GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Senator Ron Johnson is continuing to express concerns over the presidential election and whether there was enough fraud to flip the final result – particularly here in Wisconsin.
That’s why he’s pushing for an investigation. Johnson claims there were enough irregularities and suspicious actions to warrant a deeper look into things – to either confirm or clear up concerns about the influence of potential fraud impacting the results of the election.
“It’s not good for our country, or quite honestly the world, to have an election continue to drag on,” Johnson told WTAQ’s The Regular Joe Show. “”It’s a tragedy that no matter who wins, the other side is not going to view it as a legitimate result. Which is why it’s so important to take the time to do forensic audits. I’m glad there’s a hand recount in Georgia, it’s really the only thing that is going to, as best as possible, catch any type of fraud or machine glitches.”
He criticized Democrats for encouraging mail-in ballots, which he says are more open to potential fraud. He also pinned some polling places not allowing election observers inside as suspicious.
Johnson thinks the state election mechanics actually work pretty well, but he hopes the state will tighten up controls over the process to avoid the state having to go through a similar set of issues in the future.
“Even if it’s not enough to overturn the election results, we need to know about it so that in 2 years when we have a Republican gubernatorial candidate – that candidate is running on a platform which includes election reform,” Johnson said. “We need to tighten up the requirements in terms of absentee voting from my standpoint. We shouldn’t allow what happened in Madison with the ballot harvesting and early voting.”
He also says he spoke to state GOP leaders about making some changes ahead of the election, but no action was taken ahead of November 3rd.
“Change the law to allow election officials to start counting absentee ballots before Election Day so we don’t have that 3:00 in the morning dump, which just automatically concerns people,” Johnson suggested. “Have enough time when you can poll watchers from both parties who can clearly audit the process so that we’ve got confidence in whatever the vote is when it’s announced on election day.”
Changing the system to a full-on state-level electoral college style system, however, isn’t a concept Johnson is subscribed to at this point.
“Even though you lose Milwaukee 60-40% or 65-35%, you still get those 35% of the votes. You just have to out-perform in Waukesha or Winnebago County,” Johnson said.
For people who remain concerned about the potential fraud in the state, Johnson encouraged them to volunteer to help with the recount – and in future elections.
“We’re going to need manpower to do that. We want to go through this recount so we can try to determine if there is any fraud,” Johnson said. “Who controls the election places? Do we have a good Republican poll workers, so that they’re right there? Do we have access to the observers as well, to check and double check? Just so we have confidence in the system.”
Johnson also questioned the intention of the Wisconsin Election Commission, who maintain that all tallies and counts across the state were legal and by-the-book.
The senator recently created a confidential whistleblower hotline for any postal workers or other individuals who may have information regarding any irregularities related to mail-in and absentee ballots at: whistleblower@ronjohnson.senate.gov.
