Frederica Freyberg:

So turning now to field reporting that we have been bringing you every week, we are just four weeks out from the 2022 elections, and yet the 2020 election still casts a long shadow over the state. Many Republicans are still talking about voter fraud, leaving Democrats to worry that sweeping election law changes from the GOP would serve to disenfranchise Wisconsin voters. More on this from senior political reporter Zac Schultz.

Janel Brandtjen:

We know what happened in 2020.

Michael Gableman:

Powerful and rich forces are aligned against me.

Tim Michels:

Was it rigged, was it fixed?

Zac Schultz:

Republicans in Wisconsin have been amplifying Donald Trump’s debunked election conspiracy theories for nearly two years.

Rachel Rodriguez:

There’s absolutely no glamor in elections.

Zac Schultz:

And Rachel Rodriguez has heard them all.

Rachel Rodriguez:

Every time you think you have put one conspiracy theory to bed, it seems like another different one just pops up in its place.

Zac Schultz:

Rodriguez is an elections specialist in the Dane County Clerk’s office. She knows every step in the process. So when Republicans in the legislature started holding invitation-only hearings to give an official platform to election conspiracy theorists, she followed them closely.

Rachel Rodriguez:

It was readily apparent, you know, that within minutes, that the experts they were trotting out had absolutely no expertise in actual elections.

Zac Schultz:

Rodriguez started fact checking the hearings over Twitter. Soon, she was being re-tweeted by the chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. And gained an audience looking for the truth.

Rachel Rodriguez:

I think people were really looking for sort of a, you know, that other side of it, the actual expert side because that wasn’t happening at the hearings.

Zac Schultz:

Republicans hired former Supreme Court justice Michael Gabelman to lead an investigation on the 2020 election.

Michael Gabelman:

I will not answer any —

Zac Schultz:

But what he produced was open records violations, a contempt of court order and a million-dollar bill for taxpayers.

Robin Vos:

Mike Gableman is an embarrassment to the state.

Zac Schultz:

Gableman was fired after endorsing the primary opponent of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the man who hired him. Rodriquez says the cumulative effect was the truth around election conspiracies started to look like partisan politics.

Rachel Rodriguez:

Where the problem is right now is that when you have one party, and it is one party who is driving all of this misinformation and all of the conspiracies and all of the doubt, when you take the side of actual facts and truth, which is opposite to that, it’s going to look like it’s one party over the other.

Tim Michels:

I’m going to get rid of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Zac Schultz:

Tim Michels is the Republican candidate for governor. And while he doesn’t outright say the 2020 election was stolen, he does campaign with those that do. And even saluted Republican Tim Ramthun, a full-on election conspiracist who wanted to somehow reclaim Wisconsin’s 2020 electoral votes.

Tim Michels:

I see my friend out here, ran a spirited primary, Tim Ramthun, was very big on election integrity as well.

Zac Schultz:

At one event, Michels told a supporter in order to win, he had to overcome a cheating percentage.

Tim Michels:

What’s a cheating percentage? Probably a point or two.

Man:

Hard to say?

Tim Michels:

I think we’re going to come out —

Zac Schultz:

Tim Michels did not agree to an interview for this story.

Tony Evers:

For people to continue harboring that big lie, that’s not good for democracy. It’s not good for democracy at all. Senate Bill 292. Not approved.

Zac Schultz:

Democratic Governor Tony Evers vetoed a series of Republican bills that would have changed how elections are run in Wisconsin.

Tony Evers:

There we go, folks.

[applause]

Zac Schultz:

Michels has said he would sign those bills, and Democrats fear as governor, Michels could overturn Wisconsin’s presidential electoral votes in 2024.

Ben Wikler:

If they are in power and Trump comes calling, asking them to change an election result, we’ve seen that they’re willing to do anything to get Trump’s approval.

Zac Schultz:

Ben Wikler is chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

Ben Wikler:

This is a very serious moment in the history of our country and it’s hard to think of words that would be too strong to express the stakes in this fall’s election.

Paul Farrow:

You know, when you look at it, election integrity has been a great topic for everybody to get some fodder both ways.

Zac Schultz:

Paul Farrow is the chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

Paul Farrow:

When I look back at the 2020 election, there were some challenges. We know there are issues that are there that we have to figure out how to regulate and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Rohn Bishop:

How can you lead the state if you’re afraid to tell the base of our party the truth?

Zac Schultz:

Rohn Bishop is the former chair of the Republican Party of Fond du Lac County. And he’s concerned the GOP’s obsession with 2020 will hurt them this fall.

Rohn Bishop:

Republicans should be looking at a tidal wave election. The one way to screw it up is to keep focusing on 2020, and we keep doing that. We just can’t turn the page and focus on 2022.

Zac Schultz:

Bishop was attacked by his own party members for pointing out Trump lost in Wisconsin because enough Republicans voted, but not for Trump.

Rohn Bishop:

The election is not stolen when Glenn Grothman is getting more votes than Donald Trump in the sixth congressional district. There was just a fall off. There were people who wanted to vote for Republican conservative principles but not Trump.

Zac Schultz:

Bishop says when Michels campaigns with Mike Gabelman and Trump, he risks alienating those same voters.

Rohn Bishop:

Coming into 2022, Tim Michels has to figure out how to get those 50,000 Republicans who voted Republican but not for Donald Trump.

Zac Schultz:

Since the last election, Bishop left party politics and was elected mayor of Waupun, a non-partisan office.

Rohn Bishop:

I just really want to focus on this job and give it all that I have.

Zac Schultz:

He’s still a Republican, but he worries others might have left the party for good.

Rohn Bishop:

Because of the hyper partisan nature of it and the negativity, we’re busy trying always to kick people out. The term they use in our party, the RINO, Republican In Name Only, I’ve been called that by people, because I didn’t think the election was stolen. Well, if you kick me out, and I don’t vote for you, you’re in a lot of trouble.

Zac Schultz:

So what impact will these conspiracy theories have on this election? For one, there will be a lot more people in the room when you cast your ballot. Paul Farrow says in 2020, Republicans had about 1300 election observers at the polls statewide.

Paul Farrow:

We are well over 5,000 this time around. We’ve got a lot more eyes that are watching the process.

Poll worker:

In the meantime, we’re going to start the other ones up. Ballot accepted.

Zac Schultz:

People like Christopher Bossert, a Republican from West Bend.

Christopher Bossert:

I had concerns about election integrity, and the best way to resolve those concerns one way or the other is to get involved. So I chose to volunteer for the Republican Party as a poll worker.

Zac Schultz:

Bossert says he still has concerns about voter fraud elsewhere in Wisconsin but is no longer worried about the Dominion voting machines used in his hometown, even if his neighbors aren’t convinced.

Christopher Bossert:

I have constituents who believe Dominion is a problem, and even though I’ve told them from what I can see, Dominion is not a problem, they still believe it.

Zac Schultz:

Reporting from Madison, I’m Zac Schultz for “Here & Now.”