Wisconsin Voter Fraud Lies Are Tearing Democracy Apart

A recent Marquette University Law School poll delivered a gut punch to democracy in Wisconsin: 44 percent of respondents believe local election officials falsify vote counts at least some of the time. That means nearly half the state suspects fraud or incompetence in an election system that is, in reality, one of the most decentralized and secure in the country.

Former Democratic state Rep. Jason Fields and Republican activist Tim Higgins teamed up to sound the alarm in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Their bipartisan warning cuts through the noise of conspiracy theories to highlight an inconvenient truth: Wisconsin’s elections are run by neighbors, not shadowy villains. As Madison City Attorney Mike Haas explained, 72 county clerks and 1,850 municipal clerks—many part-time—oversee elections across the state. The sheer number of officials involved makes any large-scale fraud scheme virtually impossible.

Haas, who led the Wisconsin Elections Commission during the 2020 election chaos, emphasized that elections are more secure and accurate than ever. Mistakes happen, like the 193 uncounted absentee ballots in Madison’s 2024 presidential election, but these are procedural errors, not fraud. Multiple safeguards, paper ballot audits, and transparency measures keep the system honest.

Yet, despite these facts, misinformation continues to spread like wildfire. Fields and Higgins urge citizens to visit local clerks’ offices and see the process firsthand. But the real obstacle is the toxic environment of lies and conspiracy theories amplified by social media bots, unhinged bloggers, and most dangerously, the former president himself, who relentlessly peddled false claims about stolen elections.

This epidemic of misinformation extends beyond voting. Dr. Kiran Joshi of Cook County Public Health warns that falsehoods about vaccines have led to dangerous outbreaks of preventable diseases like measles. Utah’s recent surge of 600 measles cases, many requiring hospitalization, is a grim reminder of the real-world consequences of disinformation.

The spread of misinformation is not just a public health crisis—it’s a full-blown assault on democracy. As the Brookings Institute warns, these lies are eroding Americans’ confidence in the very system that underpins their freedoms. If we don’t confront and dismantle this misinformation machine, the damage to our democratic institutions will only deepen.