Ron Johnson speaks during a campaign stop in Wausau. MWC photo by Mike Leischner
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — Incumbent US Senator Ron Johnson remained non-committal to accepting the results of next Tuesday’s election during a rally in the Wausau area on Thursday.
Johnson says the news of an election worker that was fired for sending absentee ballots to State Representative Janel Brandtjen, which she did not request, is one of a few issues that worries him. “I’m pretty shocked that a Democrat election official is sending out military ballots fraudulently. That’s a little shocking,” said Johnson. “It’s pretty shocking that we had to sue the Green Bay election officials to allow Republican observers to observe.”
Johnson adds that his acceptance of Tuesday’s mid-term results will depend on what he sees, saying he wonders how many other ballots may have been mailed by the worker and what officials in Green Bay may have been trying to hide by not allowing Republican observers. “I can’t answer those questions. Let’s see how this plays out. I sure hope I can, but I can’t predict what the Democrats might have planned. We’re not trying to do anything to gain partisan advantage. We are just doing whatever we can to restore confidence.”
The Incumbent Senator, who’s running for a third term and locked in a tight race with Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, adds that he and other Republicans only want to make it harder to cheat an election.
“It sure seems like there’s a lot of [past] attempts by the Democrats to make it easier to cheat. We want to make it easy to vote, but very hard to cheat,” said Johnson.
On Thursday, Milwaukee Mayor Caviler Johnson confirmed that the election clerk who sent the ballots, identified as Kimberly Zapata, has been fired and had her access to the city’s election officers revoked. The case has been sent to the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office for review and possible charges. Johnson said the incident appears to be a “blatant violation of trust.
“It does not matter to me that City of Milwaukee ballots were not a part of this, nor does it matter that there was no attempt to vote illegally or tamper with any election results,” added Mayor Johnson.
Multiple challenges to the 2020 Presidental election results in Wisconsin have failed to go through in court, and a taxpayer-funded probe into the issue led by former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman did not turn up any significant evidence of fraud. The Legislative audit bureau did have about 30 recommendations to improve security. Johnson notes some of those were passed to Governor Evers by the state Legislature but met his veto pen.
“We have done everything we can. Legal challenges, trying to get election clerks and Wisconsin Election Commission to follow the law, that would be a good thing, but I can’t predict what they may do to cheat,” added Senator Johnson. “We are trying to stop and deter fraud on the front side so we can have confidence in the election results. I just wish Democrats would cooperate. Governor Evers obviously hasn’t. If his goal [were] to restore confidence, he would have signed those pieces of legislation.”
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