{"id":8012,"date":"2024-01-03T05:03:02","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T06:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=8012"},"modified":"2024-01-03T06:56:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T06:56:29","slug":"state-rep-brandtjen-doesnt-trust-wisconsin-to-count-absentee-ballots-due-to-milwaukees-past-election-shenanigans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=8012","title":{"rendered":"State Rep. Brandtjen Doesn\u2019t Trust Wisconsin to Count Absentee Ballots Due to Milwaukee\u2019s Past \u2018Election Shenanigans\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/state-rep-brandtjen-doesnt-trust-wisconsin-to-count-absentee-ballots-due-to-milwaukees-past-election-shenanigans\/tcsquare\/2024\/01\/03\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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by Benjamin Yount<\/h5>\n

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The Republican who led the first investigation into Wisconsin\u2019s 2020 election says she does not trust the effort to count the state\u2019s absentee ballots early because she doesn\u2019t trust election officials in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Janel Brandtken told The Center Square there are serious security concerns with the Monday Count plan moving ahead at the Wisconsin Capitol.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get the concept, but Milwaukee has not been a trustworthy partner in elections as I have witnessed in recount, and central count elections,\u201d Brandtjen said.<\/p>\n

Brandtjen said her experience with former Milwaukee Elections Commission Director Kim Zapata adds to her distrust.<\/p>\n

Zapata sent Brandtjen three military ballots ahead of the 2022 election. Zapata said she did so to expose a loophole in Wisconsin\u2019s military ballot law. Brandtjen said she\u2019s not so sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cFYI if her VPN hadn\u2019t failed we would have never known who had sent the ballots, and I would have been under suspicion,\u201d Brandtjen said.<\/p>\n

The Monday County legislation would allow any city or county that uses a central count location to count its absentee ballots on the Monday before Election Day. Currently they are counted after all the other votes are counted, usually around midnight.<\/p>\n

Supporters say allowing for an early count will avoid an overnight vote dump and help restore more faith in Wisconsin\u2019s electoral process.<\/p>\n

Brandtjen is worried about the potential for election chaos or voter fraud.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the states [that count ballots early] either stop registrations 29 days before, or don\u2019t have same day registrations on Election Day,\u201d Brandtjen said. \u201cIf you know the totals, you can same-day-register individuals to make up the difference. And since there is no real time verification of IDs on Election Day, people get ballots before they are verified.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is also worried about the costs of an early count, namely that it requires local election clerks to prepare to open the polls and count ballots on the same day.<\/p>\n

And Brandtjen said she has some pretty serious security fears.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy most concerning issue is the lack of security protocols. The legislation refers to using \u2018tamper evident seals\u2019, in a double locked location, locked cabinet inside a locked office. How would you put a speed counter in a cabinet, inside an office? This means the authors believe the memory sticks are to be removed from Milwaukee\u2019s speed counters (ballot tabulators) that would put all election results at risk,\u201d Brandtjen said. \u201cRemoving the memory sticks is not protocol for secure elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

The State Assembly approved the Monday Count plan back in November. Gov. Tony Evers has said he will likely sign it if it makes it to his desk.<\/p>\n

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Benjamin Yount is a contributor to The Center Square.\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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The post State Rep. Brandtjen Doesn\u2019t Trust Wisconsin to Count Absentee Ballots Due to Milwaukee\u2019s Past \u2018Election Shenanigans\u2019<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/state-rep-brandtjen-doesnt-trust-wisconsin-to-count-absentee-ballots-due-to-milwaukees-past-election-shenanigans\/tcsquare\/2024\/01\/03\/ by Benjamin Yount \u00a0 The Republican who led the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8013,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8012\/revisions\/8013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}