Anxiety, Outrage Dominate West Bend Election Education Event

Frederica Freyberg:
Facing the headwinds of the 2024 presidential elections, the non-partisan group, Keep Our Republic, teamed up with Wisconsin Elections Commission to provide an informational session to voters about how elections work. The event, held in West Bend, aspired to bring greater transparency and accountability to election process in Wisconsin as well as dispel information that continues to simmer. The first hour of the event spoke to the mechanics of how Wisconsin elections are run. Speakers included former Republican senator and current state director of Keep Our Republic, Kathy Bernier. Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe and local West Bend officials, but despite the effort to allay concerns about state election operations, in some instances, it seemed to fuel theories about the 2020 presidential election and what’s to come in November 2024.

Kathy Bernier:
Believe it or not, they did not find fraud in Green Bay.

Frederica Freyberg:
For nearly two hours, the panelists took questions from the audience with a common theme.

Man:
You didn’t challenge the fraudulent Biden-Harris electors even though you were three days before the electoral college. This was on Friday, December 11th. And the last question is how are you going to — are you going to pledge to stop that from happening this year? Yes or no, are you going to stop that?

Frederica Freyberg:
That the 2020 election remains unresolved.

Crowd member:
I thought it was purple.

Woman:
Didn’t do anything about it! Answer the question!

Kathy Bernier:
We are in 2024.

Frederica Freyberg:
But not all attendees approached the event demanding answers about 2020.

Man in dark suit:
We just don’t yell at the people who administer the elections, but we also need to make sure that we hold the people in Madison accountable when we send them there, if they’re not doing what we want them to. That’s why we have elections coming up.

Man in stripped shirt:
We came here to learn about the process. Some other people were here that were asking questions were attacking this. This is the wrong place. This is an informational seminar. It wasn’t a place to say, hey, how are we going to change these things.

Frederica Freyberg:
Keep Our Republic plans to hold three more of these events across the state.