The 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee is starting and Here & Now political panelists Bill McCoshen and Scot Ross discussed how Wisconsin factors into the presidential race, while Here & Now reporter Steven Potter described security plans for the event. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling overturning its previous ban on absentee ballot drop boxes has Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell looking forward to providing this option again for voters, while Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe detailed guidance being given clerks for making this process secure. A UW-Madison environmental engineering professor described new research showing high levels of PFAS chemicals in foam found in Wisconsin’s lakes and rivers.
 

Bill McCoshen and Scot Ross
Republican and Democratic political analysts

• Only days before the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Here & Now political panelists Bill McCoshen and Scot Ross considered the presidential rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump that had been defined by commotion and concern over the Democratic ticket. The next afternoon, on July 13, an assassination attempt on Trump on July 13 in Pennsylvania shocked the nation, and turned attention back toward the Republican campaign. Before that act, McCoshen and Ross previewed what they’re looking forward to at the convention.
• McCoshen: I’m excited to hear who Donald Trump chooses as his running mate. The list, I think, is a little longer than has been released. J.D. Vance is on the list. Doug Burgum, Marco Rubio — my dark horse is still Glenn Youngkin. I think he’s the one that adds the most. You want to have somebody that can put more states in play. There’s no question that Youngkin can do that. I think my second choice in that list would be Marco Rubio, because I think he helps in both Nevada and in Arizona.”
• Ross: “It’s so much what I’m going to see there as opposed to what I’m not going to see there. The former Republican president of the United States: George Bush. The former vice president of the United States: Republican Dick Cheney. The former vice president for Donald Trump: Mike Pence.”
• McCoshen and Ross will join Here & Now coverage of the RNC during conversations with senior political reporter Zac Schultz that will be livestreamed every day from July 15 to July 18.

Steven Potter
Reporter, Here & Now

• Many months of planning among federal and state law enforcement agencies went into developing the security plans for the RNC in Milwaukee. The U.S. Secret Service and FBI have indicated there are no changes to these plans in the wake of the shooting at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania. Potter detailed the security perimeters in place around downtown Milwaukee for the convention and provisions for protesters who are expected to turn out in large numbers.
• Potter: “There are two protest areas, one on the north and one on the south side of the larger security perimeter. Both of these areas are about a block from the tighter inner security zone. There is one group known as the Coalition to March on the RNC, and they are expecting thousands of people for a rally on Monday, perhaps 5,000 people. This is the same group that unsuccessfully sued the city of Milwaukee … saying that the protest areas weren’t close enough to the Fiserv Forum. We’ll see what this group does if they do protest outside of the restricted areas and what consequences they may face for doing so.”

Scott McDonell
Dane County Clerk

• Dane County made wide use of unstaffed absentee ballot drop boxes for the 2020 election and after the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned its own 2022 ban on them, McDonell said he looks forward to having them back in 2024.
• McDonell: “They are particularly important in the last week of the election, the last three or four days. The U.S. mail is not as reliable as it used to be. For us in Madison, the mail used to be processed locally. It now goes to Milwaukee and back. So there’s concern that the ballot will arrive late. If it does, it’s not counted. Other states have if it’s postmarked they’ll count it. … But in Wisconsin they won’t. So the dropbox is really helpful those last few days — make sure they get received on time.”

Meagan Wolfe
Administrator, Wisconsin Elections Commission

• The Wisconsin Elections Commission held an emergency meeting on July 11 to update guidance for the state’s roughly 1,800 election clerks on the use of unstaffed absentee ballot drop boxes in the August primary and November general elections. Wolfe said the work of the commission during the meeting focused on the security of the drop boxes.
• Wolfe: “The commission also went through line by line — all six commissioners in a bipartisan fashion. And they included items such as making sure that a drop box is securely affixed to the ground or the side of a building, making sure that drop boxes are secured against unlawful access or emptying. Things like analyzing to make sure a drop box has a slot that’s appropriately sized, so that only an absentee ballot can be deposited and not other objects. And so many of the things are pretty common sense, but it gives the local election officials a checklist that they can go through and use when they’re analyzing their drop box security for their jurisdiction.”

Christy Remucal
Director, University of Wisconsin Aquatic Sciences Center

• A research article published on July 8 describes how foam that forms on lakes and rivers in Wisconsin has been found to contain very high levels of the PFAS, which are known as “forever chemicals” and have been linked to serious health issues. Scientists sampled and analyzed 43 lakes and rivers in Wisconsin, and finding Lake Monona in Madison had the highest statewide PFAS levels in the foam on its surface. A professor of civil and environmental engineering at UW-Madison, Remucal offered a health warning for people enjoying summer outdoors.
• Remucal: “I think our research really echoes what our state Department of Natural Resources has already said, that people should avoid coming into contact with foams. They should keep their pets — their dogs — out. You know, they’ll get into the foam. They shouldn’t have their kids play in the foam. And if you do come into contact with it, you should wash your hands before eating or drinking.”

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