Elections in Wisconsin in 2020
were secure.
Was there fraud in the 2020 election? How about the 2022 election?
Despite the claims, more than 60 court cases and numerous investigations have found no evidence of fraud that would have affected the outcome of the 2020 election. Donald Trump’s Attorney General Bill Barr, Trump’s Department of Justice, and DOJ lawyers throughout the country investigated and found no evidence of widespread fraud. Ivanka Trump testified that she believed Barr when he said there was no widespread election fraud. No claims of substantial election fraud have survived legal scrutiny, and many were dismissed as meritless by Trump-appointed judges.
A robust, non-partisan review of the 2020 election in Wisconsin revealed the results were accurate and there was no widespread voter fraud. Sen. Robert Cowles, R-Green Bay, who chairs the Legislature’s audit committee, said, “This audit showed us that the election was largely safe and secure” and “The (audit bureau) has been well-respected as a nonpartisan agency by both sides of the aisle & by their colleagues around the US.
An audit of Wisconsin voting machines for the 2022 midterms found that the state’s voting machines counted ballots accurately. The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission unanimously signed off on the audits results. “I think the results of this audit are remarkable,” said Republican commission member Bob Spindell. “And should give confidence to the people [of] Wisconsin that these machines work properly.””
Are voting machines secure? Can votes be deleted or switched?
Wisconsin’s voting systems are not connected to the internet. All Wisconsin votes are cast on paper, so the machine count can always be verified. State law requires that voting machines be subjected regularly to logic and accuracy tests, which are open to the public. The state uses systems certified by the federal government and further certified to operate in compliance with state law requirements.
An official Wisconsin government audit, “showed that there was no evidence that any voting equipment subject to audit and used in the 2020 General Election in Wisconsin changed votes from one candidate to another, incorrectly tabulated votes, or altered vote totals in any way.”
After a similar audit in 2022, the Wisconsin Elections Commission unanimously determined the effective error rate of the 2022 post-election voting equipment was 0.0%.
Has Anyone Addressed Concerns Raised About the Administration of the 2020 Election?
Fox News, Salem Media, Newsmax, and 2000 Mules creator Dinesh D’Souza all retracted or acknowledged their false claims around fraud in the 2020 election in the face of legal consequences. Lawsuits against other public figures, including Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell, exposed that their claims about purported fraud in the 2020 election were also false.
In Dominion Voting System’s defamation case over Fox News, Fox News acknowledged their repeated claims that Dominion rigged the 2020 presidential election were false and without any evidence. Fox News executives and hosts knew these claims were false and repeated them. Tucker Carlson, then Fox News anchor, texted his producer that the claims were “absurd” and “shockingly reckless.”. Fox host Maria Bartiromo called an email from Trump attorney Sidney Powell “kooky.” Host Sean Hannity said that Rudy Giuliani, former Trump attorney and now disbarred lawyer due to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, was “acting like an insane person.” Fox News reportedly paid $787.5 million to settle the suit.
In Smartmatic’s defamation suit against Newsmax for allegations of “rigging” the 2020 presidential election, Newsmax released a statement saying there is “no evidence” of this allegation and that election results were not altered or manipulated. Newsmax settled the case for an undisclosed amount.
In response to the defamation case against the Salem Media Group, Dinesh D’Souza, and True the Vote for false claims about ballot “mules” in the movie 2000 Mules, the Salem Media Group released a statement apologizing to the man portrayed as a ballot mule and removed the film from their platforms. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation cleared the man of any illegal voting activity in the 2020 presidential election in May of 2022. Dinesh D’Souza, the film’s creator, apologized to the man and admitted that the film used false data.