one percent of the vote
and where a battle is raging over voting rights and wrongs the story will continue in a moment
was the 2020 vote in wisconsin clean and fair yes the election was not stolen from donald trump
no the election was not stolen from donald trump kathy bernier is a wisconsin republican state
senator she told us widespread voter fraud is all but impossible in wisconsin how is it that you can
say that with such certainty and such conviction because i know the process a die-hard conservative
bernier began her political career overseeing elections as clerk in chippewa county
today she chairs the state senate committee on elections and calls the talk of voter fraud a
charade that will hurt republicans at the polls if there is massive voter fraud why wasn't it
proven in georgia after three recounts why wasn't it proven in arizona after the forensic audits
and why wasn't it proven here because it cannot be proved you supported donald trump i voted for him
twice but now i hear you saying almost the exact opposite from what former president donald trump
says and his supporters are saying now i don't know why people don't want to hear the truth
but it isn't my christian values to tell the truth
and i and i will there is no evidence of voter fraud it's time to move on
but wisconsin republicans can't seem to get past 2020. this was last
month in the state capitol republicans from all over the state urged gop legislators to stand firm
rally organizer jefferson davis the former village president of menomonee falls had a message for
democrats in wisconsin you will no longer cheat you will no longer steal and you will no longer
commit election fraud republicans dominate both chambers of the wisconsin legislature and most
won on the same 2020 ballot that former president trump now contests republican candidates hoping to
unseat governor tony evers a democrat either deny president joe biden won the election won't say
or question the process four gop politicians are angling to oust this man democrat doug lafollette
wisconsin's secretary of state over his 44 years in office republican legislatures have cut his
budget reduced his duties and moved his office to the capitol basement where he spends his days
certifying documents so why would someone want to be secretary of state so what's going on given the
whole trump election phenomenon there is an effort to get more control of elections in key states
and wisconsin is a key battleground state and republicans running to unseat him
do want to empower the office to oversee elections and it's going on all across the country there are
trump candidates running for secretary of state in many places trying to accomplish similar things we
reached out to top republican leaders and all either declined our request for an interview
or wouldn't respond every single process it doesn't matter what it is can always be improved
republican robin vos the powerful speaker of the assembly told wisconsin public radio half the
state or more believes there were serious problems with the 2020 election he ordered an investigation
the third by the legislature to check for flaws in the election and propose legislative fixes
whoever wins the vast majority of people should think it was done fair and square
this past june he appointed former wisconsin supreme court justice and former deputy associate
director of outreach diversity and inclusion in the trump administration michael gableman
to head up the investigation in that capacity i work directly for you the people of wisconsin
after being tapped for the job gableman told the milwaukee journal sentinel like most people he
didn't have a comprehensive understanding or even any understanding of how elections work
yet right after the 2020 election he told a trump crowd their votes had been stolen i don't think
anyone here can think of anything more systematically unjust than a stolen
election assembly speaker robin vos announced the gableman investigation last june just hours after
former president donald trump accused the speaker of working hard to cover up election corruption in
2020 not long afterward voss flew to a trump rally with the former president and assured
him of a top to bottom investigation by michael gableman gableman who also ignored our request for
an interview draws a salary of eleven thousand dollars a month he's made little attempt to be
transparent or bipartisan he revealed his staff only under pressure from the press and democrats
some were found to have worked in the trump administration or with stop the steel efforts
his investigation has been so secretive a judge ruled it violated wisconsin's public records law
this month gableman released his interim report live on cable tv from the state capitol i believe
the legislature ought to take a very hard look at the option of decertification of the 2020
wisconsin presidential election the legislature's own staff attorneys say there's no legal way
to decertify the election the associated press found about two dozen people were charged with
voter fraud in wisconsin in 2020 out of more than 3 million votes cast but michael gableman says he
believes the whole process was flawed he points to grants from a non-profit funded by mark zuckerberg
to help municipalities run safe elections in the pandemic about 2500 communities around the country
both red and blue received funds including 217 in wisconsin that got about 10 million dollars
but gableman focused on what he calls the zuckerberg five the five largest recipients
were the five largest democratic-controlled cities in the state he called grants to the state's five
largest cities bribes to boost votes for democrats and quoted their grant application with particular
emphasis on reaching voters of color low-income voters without reliable access to internet
disabilities and primary languages not english he found that language damning
but a federal judge appointed by george w bush found nothing illegal about the grants
michael gableman blames what he calls a botched election on the bipartisan wisconsin
elections commission which was created several years ago by republicans in the legislature
he especially targets its administrator megan wolfe my position is nonpartisan as is all of
the staff at the wisconsin elections commission what does that actually mean to me it means that i
don't give any deference to political pressure so people trying to sway us to implement elections in
a way that might be beneficial to one party or one candidate or the other megan wolfe was unanimously
confirmed for the wisconsin elections commission by the republican-controlled state senate almost
three years ago in february of this year she was sworn in as president of the national association
of state election directors when we say that the election in wisconsin was free and fair
we're not guessing we know that because we have audited the election we have recounted
the election we have canvassed the election there have been court decisions that have looked at the
election and affirmed the result why are people suspicious of the outcome of this election
i'm not really sure other than it feels like people are looking for a different
answer to support a different conclusion a different outcome to the election results yes
where is that coming from people's freedom to vote is a sacred right and they take that very
seriously but then there's other people that i think are trying to weaponize misinformation to
mislead people for a partisan purpose by her account michael gableman is revising history
making extraordinary measures they had to take to run a safe election in a deadly pandemic
seem sinister this was the presidential primary in april 2020 long lines scared cold frustrated
voters three weeks earlier president trump had declared a national emergency
on election day assembly speaker vos in protective gear told voters there was nothing to worry about
what's going smoothly seems to be pretty fine in almost every part of wisconsin so i'm proud
of what we're doing with all the uncertainty i will call the meeting of the wisconsin elections
commission to order the bipartisan elections commission had to make snap decisions reinterpret
election laws to fit unprecedented circumstances all done transparently in public zoom meetings
the elections commission gave communities guidance on absentee ballots which shot up from four to
forty percent of all votes they endorsed expanded use of drop boxes instead of holding on-site
voting at nursing homes which recovered hot spots at the time the committee ordered election clerks
to mail ballots to residents who'd requested them in his report michael gableman claims all
those decisions were illegal you were the first state in the country to have to have an election
in the middle of this pandemic we were i still get goosebumps when i think about the fact that
in all 1850 municipalities across our state they were able to open their polls on election
day they didn't have poll workers they didn't have supplies and they were risking their health
let's talk about cover-ups nevertheless michael gableman accuses the elections commission of
stealing citizens votes 23 gop legislators are calling for megan wolfe and elections
commissioners to be investigated and possibly prosecuted for criminal conduct gableman proposes
eliminating the bipartisan commission altogether and giving its duties to elected officials who he
says would be more accountable to voters this past week the legislature extended gableman's contract
his investigation will continue at least through april in your estimation is that a credible
investigation no just flat out no no we need to close this up we need to move on and we need
to elect republicans in 2022. republican state senator kathy bernier plans to retire when her
term is up in january she won't be running in 2022 but she says the stakes couldn't be higher donald
trump is still the head of the republican party as i see it he is likely going to run in 2024
he has a lot of power and a lot of influence and i respect that so i don't happen to care about that
what do you care about that we leave this country better off now than it was in the past
we're going down a slippery slope and maybe it's not just politics to me it matters
you