Many Democratic strategists and activists — as well as some right-wing Never Trump conservatives — were delighted when liberal Judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated, by double digits, far-right MAGA Republican Dan Kelly in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race in April. Wisconsin is considered a must-win state for President Joe Biden in 2024, and Protasiewicz has made it abundantly clear that she has no use for voter intimidation or election denialism.
But MAGA Republicans and 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump haven’t given up on Wisconsin. In an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark Tuesday, journalist Bill Lueders described efforts by MAGA Republicans, Trump allies and QAnon conspiracy theorists to rig Wisconsin in Trump’s favor.
Lueders reported that this scheme was described on the November 8 episode of “The Coach Mel Show,” hosted by pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theorist Melody Jennings. Her guest was Brett Galaszewski, who chairs the Milwaukee County Republican Party and is a member of the far-right Turning Point USA.
According to Lueders, Galaszewski “urged viewers to do three things: join the county party’s newly formed ‘Election Integrity Committee,’ become a poll worker, and push to get the state’s top elections official removed from office.”
“Galaszewski (said) that his group has set out to recruit ‘upwards of 2000 poll workers in Milwaukee County to make sure that we have our eyes and ears in all facets of next year’s election,'” Lueders noted.
“The purpose of this effort, he explained, is to ‘just shave off a small percentage of liberal votes’ in order to shift the statewide outcome, because, “The left is going to try everything that they can to mess with this again.’ Galaszewski also implored the show’s audience to join the battle against Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe.”
Media Matters’ Alex Kaplan has described that November 8 conversation as, “Yet another connection between the right-wing election denial and QAnon movements.” And Lueders points out that QAnon members, “Believe the U.S. government is controlled by Satan-worshiping pedophiles who eat human flesh.”
“(A) bill that passed the (Wisconsin State) Assembly with a lone recorded ‘no’ vote from Supreme Moore Omokunde, a Milwaukee Democrat, would require that election observers be placed no farther than three feet from where voters give their names and addresses and register to vote,” Lueders explains.
“Just imagine what that would be like: Republican election observers perched just over the shoulders of the QAnon poll workers who have signed up to ‘just shave off a small percentage of liberal votes.’ What could possibly go wrong?”
Read Bill Lueders’ full report for The Bulwark at this link.
