Here & Now

Robert Spindell on Voter Turnout, Suppression in Wisconsin

Frederica Freyberg:

A Republican Wisconsin elections commissioner is under fire with continuing calls this week for his resignation. This comes after Commissioner Robert Spindell was quoted post-election saying to fellow Republicans, “We can be especially proud of the city of Milwaukee, casting 37,000 less votes than cast in the 2018 election, with the major reduction happening in the overwhelming Black and Hispanic areas.” Democrats call this bragging about voter suppression on the part of an election official, and this week state Senate Democrats called for him to resign. Commissioner Spindell joins us now with his reaction and thanks very much for being here.

Robert Spindell:

Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is your reaction and response to these calls for you to resign your position as an elections commissioner?

Robert Spindell:

Well, you know, I think the Democrats have really lost because of their own failed Biden policies such as inflation, substandard education, high crime rate, and these are several of the issues that we tried to put forth on our radio commercials and our twice-a-week radio talk show. That’s why many people become disenchanted coming out to vote, including those in the minority community. In addition, of course, there was a loss of population somewhat in the city of Milwaukee, but also the hard work of the people of the Republican Party, the candidates that we got out to run and so forth. When I talk about suppression, you probably remember the April 2020 election, I used to be a city of Milwaukee election commissioner for 18 years. And in Milwaukee, it’s probably easiest city anywhere to vote, because very rarely does anybody have to wait even during November elections more than five or 10 minutes. And if you have to register, if you wait more than 15 minutes, they’ll apologize. But if you’re going back to that 18 — or the one in April of ’20 where they reduced 185 polling places down to 5 polling places, the Brennan Center said that would reduce the Black vote, suppress the Black vote 15%. What happened in Milwaukee, the gentleman running for county exec, Crowley, won by a thousand votes. The individual running for city treasurer lost by a thousand votes. Lena Taylor lost by about 15,000 votes. So certainly the suppression was not from this program. The suppression was something along this line, try and do something along that line.

Frederica Freyberg:

Commissioner, your comments have been called, “incredibly racist,” because of being proud, according to that email that you wrote, that in the city of Milwaukee, amongst overwhelmingly Black and Hispanic areas, 37,000 fewer votes were cast. What would you like to say about being described as “incredibly racist?”

Robert Spindell:

Well, I’ve never really been described as that before. Over the years, I’ve done a great deal for the Black community in Milwaukee. I was appointed by Governor Thompson to be the only non-minority member of the governor’s Committee on Minority Business. He then appointed me to the governor’s Central City Initiative, which brought about all sorts of programs to help people in the inner city get jobs, get a house, get something along that line. I was on the Wisconsin correctional organization for a while, going around to prisons, trying to help people know what to say in terms of getting jobs. But more important, for over 25 years, I was vice chair of Jeannetta Robinson’s Career Youth Development, which was one of the largest social service agencies in Milwaukee. And we had such programs as we were the first agency in the country to get with a drug and alcohol hospital to start our own operation within the facility. We then put our own facility together. We ran it with our own doctors and we even built an inpatient treatment center. There’s all sorts — we had 30 programs.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you reject the description. But it’s not new for candidates to say, please vote for me, but if you can’t do that, don’t vote for my opponent. Democrats did that in 2020 in talking to moderate Republicans. But isn’t there a difference between that and celebrating the reduction of votes amongst a population of voters that has been historically discriminated against throughout our nation’s history?

Robert Spindell:

Well, really, the thing I was celebrating was the fact that finally after all these years, the Republican Party of Wisconsin and the RNC, Republican National Committee were finally recognize the importance of the Black vote, the Hispanic vote and not just talk anymore but they actually put the resources into that programs so that we may make progress within that agency. And a lot of people were disenchanted. I know they were — the Dems tried to get people to knock on doors to get their vote out. They were paying $27 an hour. They couldn’t get people to do that. People were disenchanted. I don’t think there’s any difference between the Black, Hispanic, the white communities where the effort is to try and get the people that you have identified out to vote, and if they can’t, all the advertising, whether it be millions of dollars on television, that’s all negative advertising trying to say how bad the other candidate is.

Frederica Freyberg:

Have you spoken to Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu who reappointed you to a five-year term about whether he continues to support you as an elections commissioner?

Robert Spindell:

No, I have not. I have not. All he would say is well, the Dems are trying to get you for the fourth or fifth time now to get you to resign. They’ve tried that on several different occasions because simply they do not like my going through and making sure that the Republican Party has a voice on the commission, and also that we work together with the Democrats to try and make sure that the best solution for the people of Wisconsin comes out of some very heavy discussions among the six of us on this Wisconsin Election Commission.

Frederica Freyberg:

We need to leave it there. Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Bob Spindell, thanks very much.

Robert Spindell:

Thank you very much for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

We should note that Commissioner Spindell declined to speak about his role as an alternate or fraudulent 2020 elector.