Our current botched partisan audit of the 2020 election may be another national embarrassment for Wisconsin. But the resulting noise about it is obscuring a fundamental principle: Conducting elections is a function of government alone.
The Wisconsin Election Commission needs to adopt a hard and fast rule that no outside funding is allowed, much less staffing. It is outrageous that Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook foundation provided funding and staffing for the 2020 election in certain Wisconsin counties. Outside parties have no business in our elections, period, because their presence creates the appearance of meddling.
And the WEC needs to adopt another rule: no partial recounts. If a campaign committee wants a recount only in precincts where its candidate lost, just say no. A statewide recount is a check to verify accuracy, whereas a partial recount is a partisan attempt to change the outcome, and that should never be allowed.
Adoption of these two simple rules will do much more for perceived election integrity than the expensive “audit,” and it will cost nothing.
Gary Gimmestad, Stoughton
Culvers “CurderBurger” comes with an interesting side dish in the latest cartoon from Phil Hands
