Frederica Freyberg:

As to alleged fraud, Republican Speaker Robin Vos is now directing the Assembly campaigns and elections committee to investigate how elections were administered in Wisconsin saying, “With concerns surfacing about mail-in ballot dumps and voter fraud, Wisconsin citizens deserve to know their vote counted. There must be absolute certainty that the impending recount finds any and all irregularities.” The Wisconsin Elections Commission reports no irregularities. Meanwhile people on both sides are already in the streets over the election results as they come in, including around the state Capitol today where pro-Trump and Black Lives Matter demonstrators debated the election results and claims of voter fraud. Political divide as evidenced at the polls and now in the streets. Tonight, reaction from both sides from our political panelists, Republican Bill McCoshen and Democrat Scot Ross. Thanks for being here.

Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross:

Thanks for having us.

Frederica Freyberg:

We see how some folks are reacting to what’s going on. How are you both feeling tonight? First to you, Scot.

Scot Ross:

I feel terrific. The votes are almost counted. The voters have spoken and Joe Biden is the undeclared next president of the United States. I mean he’s got four million more votes than Donald Trump. He’s going to hit about 306 electoral votes when this is all done. He’s up in four of the six states. So I feel terrific about it. I feel great for democracy. I think the way Donald Trump has behaved in the last 72 hours is a good indication why the people of the United States of America made the right decision on Election Day.

Bill McCoshen:

Bill, what about you? How are you doing?

Frederica Freyberg:

Well, listen, I feel pretty good. The people have had an opportunity to speak. More than 150 million people nationwide, 3.3 million people here in the state of Wisconsin, went out and voted, a record number. I think that’s great. I think it speaks well of democracy. They split their ticket in many ways. Joe Biden, at this point, has a lead in the state of Wisconsin, but Republicans picked up two seats in the state Senate and only lost two seats in the state Assembly. So they have healthy majorities in both houses of the Legislature going into 2021.

Frederica Freyberg:

Astounding turnout across the country. But let’s talk fraud. Bill, do you think the Trump campaign should pursue this in the courts all the way up?

Bill McCoshen:

So there’s three steps to this. I would agree with part of what Professor Burden said. The first step is the election itself and we have counting. It’s still astonishing to me that big states like Florida, Ohio, California can count their votes on election night, but smaller states like Arizona, North Carolina, even Georgia can’t. I mean it doesn’t seem to make sense. It doesn’t — it’s irrational to me that that can’t happen. So it remains to be seen how the final count will turn out. Clearly Joe Biden has the advantage at this point in time. But once the election count is done, then you have the canvass. Wisconsin’s already done with that. It hasn’t been certified yet but there’s a canvass. And then finally, a recount. There’s at least two states where there will be a recount, here in Wisconsin and Georgia. So we’ll see how it turns out.

Frederica Freyberg:

Scot, what’s your reaction to Speaker Vos launching an investigation of Wisconsin elections?

Scot Ross:

The only fraud in our elections are partisan politicians like Robin Vos trying to rig the system for political gain. There is absolutely no indication of fraud in this election. The people went out and voted, and they voted like Bill said, like they’ve never done before. I would just point out that this election, we should have already declared Joe Biden the winner. If Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan’s Republican legislatures allowed votes to be counted, you know, before Election Day, the ones that came in the mail-in, this would have already been over. The fact is this is a mess caused by the Republicans and now they’re trying to change the rules. Robin Vos should be ashamed of himself for what he’s doing. I would just say this having been in court against Robin Vos and the Republicans, under oath, they could not produce one incidence of voter fraud that voter ID would thwart when they were under oath. So there’s no fraud in the state of Wisconsin. Like Governor Scott Walker said, it’s a high hurdle to be able to overcome those 20,000 votes. Republicans need to throw in the towel and accept Joe Biden as the next president.

Frederica Freyberg:

After all of this, and I want to address it to both of you, I’ll probably switch over to Bill, will all of this that we’re going through kind of upend the standing democratic process in this country?

Bill McCoshen:

Well, I think what’s lacking right now is transparency. In the states that are still in doubt, you need to have a fair and transparent process to review those ballots. That’s important. Okay? If that were going on, you want to have people to have confidence in the election. 70 million people voted for Donald Trump. Third highest in U.S. history. So there wasn’t a reputation of Donald Trump. So you want to make sure those folks can be confident that if he lost, he lost fairly.

Frederica Freyberg:

Scot?

Scot Ross:

We had a record number of people turn out in the cities of America, black and brown voters. And it just seems every time that black and brown voters go to the polls to try to save America, Republicans claim there’s fraud. And I think it’s ridiculous. And I think this is a real problem. When people don’t have the right to vote without being accused of being fraudulent, there’s a real problem in the democratic process and I think the Republicans have contributed to that.

Frederica Freyberg:

I want to stay with you, Scot. Does all of this that’s happening now heighten the divide then? I mean is it just going to get worse?

Scot Ross:

I think absolutely. I mean, Joe Biden’s always been somebody who tries to bring people together. He’s done that throughout his career. Unfortunately you’ve got guys like Ron Johnson, you’re got guys like Glenn Grothman, you’ve got guys like Robin Vos, Republicans who are just throwing their hands up and saying, no, there’s not democracy. It’s our way or the highway. That’s not the way you bring people together. Elections are about dividing people. Breaking off your pieces to get 50% plus one. Governance is about bringing people together. Republicans broke the mold on bringing people together under Donald Trump.

Frederica Freyberg:

Bill, what about whether or not this heightens the divide?

Bill McCoshen:

Yeah, I don’t think voters mind divided government. We have it here in Wisconsin. It looks like we’re going to have it in DC if the current trends hold. If Joe Biden is the president-elect and Republicans hold their majority in the United States Senate, which appears likely. They’ve certainly picked up a number of seats in the House which wasn’t expected. Then three things won’t happen. There won’t be a tax increase. There won’t be a green new deal. And there won’t be court packing. And I think that’s a good thing.

Frederica Freyberg:

I want to ask this of you Scot. Bill mentioned it a moment ago but how disappointed are Democrats who were looking for this majorly robust repudiation of the President?

Scot Ross:

I think it’s just a good indication that the country is quite divided when it comes to ideology. I think personally it’s sad that that many people wanted to go vote for a guy who’s done the things Donald Trump has done to this country. Again, in the midst of this pandemic saying that it was no big deal. You know, Joe Biden is going to be the next president. Kamala Harris is going to be the next vice president. It’s going to come down to two Senate elections in a divided — in a 50/50 state of Georgia as to whether or not Dems control all three branches — or all three parts of government, being Congress and the Presidency.

Frederica Freyberg:

I need to leave it there. I think I owed you an answer, Bill, but we leave it there. Thanks very much and thanks for all your work over the season.

Scot Ross:

Thank you.

Bill McCoshen:

Thanks for having us.